Batch convert images with inkscape on windows

README.md

Batch convert svg|pdf|eps|emf|wmf|ai|ps|cdr to eps|pdf|png|jpg|tiff|svg|ps|emf|wmf

Batch converter for Windows using Inkscape with the command line
InkscapeBatchConvert is an easy to use solution to quickly convert all files of a folder to another type without the need to open Inkscape. The program uses Windows Batch scripting and will only work on Windows.
Tested with Inkscape 1.0.x - 1.3.x ✅ (The last version that supports Inkscape 0.9.x can be found here)

Usage

1. Download _InkscapeBatchConvert.bat
2. Put it in the folder where you have files you wish to convert (will also scan on all subfolders for files of input type).
3. Then double click the file to start it.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Windows blocks the program	Right click the file → Properties → Unblock
I can't convert EPS / PDF files. The program says it runs the conversion, but there are no files in the out folder.	Make sure you have ghost script installed and added to your environment path. For more information read the Inkscape FAQ
Can't find Inkscape installation	All common file paths are checked for the installation. If you haven't installed Inkscape download it here, otherwise you can also define your own path in the script by adding the next array element of inkscapePaths to the script
I'm missing a setting in the script, e.g. defined output width	Have a look at the Commandline Documentation or read the inkscape help file inkscape --help and add the needed properties to the script
I'm missing a specific input or output type	If inkscape supports those types, you can easily add them to the list in the script (search for validInput and validOutput)
The files are saved to out\, but I would like to have it saved in the same directory or a subdirectory with a different name	Just change the variable relativeOutputFolder - If you want to save the files to the same directory, set it to nothing (set relativeOutputFolder=)

Todo

Use shell or pipe to avoid starting inkscape for every file as pointed out by @vaifrax here. I would be very happy to get help for that 🙂

Credits

• JohannesDeml
• Elrinth
• leifcr

_InkscapeBatchConvert.bat

:: From https://gist.github.com/JohannesDeml/779b29128cdd7f216ab5000466404f11
:: Convert vector file formats in the current folder and their subsfolders
:: The variables in the beginning can be changed to your needs
:: Tested for Inkscape 1.0 - 1.3

@echo off
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

:: Define supported input file extensions
set validInput=svg pdf eps emf wmf ps ai cdr

:: Define supported output file extensions
:: All supported extnesions: [.dxf, .emf, .eps, .fxg, .gpl, .hpgl, .html, .jpg, .odg, .pdf, .png, .pov, .ps, .sif, .svg, .svgz, .tar, .tex, .tiff, .webp, .wmf, .xaml, .zip]
set validOutput=svg png tiff jpg webp pdf eps emf wmf ps cdr

:: Define relative output folder, if you want to write to the same folder set the var to an empty string
set relativeOutputFolder=out\

:: Possible paths to check for the installation
set "inkscapePaths[1]=C:\Program Files\Inkscape\bin\inkscape.com"
set "inkscapePaths[2]=C:\Program Files\Inkscape\bin\inkscape.exe"
set "inkscapePaths[3]=C:\Program Files\Inkscape\inkscape.com"
set "inkscapePaths[4]=C:\Program Files (x86)\Inkscape\bin\inkscape.com"
set "inkscapePaths[5]=C:\Program Files (x86)\Inkscape\bin\inkscape.exe"
set "inkscapePaths[6]=C:\Program Files (x86)\Inkscape\inkscape.com"
set "inkscapePaths[7]=%UserProfile%\scoop\apps\inkscape\current\bin\inkscape.exe"

set "inkscapePath="
set /a "pathIndex=1"

:: Find the inkscape installation path
:inkscapepath_loop_start
if defined inkscapePaths[%pathIndex%] (
	set "currentPath=!inkscapePaths[%pathIndex%]!"
	if exist "!currentPath!" (
		:: found installation path
		set "inkscapePath=!currentPath!"
		goto :inkscapepath_loop_end
	)
	set /a "pathIndex+=1"
	goto :inkscapepath_loop_start
) else (
	echo Can't find Inkscape installation, aborting.
    goto end
)
:inkscapepath_loop_end

:: Set the path to allow for spaces without any needed additional quotes
set inkscapePath="%inkscapePath%"

set validInputString=
(for %%a in (%validInput%) do ( 
   set validInputString=!validInputString!, %%a
))
:: Remove the leading comma
set validInputString=%validInputString:~2%

set validOutputString=
(for %%a in (%validOutput%) do ( 
   set validOutputString=!validOutputString!, %%a
))
:: Remove the leading comma
set validOutputString=%validOutputString:~2%

:: If this can't be run, then the version is an older one
FOR /F "tokens=* USEBACKQ" %%g IN (`%inkscapePath% --version`) do (SET "inkscapeVersion=%%g")
if "%inkscapeVersion%" EQU "" (
	set inkscapeVersion=0.x
	set /a inkscapeMajorVersion=0
) else (
set /a inkscapeMajorVersion=%inkscapeVersion:~9,1%
)

echo.
echo This script allows you to convert all files in this folder from one file type to another
echo Running with %inkscapeVersion% from %inkscapePath%
echo (type q to quit at any question)
echo.

set valid=0
echo Allowed file types for source: %validInputString%
:whileInNotCorrect
	set /p sourceType=What file type do you want to use as a source?
	if "%sourceType%" EQU "q" exit /b
	for %%a in (%validInput%) do (
	  if "%%a"=="%sourceType%" (
		set valid=1
		goto inSet
	  )
	)
	if %valid% EQU 0 (
		echo Invalid input! Please use one of the following: %validInputString%
		goto :whileInNotCorrect
	)

:inSet
echo.

set valid=0
echo Allowed file types for output: %validOutputString%
:whileOutNotCorrect
	set /p outputType=What file type do you want to convert to? 
	if "%outputType%" EQU "q" exit /b
	for %%a in (%validOutput%) do (
	  if "%%a"=="%outputType%" (
		set valid=1
		goto outSet
	  )
	)
	if %valid% EQU 0 (
		echo Invalid input! Please use one of the following: %validOutputString%
		goto :whileOutNotCorrect
	)

:outSet

if "%outputType%" EQU "%sourceType%" (
	echo Input and Output are the same, no point in doing anything. Exiting...
	exit /b
)

echo.

:: Set DPI for exported file
:whileNotValidDpiNumber
	set /p dpi=With what dpi should it be exported (e.g. 300)? 
	if "%dpi%" EQU "q" exit /b
	IF %dpi% NEQ +%dpi% (
		echo Invalid input! Please input an actual number.
		goto :whilenotValidDpiNumber
	)
echo.

:: count how many files we need to convert before converting!
set /a total=0
for /R %%i in (*.%sourceType%) do (	set /a total=total+1 )
echo Found %total% file(s) of type *.%sourceType% in the current folder (%~dp0)

echo.

:: Create output folder if it is set and does not exist
if not "!relativeOutputFolder!"=="" (
	if not exist "!relativeOutputFolder!" mkdir "!relativeOutputFolder!"
)

set /a count=0
:: Running through all files found with the defined ending
if %inkscapeMajorVersion% NEQ 0 (
	:: Inkscape 1.0 and newer
	for /R %%i in (*.%sourceType%) do (
		set /a count=count+1

        echo %%i -^> %%~di%%~pi!relativeOutputFolder!%%~ni.%outputType% ^[!count!/%total%^]
        %inkscapePath% --export-filename="%%~di%%~pi!relativeOutputFolder!%%~ni.%outputType%" --export-dpi=%dpi% "%%i"
	)
)

echo.
echo %count% file(s) converted from %sourceType% to %outputType%! (Saved in out folder)
echo.

:end
pause

Hi -thanks for this script - is it possible to convert a PDF file that has multiple pages? So far I can only get it to produce the first page.

@db333385 Out of the box: no. But inkscape does expose the option --pdf-page=PAGE which you could use to define which page should be exported. So you could modify the script to export a specific page or make a loop to export a range of pages. See also https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Using_the_Command_Line

Thanks a lot for the reply - do you know how I would access the page count of a particular PDF so I could loop through the right amount of pages?

@db333385 I don't think Inkscape exposes any api for that, but maybe you could use different tools - ChatGPT suggests pdfinfo:

FOR %%I IN (*.pdf) DO pdfinfo "%%I" | findstr Pages

You could just include that in the loop (but will need to install pdfinfo first on your machine with the folder added to your environment variables. You can find a download here: https://www.xpdfreader.com/pdfinfo-man.html

Hi!
Totally new to commands, but I got this to convert my png to svg successfully, which is superawesome! But I do get the Inkscape pop-up "png bitmap image import" at every image, and it does not help that I mark the box "Do not ask again". What can I do to prevent this?

TIA

Hi @allnightsnack,
First things first: Note that converting a png to an svg does not convert the image to a vector format, it results in an svg that has an embedded png file (maybe that is what you want, but I just want to make sure you're not surprised here).

I just checked with Inkscape v1.3 and added the png to the allowed input parameters and didn't have any popups. Try to download the latest version of inkscape and also the latest version of the above script (fixed problems with 1.3), and try to run it again, I hope it works this time for you :)

Can you show me how to use your file to mass convert but to NOT put it in a new OUT folder but in the same folder as original file?

Hi @myzenhost,

I updated the script with a simple option at the very top of the script, change this

:: Define relative output folder, if you want to write to the same folder set the var to . (remove \out)
set relativeOutputFolder=.\out

to

:: Define relative output folder, if you want to write to the same folder set the var to . (remove \out)
set relativeOutputFolder=.

Then the files write into the same folder :)

thank you for adding it but it is adding the images to the root folder and not the same folder as the original files that reside in sub folders.

also are you able to add any support for multithreading etc to do the process faster? If not i understand.

it also seems to now create a out folder in the root directory only and all copies of the converted files go to that instead of the out folders it made in the original version that would be in the sub folders if the target files are in subfolders which was better.

Also I was able to add CDR to acceptable input filetypes in mine and it worked great both on Old CDRs and New. There are not many conversion software titles out there that can batch convert both old and new CDR files so I would recommend adding it as a standard option for your script as it is truly usefull and already supported :)

Hi @myzenhost,
Thanks for the feedback. I changed the script support cdr as input and the folders now stay relative - if you want to export to the same folder just change line 15 to

set relativeOutputFolder=

also are you able to add any support for multithreading etc to do the process faster? If not i understand.

Using the shell command or piping was suggested before. If you want to implement that, I'm happy to take over your changes to the script.

Thanks for the wonderful tool! However, it would've been great if it allowed for setting the dimensions of the png files. I have multiple svg files with different sizes and I want for the output images to have the same height (512px) since they are icons (dpi doesn't do the trick). Is there a way to implement this feature? Also, would it be possible to add a suffix to the output files' title?

Thanks again!

I tried it with my icons and if I choose 300 DPI, I get 1600x1600 image.
Divide 512 by 1600, get 0.32.
Then multiply 300 by 0.32, get 96.
Run the script with 96 DPI, get 512x512 images.

Hope that helps someone.

Hi there!
I hope this message finds you well. I would like to express my gratitude for the time and effort you have dedicated to this matter.

I am currently facing an issue with .ai files created using Vectormagic, which has not been updated for quite some time. My objective is to convert these files into EPS 10 format and resize them to 3000px on one side while maintaining the original aspect ratio. It gave the following error message:

C:\Users\Rawal-PC\Desktop\Imagefx Vectors\vectors-1.ai -> C:\Users\Rawal-PC\Desktop\Imagefx Vectors\out\vectors-1.svg [1/26] Syntax Warning: May not be a PDF file (continuing anyway) Syntax Error: Couldn't find trailer dictionary Syntax Error: Couldn't find trailer dictionary Syntax Error: Couldn't read xref table ** Message: 15:18:48.735: PDF file was damaged and couldn't be repaired. C:\Users\Rawal-PC\Desktop\Imagefx Vectors\vectors-1.ai:1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found %!PS-Adobe-3.0 ^

Note: with the provided by you I recieve the same error.

I sought assistance from ChatGPT, but unfortunately, it did not resolve the issue. Below is the updated file:
https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZuU5J5ZxvhhEh0FUDYHLklYimCMEX4iHqIk

Any help would be very kind of you.
Thanks

Hi @jahmad06,

more interesting than the updated chat GPT file (which doesn't work if I understood correctly) would be an ai file that does not work, so we can reproduce the problem. To me it very much sounds as if Inksacpe is treating the .ai file as a pdf which seems to not work with that file:

Syntax Warning: May not be a PDF file (continuing anyway)

Not sure how much I can do here, since I don't work use ai files and don't have knowledge in its format structure, but let's see.

Thanks for the wonderful tool! However, it would've been great if it allowed for setting the dimensions of the png files. I have multiple svg files with different sizes and I want for the output images to have the same height (512px) since they are icons (dpi doesn't do the trick). Is there a way to implement this feature? Also, would it be possible to add a suffix to the output files' title?
Thanks again!

I tried it with my icons and if I choose 300 DPI, I get 1600x1600 image. Divide 512 by 1600, get 0.32. Then multiply 300 by 0.32, get 96. Run the script with 96 DPI, get 512x512 images.

Hope that helps someone.

Not a terribly complicated calculation, but it does seem like the script would be way more convenient if we could specify all desired sizes explicitly.