Inkscape

Black blocks appear on the image when I open an SVG file with Firefox.

Asked by jimbobsweeney

Hi there,

I created an SVG image with Inkscape, and used 'Object to Path' to convert all flowing text, etc. to paths. I then saved it and attempted to open it in Firefox, but it comes up with a big black block towards the top of the image. There is nothing clickable on the image in Inkscape in the region where the block appears. I have tried to export in PNG format, which works well, but appears fuzzy when you zoom in (this is why I wanted it to work in SVG format). Interestingly, the block comes up as a short line when opened in Internet Explorer - however, it is still there.

Any ideas a) what this is and b) how I can get rid of it.

Thanks to all in advance,

JBS

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pbhj
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pbhj (pbhj) said : 		#1

A file upload that we can look at would help enormously. I'm not playing "guess what I put in my file", perhaps someone else will.

Also you need to say the version of FF and what platform so that when one gets your uploaded file we can try and repeat the conditions in which you get the observed results.

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jimbobsweeney (barristerbooks) said : 		#2

Hi Phbj,

I have uploaded screenshots into the following directory, together with the SVG file itself:

http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~r_dogg/savage/

You will note that when you click on the SVG file from there in Firefox, the black block is one of the last things that comes on, which indicates to me that it must be in one of the topmost layers.

I'm running Firefox 3.0.11 on Windows XP Home Edition. The SVG file was created with Inkscape v0.46.

Hope this is of use,

JBS

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Best pbhj (pbhj) said : 		#3

There was a "flowregion" defined which had a black rectangle as a sub element but wasn't displaying. I excised the whole branch from the XML. This was found using the FF extension Firebug, right click on teh black rectangle and choose "Inspect Element" and you find the code responsible for the rendered black rectangle.

This appears to be the result of marginal buggy behaviour, but I can't be sure, perhaps a result of converting a flowed text to a path?

(PS: Look out for those copyright permissions!)

http://alicious.com/samples/Dublin-Map-6-clean.svg (my server is issuing this as text for some reason so you'll need to save it locally first before viewing it properly).

Cheers!

pbhj
http://alicious.com/

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su_v (suv-lp) said : 		#4

> perhaps a result of converting a flowed text to a path?
you can create those empty flowed text objects accidentally with the text tool: draw a rectangle (maybe thinking you're still using the select tool), don't enter any text, click somewhere else on the canvas and the textbox disappears but leaves a unvisible svg:FlowRoot element behind (watch it happening with the XML editor open).

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jimbobsweeney (barristerbooks) said : 		#5

Dear all,

This is tremendous work. Thank you very much. I downloaded firebug (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843), found the path for the rectangle and deleted it in notepad (I don't have an XML editor - perhaps you could recommend one?) - just wanted to make sure that I could do it myself should it happen on any other graphics. I reckon SUV was dead right in relation to how the problem occured - lots of text boxes in that and it's entirely possible I arsed up slightly at one point or another.

Thanks again!

JBS

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su_v (suv-lp) said : 		#6

Use the built-in XML Editor from Inkscape ;-) <http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/XML.html>
You can find it under the menu 'Edit > XML Editor…'

hth, ~suv

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jimbobsweeney (barristerbooks) said : 		#7

Thanks very much for all the help!

I hereby pronounce this matter closed.

Hooray,

JBS

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jimbobsweeney (barristerbooks) said : 		#8

Thanks pbhj, that solved my question.

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Oliver Ruebenacker (curoli) said : 		#9

I have a black box on my image, too, visible on every SVG viewer except Inkscape. How can I get rid of it?

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jimbobsweeney (barristerbooks) said : 		#10

Hi Oliver,

The way I sorted it out was through the use of Firebug, an add-on to Mozilla Firefox (link is above) to isolate the line that is putting the black box in there. You can then use the XML editor recommended above, or Notepad (as I did at the time, prior to knowing about the XML editor in Inkscape) to remove the line and Bob's your uncle. If you have any further queries, please post them in the forum here along with a copy of the file and information regarding version numbers of various programs, etc.

Hope this helps!

JBS