Inkscape: Is it possible to always save as both SVG and PDF

Question

Using Inkscape, I would like to automatically and always save my files in both PDF and SVG format. The reason is that I embed the PDF file into another document, while I want want to keep the SVG file for further editing. However, I am getting annoyed by always saving twice and hitting OK around five times (for approving export options and agreeing to overwrite existing files).

Answer 1

I am not aware of any GUI way of doing this, but you can use Inkscape’s command line interface to export SVGs to PDFs, e.g., like this:

inkscape image.svg --export-pdf=image.pdf

If you have some reasonable naming convention for your SVGs and PDFs, you can write a simple script that checks all SVG–PDF pairs as to whether the SVG is newer and makes a new PDF from the SVG in this case. Thus, you just need to save your SVGs and let the script run whenever you require it.

If you are using a Make-like build tool, you can use it to take care of this.