I was wondering if it's possible to use `--export-area-drawing` but only get it applied to objects _inside_ the page. I keep a bunch of assets outside the page and want them to be ignored when I'm exporting via command line.

I don't want to use the `--export-id` stuff because I'm trying to write a generic shell script.

Is there a reason you don't want to use `export-area-page`

I mean `--export-area-drawing` is exactly the behavior I want but I want inkscape to ignore everything outside the page. I thought I could chain a `--export-area-page --export-type svg` with a `--export-area-drawing --export-type png`  but I think `--export-area-page` doesn't actually get rid of stuff outside page if both input and output are SVGs.

In that case the easiest way to do it, is to have your assets in a known layer or in layers with a know id prefix.

you can use a select that layer then - and delete before export.

For Inskcape 1.2

inkscape --actions="select-by-id:asset_layer;delete;export-do" ./canvas.svg 

or

inkscape --actions="select-by-selector:[id|=ass];delete;export-do" ./canvas.svg

which gets any layers which start with 'ass'

or if you are feeling very clever - you can use:

inkscape --actions="select-all:layers;select-list" ./canvas.svg

to get the layer names, then: 

inkscape --query-all

to get the bounding boxes in pixels for all objects. loop through and destroy any with over lap the layer1