Convert SVG to PNG in Python

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.

Install Inkscape and call it as command line:

${INKSCAPE_PATH} -z -f ${source_svg} -w ${width} -j -e ${dest_png}

You can also snap specific rectangular area only using parameter -j, e.g. co-ordinate "0:125:451:217"

${INKSCAPE_PATH} -z -f ${source_svg} -w ${width} -j -a ${coordinates} -e ${dest_png}

If you want to show only one object in the SVG file, you can specify the parameter -i with the object id that you have setup in the SVG. It hides everything else.

${INKSCAPE_PATH} -z -f ${source_svg} -w ${width} -i ${object} -j -a ${coordinates} -e ${dest_png}

Here is what I did using cairosvg:

from cairosvg import svg2png

svg_code = """
    <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#000" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round">
        <circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"/>
        <line x1="12" y1="8" x2="12" y2="12"/>
        <line x1="12" y1="16" x2="12" y2="16"/>
    </svg>
"""

svg2png(bytestring=svg_code,write_to='output.png')

And it works like a charm!

See more: cairosvg document