Exporting mask with gradient to EPS results in blank page

[Jason Heeris]

The attached SVG file was made in Inkscape and consists of a solid filled rectangle with a mask containing a gradient. When I save it as an EPS (also attached) and open the result in Evince I only see a blank page (with completely different proportions, too).

Save options are:
  * Postscript Level 3
  * Convert text to paths: YES
  * EPS+LaTeX... : NO
  * Rasterize filter effects: YES
  * Resolution for rasterization (dpi): 90
  * Export area is drawing: YES
  * Export area is page: YES
  * Limit export... : (blank)

System is Debian Squeeze/Wheezy, Inkscape is 0.48.1-2

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Reproduced with Inkscape 0.48.1 and 0.48+devel r10129 on OS X 10.5.8 (cairo 1.10.2).

The problem appears to result from resizing the page after masking the object: the resulting explicit transformation added to the top-level layers is wrongly or not considered at all when calculating the masked image for the (cairo-based EPS) export (also affects PDF: the masked object is not visible inside the exported page area).

Attached example is a simple test case:
1) create new layer
2) select masked object and move it to new layer
3) export to EPS
-> result renders as expected

Possibly related to or same underlying issue as bug #605151.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Possibly also underlying issue of bug #427540 (needs to be investigated).

[Jason Heeris (detly)]

Is there an obvious way to work around this for the present? Eg. performing certain operations in order (document resize before mask application, etc)?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> Is there an obvious way to work around this for the present?

Define "obvious" ;)

The issue is with masked objects inside transformed groups (groups that have been moved, and have an explicit 'transform' attribute as can be seen in 'Edit > XML Editor…'). Layers in Inkscape are normal groups with a special tag for Inkscape. Changing the page size / orientation causes all top-level layers to be 'moved' into the new location so that
a) the relation of the objects to the lower left page corner stays the same when choosing a different page format, or
b) the content of the layers is inside the new page area if it was resized to drawing or selection.

The "obvious" workaround depends on the structure of the SVG file. For most cases, it seems to suffice to create a new layer after resizing the page (a new empty layer will not require a 'transform' attribute), and move the masked object into the new layer. Stack order can be arranged by lowering the new layer, or by working with additional layers/moving other objects to the new layer as well.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Related (or duplicate): Bug #1133095 "gradient mask fails to output into eps file"
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1133095>

[Beluga (buovjaga)]

Still repro with Seriously.svg

Arch Linux 64-bit, KDE Plasma 5
Inkscape 0.92+devel 15099 (GTK3)