Inkscape Geo SVG Extension

12 june 2024 by syonfox

Draw freely and create beautiful maps in inkscape post processing.

Wtf why is inkscape a geospatial software?

This extension is here to facilitate the final step of the artistic map design process.

After an SVG map is exported by an map application such as QGIS or Leaflet.js

The artist then provides dome finishing touches before delivering to the client as ether a web image or an printable document. GeoSVG is designed to accommodate both. that said the features are most impressive for web svg display and future authors.

To circle back and actually answer the question. reposition labels, add effect, change colors all things suited to an artistic graphics application and not an spatial database.

This will also allow division of work within ENDpoint Ventures. as an Data analyst can clean the data make a beutiful map.

then a Graphic designer can fix labels and polish. not these are usually the same person ;)

Finally a programmer can add interactivity and classes to elements but ideally they are already there.

Why GeoSVG

https://sgol.pub/geo_svg is a bidirectional standard I have created to embed GeoJSON in SVG

This will allow the end programmer to recreate the data in their application with only the provided svg from the artist.

How?

By embedding the GeoJSOn Feature in the desc tag of an element that represent the feature we can then search for all features and recreate the feature collection. we also obtain references to the svg elements as we do this.

But thats too heavy I just care about a few attributes!

then use our GeoSvgIdUtil or make your own ;)

The Inkscape Extension

https://github.com/syonfox/inkscape_geo_svg

Read the docs

Overview of inkscape but not much inbo https://inkscape.org/develop/extensions/

Some half finished docs https://inkscape.gitlab.io/extensions/documentation/#

the inkex lib docs best resource I found https://inkscape-extensions-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/inkex-modules.html#module-inkex.base

the best implemented plugin project I found https://github.com/burghoff/Scientific-Inkscape/blob/main/scientific_inkscape/autoexporter.inx