It’s Finally Possible To Save As JPG with Inkscape! Here’s how…

• June 15, 2021
• Nick Saporito
• 14 comments

Thanks to an update in version 1.1, it’s now possible to save as JPG with Inkscape. In previous generations, the only file format you could export your work to was PNG. All of that has changed though, and in this tutorial I’ll be going over how you can export a JPEG file for the designs you’ve made in Inkscape.

To those of you who may already be intermediate-to-advanced users, all you have to do to save as JPG with Inkscape is use the Export Menu to export your work as you would for a PNG image. When prompted to choose a name and location for your exported file you’ll be able to choose the file type as well. Simply choose JPEG from the list and click Save. Just make sure you upgrade to the latest version of Inkscape first.

How To Save As JPG with Inkscape

For those of you who may need a more detailed explanation than that, I’ve made a video tutorial with a walkthrough of the entire process here:

If you prefer written instructions then continue on.

Step 1: Make sure you’re using Inkscape 1.1 or later

In order to save as JPG with Inkscape you must first make sure that you’re using the latest version of Inkscape. Earlier versions, such as 1.0 and 0.92.5, only let you export as PNG. You’ll need to update to version 1.1 or later in order to export a JPEG file.

If you’re unsure about which version you’re using, simply navigate to:

Help > About

An “about” menu will populate on the screen that will indicate the version you’re using:

The About menu will let you know which version of Inkscape you’re using.

You can upgrade to the latest version of Inkscape by going to the Inkscape website.

Step 2: Open the Export PNG menu

Once you’ve ensured that you’re using the proper version of Inkscape, open the Export menu by pressing Control + Shift + E on your keyboard. The menu will populate to the right side of your screen as a dockable menu:

The Export PNG Image menu will open as a dockable menu on the right-hand side of your screen.

Apparently the Inkscape team forgot to update the name of the menu, because it’s still labeled as “Export PNG Image“. This may be confusing as it suggests that you can only export PNG images with it, but that is no longer the case.

Step 3: Choose your export area

The way that you save as JPG with Inkscape is by exporting it rather than saving it. So, if you try to “Save As”, you won’t be presented with the option to choose JPG. The way that we export JPG is by using the Export menu.

Within the Export PNG Image menu on the right-hand side of your screen, choose of the Export Area options. The options are as follows:

• Page: Choosing this option will export everything within the page border on your screen.
• Drawing: Choosing this option will export everything both inside and outside of the page border.
• Selection: Choosing this option will only export an object(s) you have selected and everything within the bounding box surrounding it.
• Custom: This option lets you specify a coordinate point on the X and Y axis of your document to export.

If you want a more in-depth demonstration of the difference between these options then please watch the video tutorial above.

The chosen export area, outlined in red, will be what is saved.

Leave all of the other settings as they are for now. You do not need to change any of the defaults.

Step 4: Choose JPG as the file type when exporting

Once you’ve determined your selection area for exporting, you can export it as a JPEG by clicking the Export As button:

You will be prompted to designate a location on your hard drive and a name for the file.

You’ll also be able to change the file type as well:

Choose JPG from the file type dropdown.

From the file type dropdown list, you will be able to export your work in any of the following file formats:

• PNG
• JPG
• TIFF
• WEBP

Previously, the only option was PNG. However, there’s now a nice mix of options to choose from.

Seeing as how you want to save your work as a JPEG, choose JPG from the list, and click Save. You will then be prompted with the following menu:

You can read the warning if you’d like but it’s unimportant.

Navigate to the Options tab and choose the quality you’d like your JPEG to be. The higher the number, the better the image quality and larger the file size. The lower the number, the worse the image quality and lower the file size.

Once you click Ok you will have successfully exported a JPEG file with Inkscape!

To verify, navigate to the location on your hard drive where you exported your image to see if it’s there. If your computer is as fickle as mine has a tendency to be, you may have to refresh it.

Conclusion

It’s about time that we have the ability to save as JPG with Inkscape. This is something that has been possible in other applications (such as Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer) for a very long time, and the inability to handle such a [seemingly] simple function was very off-putting to many newcomers to the Open Source world. Users who watch my YouTube tutorials and wanted to check out Inkscape with a passing interest had a tendency to become dismissive of Inkscape and didn’t really take it seriously after learning that they couldn’t output JPEG files. Thankfully, that has all changed.

If you have any questions or need clarification on anything from this post, simply leave a comment below.

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