Fix Python – Convert SVG to PNG in Python

Question 1

How do I convert an svg to png, in Python? I am storing the svg in an instance of StringIO. Should I use the pyCairo library? How do I write that code?

Question 2

The answer is “pyrsvg” – a Python binding for librsvg.

There is an Ubuntu python-rsvg package providing it. Searching Google for its name is poor because its source code seems to be contained inside the “gnome-python-desktop” Gnome project GIT repository.

I made a minimalist “hello world” that renders SVG to a cairo
surface and writes it to disk:

import cairo
import rsvg

img = cairo.ImageSurface(cairo.FORMAT_ARGB32, 640,480)

ctx = cairo.Context(img)

## handle = rsvg.Handle(<svg filename>)
# or, for in memory SVG data:
handle= rsvg.Handle(None, str(<svg data>))

handle.render_cairo(ctx)

img.write_to_png("svg.png")

Update: as of 2014 the needed package for Fedora Linux distribution is: gnome-python2-rsvg. The above snippet listing still works as-is.

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