Some time ago I registered for a virtual training. The training material was made available in a web app. No PDF or a downloadable version of the material. Not a big issue, as long as I had internet access and only wanted to read the material. Problems started when I tried to access the material without a stable Internet connection. Depending where I am online is not an option. Plus point for having training material in PDF format. I can print PDF, making it easier to learn: offline, annotate pages, mark words, easier to read for the eyes. While a cloud solution is good for the vendor, it’s not always a very good option for the consumer.

Taking a closer look I found out that the material was loaded by the web app as SVG files. All pages where available as SVG: page1.svg to pageX.svg. So I could save the SVG files to my computer. Not something feasible for all content, but for selected chapters or pages this can make sense. Now I wanted to have these SVG files as PDF. It’s possible to transform SVG to PDF, especially on Linux. The most used tools available are

• convert
• Inkscape
• rsvg-convert

The challenge was to convert the files to PDF in an acceptable quality. All tools transform SVG to PDF, but the quality differs, and most important: how the images are included. The only tool that rendered the embedded images correctly in the PDF was rsvg-convert. A sample of a page that shows perfectly the problem with the image is this one. The SVG as shown in the browser:

Font is clear and easy to read, the image in correctly embedded and shows all content. Now I wanted to have this page in PDF, with the exact same information included and in a good quality. For this, I tried all three tools and compared the result. All tools were installed and tested in Raspbian.

Convert

Convert is part of Image Magick. To get the tool under Debian you must install imagemagick.

Installation

apt-get install imagemagick

Run

convert page1.svg page1.pdf

Result

After the conversion from SVG to PDF, the result was far away from being useful. The font is not sharp, low quality, and the image is only showing half of the content. I think it’s possible to increase the quality of the font, but that the image isn’t correctly shown is a no-go.

Inkscape

Inkscape is an image editor, and comes with a GUI for end users. But there is a command line option available that can be used to transform a SVG to PDF.

Installation

sudo apt-get install inkscape

Run

inkscape page1.svg --export-area-page --without-gui --export-pdf=page1.pdf

Result

The quality of the font is better. Easy to read, sharp and clear. The image however is still not complete. This disqualifies Inkscape also as an acceptable solution.

rsvg-convert

This tool is part of librsvg. It comes from Gnome and has some “heavy” dependencies. The tool can convert SVG files to images like PNG or PDF.

Installation

sudo apt-get install librsvg2-bin

Run

rsvg-convert -f pdf -o page1.pdf page1.svg

Result

The quality of the font is good, easy to read and clear. The image is correctly shown. Definitely the best solution.

Conclusion

A lot of tools are available to convert SVG files to PDF. I did not even mention libraries available for Java or Javascript to do the job. The difference between the tools is how more complex SVG files are converted into PDF and if all information is included. Especially images can be a challenge for the tools. Based on my tests, I can recommend rsvg-convert. It is fast and gives a very good result.