Exporting vector graphics from Inkscape into Libreoffice
I'm trying to export a reasonably complex illustration from Inkscape into a Libreoffice Writer document. I'd like to avoid rasterizing the illustration as much as possible.
So far I've tried the following:
- Inkscape SVG, Plain SVG, SVG with everything converted to paths: bitmaps images included in my illustration are rendered as black boxes in the writer document.
- EPS: fonts look ugly
- ODG: not recognized in Writer (?!)
For now I've exported my SVG drawing to PNG, and it works fine, but it's not very satisfying. So what's the correct way to do this? Any input welcome!
Solution 1:
A while later
(as tested today), inserting Inkscape (0.92.3) SVGs proved possible in LibreOffice 6.0.6. This may be only a partial support but seemed sufficient for making a user's manual. I successfully did the following:
Inkscape
- Start new SVG image
- drag 'n' drop a PNG-Screenshot on it (open in Inkscape)
- place and a semi-transparent rectangular box with colored text on the screenshot
- draw a horizontal line under the text
- added an arrow starting in the middle of the line pointing on a control on scrrenshot
LibreOffice
- Start a new text document
- added a page full of text
- Insert > Image... (selected image from description above)
- Saved the document
- Exported as PDF
Concluscion
I doubt that successfully using Inkscape SVGs within LibreOffice alone will make you very happy. Probably it's only for an intermediate stage. Whether you are interested in producing PDF documents, or HTML documents or paper documents (printed from LibreOffice) can make a big difference. So for example, fonts will matter.
Solution 2:
Exporting from Inkscape using the png image format which Libreoffice fully supports, rather than saving in vectorial format which it does not support, is actually the only option.
See in Inkscape Wiki : Save as vs export.
However, the thread How to import SVG in OOo Writer says :
The svg import will be new feature in OOo 3.4, try OOo 3.4 beta from OOo download site.
This is about OpenOffice, of which Libreoffice is actually another branch.
You might consider changing because of this feature, until it finds its way into Libreoffice.