inkscape_merge

Script to merge SVG files with CSV data-files using Inkscape, to produce one outputfile (e.g. PDF) per data-row.

Script inspired by and based on Aurélio A. Heckert excellent InkscapeGenerator (wiki.colivre.net/Aurium/InkscapeGenerator)

Heckert’s original script unfortunately broke for me several times and I took the opportunity to rewrite it and make it more extendable for future.

Requirements

Inkscape (preferably in PATH)

USAGE

Install the gem

gem install inkscape_merge

Create files

Create CSV data file with first row as a header. The values from this row are used as keys in the SVG file substitution.

Create SVG file that contains some variables in the form:

%VAR_name%

Where ‘name` is the name of a column in the CSV file created previously. These variables can be anywhere inside the SVG, from plain text nodes to color values. This script just brute-forcedly `gsubs` these values as text w/o any thought.

Run the script

The script requires at least three arguments:

the input SVG file
the input CSV file
and the output file ‘pattern`

Note: output pattern undergoes the same substitutions as the SVG file, so to create easily unique file names. Additionally the output pattern can contain ‘%d` which is replaced with current row number.

Example:

inkscape_merge -f postcard.svg -d names.csv -o postcards/card_%d.pdf

This produces files like:

postcards/
- card_1.pdf
- card_2.pdf

Contributing to inkscape_merge

Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn’t been implemented or the bug hasn’t been fixed yet
Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn’t requested it and/or contributed it
Fork the project
Start a feature/bugfix branch
Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution
Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.