Hey there!

I'm just trying to create a poster with Inkscape. It has a lot of vectorelements but also five photos in it. The poster will be printed at 2 meters x 1 meter, so the photos have to have a high quality. My problem now is, that the svg file got a bit big (123MB). It is just impossible to convert it to pdf or eps. The photos are all embeded within the file.

My Computer:
Win 7 64bit
8GB RAM
Intel Quadcore i5 3,4GHz
Inkscape version 0.484

What i've tried:

- Export image to png: Works, but I would like to have a vectorgraphics...

- Export without photos: Works

- Import svg with Adobe Illustrator CS2: Looses a lot of layout work from my vector graphics (blurring and so on)



Oh now I found, that it is actually working, if I import it with Corel Draw 6.1. Anyways, is it possible to do it with Inkscape? Every comment is appreciated!

Hi Johannski,
In this case, my best guess would be the file size relative to your system's memory, is the problem. Inkscape seems not to use RAM very efficiently.

I'm not sure if I have any answers for you. I recently saw a PDF with imported raster images, which did not appear to be embedded. I don't know exactly how that happened, and in that case, it may have had something to do with certain file format conversions and/or how other involved programs (besides Inkscape) handled the file. But it might be worth trying to link the images, rather than embed. Maybe there is something about converting to PDF, that makes it irrelevant whether the imports are linked or embedded?? It will make the file smaller, for sure -- enough to enable the conversion you want to do, I don't know.

If you try it, be sure to test: 1 - Either move the raster images into a new folder, after saving the PDF. Or 2 - Open the new PDF on another computer.

I know that one great way to work with large files, in terms of on-canvas editing, is to use Outline Mode. (Since Inkscape doesn't need to render complex things, like gradients or filters, it can speed up performance in a sluggish file.) I've never tried this, but I wonder if you saved as PDF while still in outline mode, whether it would convert properly? You may end up with only outlines in the PDF. But again easy enough to try it. Actually, let me open Inkscape and do a quick test....

Ok, so I used a file with an embedded raster and some vector content. I put in Outline view mode and saved as PDF. Note that it's not a very large file, so I can't say whether doing it in outline mode would help, as far as memory. But I did learn that that it appears to save it normally.

Hhhmmm.....let me make a copy of that file, and I'll unembed the raster, and test whether it will save properly with a linked raster.... Ah-HA!! Yes, I extracted the embedded raster, saved as PDF, and the image still shows up in the PDF. Oh oops, let me move the image to make sure it stays there.... Ah-HA!! Yes! The "no-longer-embedded image" shows up in the PDF, even after I've moved the image into a different folder!

So both of those suggestions will save the file properly. But whether they will save you enough mb to make the conversions, idk. But good luck!

And do let us know if they help or not

PS -- I didn't test EPS because I'm not set up to be able to display them.

Thanks Brynn, you're my Hero!

So here is what happened (While I did the test I had my task manager opened to see whether memory usage decreases):

I created a file, this time being 147 MB, with multiple layers, gradients text and of course bitmap images. I tried to convert it to pdf and eps. As expected, it didn't work. Then I switched to outline Mode and tried it again... and it worked! The interesting thing for me is: On one hand it didn't save memory when I switched to outline mode and on the other once I switched back to normal mode, it worked too to convert. Only when I did more changes I had to switch again to convert.

In terms of RAM:
Filesize 147 MB
Opening File -> 700 MB
Trying to convert in normal mode -> 1100 MB, but error than dropped back to 700MB
File displayed with outline mode -> 700MB
Convert file with outline mode -> 1100MB for some time, when finished dropping back to 700MB

And now I also got an idea, why it is so hard for Inkscape: For windows there is (as far as i know) only a 32 Bit version, so it used just one of my 4 cpus and and hadn't had access to my 8 GB of RAM.

I really don't know, why it works with the outline mode.... but it does
I didn't try to link the images but I assume it works too. (I have to give the file to a printshop, so they will probably be happy to get only one file)

Thanks again Brynn! And if you want to inspect eps or ps or any other graphic files I strongly recommendIrfanview]! (http://irfanview.tuwien.ac.at/) Sadly there is no Linux version of it, but it works with wine.

€dit: Small side note: It didn't work out with my actuall file. I guess because of of way more vector data. But it helped to erase all blurring.

Oh, that's awesome!

I couldn't tell you how many messages we get like this this -- but lots! And I don't know why it suddenly dawned on me to try using Outline mode for saving! And I don't know if it will help everyone with this problem....but how very interesting that at least it helps you!

I also think it's interesting, that after switching to Outline mode, not only does it finally save the file (despite RAM restrictions) but also saves after switching back to Normal mode! And that apparently only one simple edit restores the previously inability to save! I suspect that the resulting PDF file must somehow be different, from having been saved in normal view mode, but I wouldn't really know where to look or what to look for, to find out.

As far as utilizing the processor cores, Inkscape does a little better than it does with RAM....but apparently it only matters when there are filters used in the file (note that a simple blur is also a filter). Inkscape Preferences > Filters > Number of Threads, will allow you to enter your number of cores/threads, and it does significantly improve the display of objects with filters! So it makes zooming a little faster and also scrolling while zoomed etc, etc. I don't understand why it only seems to affect filters, and not e.g. other raster content, such as imported raster images.

I'm a little bit fuzzy about 32-bit and 64-bit. When I first bought this computer, it was explained to me that 32-bit meant there was one core, the 64-bit meant there were 2 cores. And that any 32-bit program could be installed and used, whenever 64-bit wasn't available, but that it would only be able to use one of the 2 cores. But later, I discovered that I actually have 8 cores. So I don't know if 32-bit relates to 4 of my cores and 64-bit relates to the 8....or exactly how that works.

You mentioned something about the 32-bit version not being able to access your 8 gb of RAM. But I don't think RAM, which is memory, has much to do with the cores, which are processors. I don't think Inkscape's poor utililzation of RAM is related to having only a 32-bit version. Although I really only have a vague understanding of those things.