Convert SVG to PNG in Python

Last Updated on 2021-10-12 by Clay

When we developing a project, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a good picture format, but sometimes we also need PNG format to build our interface layout.

For example, when I using SVG picture to create a interface by PyQt5, the stripe of my picture is disappear. After I converting the picture to PNG format, if finally displays normally.

So, today I want to record how to use Python to convert a SVG picture to a PNG picture.

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SVG

SVG is a image format base on XML, it describe the format of two-dimensional vector graphics via narration.

If we use Python to load a SVG picture:

This is the original picture.

print(open('input/ice.svg', 'r', encoding='utf-8').read())

Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<svg width="100px" height="100px" viewBox="0 0 100 100" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
    <!-- Generator: Sketch 50.2 (55047) - http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch -->
    <title>mdpi/*/icons/svg/ice</title>
    <desc>Created with Sketch.</desc>
    <defs></defs>
    <g id="*/icons/svg/ice" stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd">
        <g id="Group" transform="translate(17.000000, 1.000000)">
            <polygon id="Path-7" fill="#000000" fill-rule="nonzero" points="22.3153336 0 44 17.3574154 44 50.1643429 22.3621974 68 0 50.1930808 0 18.2289582"></polygon>
            <polygon id="Path" fill="#AFCCEB" points="22.8494357 8 6 21.5793953 6 47.7995504 22.802651 61 39 47.827855 39 20.7542998"></polygon>
            <polygon id="Path-8" fill="#37609F" fill-rule="nonzero" points="21.9136416 20 32 27.8870243 32 42.7034852 21.9638023 51 12 42.6983119 12 28.4119176"></polygon>
            <polygon id="Path" fill="#AFCCEB" points="22.0218836 26 17 30.6553527 17 40.4690982 21.9775907 45 27 40.4641075 27 30.2527318"></polygon>
            <polygon id="Path-9" fill="#000000" fill-rule="nonzero" points="53.1938749 54 67 66.677861 67 87.0085565 53.1722954 99 39 87.0278418 39 66.6563331"></polygon>
            <polygon id="Path" fill="#AFCCEB" points="43 69.3303304 43 85.120844 52.6361735 93 62 85.1400901 62 69.3088463 52.6518923 61"></polygon>
            <polygon id="Path-8" fill="#37609F" fill-rule="nonzero" points="52.4525029 69 58 73.3251423 58 81.4502983 52.4800913 86 47 81.4474614 47 73.6129871"></polygon>
        </g>
    </g>
</svg>

As we can see, this is a file to describe the SVG picture, we can draw the picture from these configures.

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Convert SVG to PNG

I use a useful package: svglib to do it. If you use it in the first time, you need to use the following command to download:

pip3 install svglib

If you have interesting, you can refer the document in PyPi: https://pypi.org/project/svglib/

After installing, you just need some simple code to complete your task:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from svglib.svglib import svg2rlg
from reportlab.graphics import renderPM

drawing = svg2rlg('input/ice.svg')
renderPM.drawToFile(drawing, 'output/ice.png', fmt='PNG')

ice.svg is the input and ice.png is the output.

Output:

As you can see, we use python to convert a svg image to png format.