Comment 3 for bug 241081

So, looking at the 1.1 SVG Full specs, 'stroke' goes around a 'shape'. A shape is not a bitmap, but "A graphics element that is defined by some combination of straight lines and curves. Specifically: 'path', 'rect', 'circle', 'ellipse', 'line', 'polyline', 'polygon'." But, theoretically, inkscape could calculate the boundries of a bitmap and then create a shape that goes around it .. and stroke it.

In the upcoming 1.2 SVG Full specs, there are two things that seem relevant:
9.3 The veStrokePath element
(http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20041027/vectoreffects.html#veStrokePath-element)
and
9.12 The veStroke element
(http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20041027/vectoreffects.html#veStroke-element)

If i understand correctly, "veStroke" (aka, vector stroke) creates an arbitrary shape which can have opacity set to 0. this shape can then have a separate stroke applied to it.

Anyway, this implementation wouldn't break SVG specs. Implementation could follow specs in the sense that in the end it creates an object that follows svg specs. The original bitmap image doesn't need to be linked to it, just used for the original calculations in creating a path.

So, its up to you devs to decide whether or not this is worth doing, whether or not this is a way to liberal use of SVG specs, and whether this is a maintainable feature.

best,
Vlad