feature: "hide selected object" option in Export Bitmap

[Andrew Plotkin]

The Export dialog has a "hide all except selected" option. But it would be rather handy for me if the opposite option existed: hide *only* the selected object, and render everything else (in the bounding box of the selected object).

If I'm designing a dozen icons for a project, I probably have a row of ten grey squares with some graphics in each one. I need the squares as bounding boxes, so I can select each one and export "Selection". (The actual icons won't have uniform size, see.) But I want a transparent background, so I have to hide the grey square layer before I export. This is tedious.

If I could select each square and export with "hide selected object", I'd get the right output more easily.

[Andrew Plotkin (zaunchpa)]

(Er, ignore the way "a dozen" magically turned into "ten" in that sentence. :)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> I need the squares as bounding boxes, so I can select each one and export "Selection".

Those squares can have the fill and stroke color set to None and still be used as export selection (select it by dragging a selection frame around the individual icon large enough to include the invisible square).

Or you can group the invisible square (or make it invisible after grouping) with the icon itself and simply select the group for export (the dimensions of the selection are still of the size of the square, even it is not visible on-canvas). Inkscape's own icons file uses this technique.

Or you could move the grey squares on a layer below the main one, select those you want to use for export, and hide the layer (a single click in the 'Layers…' dialog (the selection will not be lost) right before using 'File > Export bitmap'

Or you could move the grey squares onto a new layer (below or above), select them all, remove the fill and stroke color, and for (batch) bitmap export, simply change to that layer, select all with 'Ctrl+A' and use 'File > Export bitmap'.

For additional details, see also
<http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/File-Export.html#File-Export-PNG>

There's also the extension 'inkscape-slicer' which handles the hiding of the export selection frame(s) for you (and optionally indicates successful export by color):
<https://github.com/mattharrison/Inkscape-Slicer-Extension>

Additionally, Inkscape's new 'Extensions > Web > Slicer…' (0.48) also has extended export options and does handle the visibility of the slicing rectangles for you:
<http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Extensions-Web.html#Extensions-Web-Slicer>

[Andrew Plotkin (zaunchpa)]

"Move the selections to a lower layer and hide it" is my current procedure, but it's a lot of clicking in the end.

Selecting no-ink objects by dragging around them is a useful tip -- I didn't know about that. Thanks! (I had tried turning off the "Ignore hidden objects and layers" selection preference, but I guess that only applies to ctrl-A? I could file a separate feature request to have a preference for selecting no-ink objects by direct click...)

I will look at the inkscape-slicer extension, too. Thanks again.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> (I had tried turning off the "Ignore hidden objects and layers"
> selection preference, but I guess that only applies to ctrl-A?

Yes, as mentioned in the section header on that preferences pane.

> I could file a separate feature request to have a preference
> for selecting no-ink objects by direct click...)

That report already exists (and the request was not supported by inkscape developers). You can always switch to outline view mode to select invisible objects (objects with no fill & stroke, or with opacity = 0, or both fill and stroke 'A' channel '0').