Hello,

I am new to inkscape and the forum but do have a some familiarity with Adobe Illustrator so the leap hasn't been too difficult.  I have been working on a piece of artwork and when I go to export the file to a PNG the image shows this giant black rectangle across the screen.  I have tried trouble shooting this myself but I must be missing something because I cannot figure out where it is coming from.  I do not appear to have any layers with that in it.  Im not sure if it could be caused by an unconnected node, something with a gradient, or perhaps the file size or my computer.  I cannot for the life of me figure it out. Honestly I am at a loss for where to begin.  Any help would troubleshooting would be greatly appreciated.

Hi there,

If you could share the original svg file, perhaps we can help you find the problem.
And to find out if it is a bug somewhere, it helps if you share what operation system you have and which Inkscape version.

To find out if you have a hidden rectangle, you can change the view to outline mode.
menu > view > display mode > outline.

Good luck and hopefully you'll get an answer soon.

Hi Kristie,

Thank you for the quick response.  I took a quick look at the outline mode as you have mentioned and I do not see the rectangle anywhere in there.  Currently I am running this on a Mac Mojave 10.14.6 and my Inkscape is 1.0.2 (e86c8708, 2021-01-15).  I have attached the original svg for troubleshooting.  When I export as a PNG the file size is just below 5MB but obviously my SVG size is much bigger than that.  Thank you again for your help in advance.

Best,

Mark

The file hangs any computer I test with, when exporting. I have narrowed it down to the layer DAFT TEXT (which also has an empty text object). I expect there is a path with a twist or duplicated node that is freaking out the filter engine. I think it's in the hemisphere near the silver side.

In any case, processing a large number of filters can hammer the processors and take a long time. I would probably export each layer at page size and composite the exported PNGs in GIMP (or Inkscape).

Filter processing can also be reduced by unioning the objects in the layer "helmet shadows" before applying the blur, and in any similar areas for shadows.

Hi Tyler,

Don't worry I won't talk about what shouldn't be talked about LOL (stupid joke...I know).  Thank you for looking into this and narrowing it down.  I am going to do some additional digging into the Daft Text layer and see what I find.  I have a strong feeling it is a duplicate node or twist as you are saying.  I will also find and remove the empty text box.  If I am unable to find the problem your recommended solution of exporting each layer and then reconfiguring after is brilliant!  Cannot believe I did not think of attempting that as a solution 😁.  I will report back if I find the culprit after some digging.  Thank you kindly for the help!

Best,

Mark

Yes, listen to Tyler!
My machine used all of its 12 GB Ram and then a black bar appeard in the result too.

Hi Kristie,

Thank you. I will definitely do that.  Leave it to me to make a file that utilizes 12GB of Ram LMAO!  I found something funky with the nodes on one layer that was also used for shadowing so I am hoping that corrects the problem.  If not I am just going to do as Tyler said and just export piece by piece and splice it back together. Thank you both for your help on this.  I was not expecting a solution so quickly. You both ROCK!

Best,

Mark

Hi Tyle and Kristie,

When I tried to export the daft text layer by itself as Selected I am still getting the black rectangle.  See attached PNG export.  I also removed a few things from the layer to try to pinpoint the problem.  Given the location it might be something with the letter D layer.  Tyler I still have not found the empty text box you were mentioning. If you happen to have that location pinpointed could you please provide a screenshot of where it is so I can remove it?

Best,

Mark 

UPDATE:

Ok its definitely something to do with the letter D because when I remove that I able to export within the black rectangle.  I tried seeing it was a twisted node which one of them appeared to be slightly twisted but that did not seem to correct the problem when I tried to export again.  Any thoughts on what might be going on with that particular object?

Well, maybe I don't have the same version document, or it's because I'm using v .92.2, but there is nothing in the object text7851.

Ok thank you.  I think I might made a correction in the file when trying to troubleshoot this after I sent it and deleted it because I do not have that object in my XML viewer right now when I look.

As for the D object I have still not discover what might be causing it.  I might just try to remake the letter and hope that corrects it at this point.  If not then I am honestly at a lost because clearly it something with that object.

Feel free to share the file with the letter D, since we don't have it.

Success!!!!! Honestly I am not sure what went wrong but it is fixed now that I deleted and recreated the object.  Is it possible for an object to essentially get corrupted within the program?  Either way thank you both for the help.  I would not have known where to start if you folks hadn't hopped in.  Enjoy your upcoming weekends!

Good to hear things are working! 
Yes, things can happen to objects, sometimes without a clear traceable origin. 

@CYDN_NFT

Well, now you have posted the brainonly, I can see there are letters! I didn't see those before.
So the brain = words. Now your design is making me smile even more.
Good to hear that you've got a solution.
Tyler is a kind of detective, always solving Inscape mysteries. I think he should have that as a badge next to his name...

Kirstie

I'm as dumb as a rock, it seems... I didn't see the brain's gyri and sulci* were actually the letters  D A F T  P U N K until Kirstie's post. I'm also now more impressed with the artwork.

(Because of the empty text object, I thought the band's name was supposed to be in front of the brain. 🙈 )

* I had to look up those terms.

Well thank you kindly the both of you for the kind words and support.  I made this into an NFT for sale on Rarible.  The idea for the work is that the two always stressed how they are robots and giving us beautiful sounds of the future but I wanted to highlight the fact that through all the futuristic sounds and robotic persona that only the human mind is what could have given us Daft Punk. So hidden beneath all the fake wires and synthetic tunes is the brilliant human brain shared amongst two incredible artists.  I also was attempting to make it into a movable gif so the helmets started together and moved apart to unveil the brain but it was not coming out that great when I tried that in gimp so I just released it as a still.  Might eventually attempt to release it as a movable gif in the future thought.  I think the gradients really mess with the quality in the gif. If either of you have any recommendations on a better free software to use to accomplish this or a different file type I'd be all ears. I am very new to this space and haven't made digital art in years so I am glad to see my work was enjoyed.

You folks have the raw file so don't go sharing it now LOL.  But seriously, you both were a huge help in solving this problem.  I would have gotten frustrated and just stopped. So I am very thankful for your help.

Hej,

So, rarible? Learning something new everyday!
Your raw file is safe with me, as I do not understand this website of rarible at all. 😊
Perhaps you can enlighten us a bit?

For gif files I would make a much smaller and much simpler graphic design.
It depends on how big you want it to be displayed, but often those images are really small.
Then you do not see much of the subtle gradients and filters.
I think that gif files also have a very limited amount of colors. That would explain why gradients are difficult.
If you want to make gifs, try to make a file with bold colours, where it is no problem that parts are displayed a bit different.

But hey, that is my hunch. I think there are people here who know more about gif.

I've deleted your SVG to remove the ability for anyone to share it.

Thank you folks!

So Rarible is one of many platforms that allow you to mint your created art onto the Ethereum Blockchain as an NFT (Non Fungible Token).  This creates a sense of ownership for the digital asset because there is always a record of the first time it was minted and who it was minted by.  You have the ability to decide if your digital art will be a completely unique 1 of 1 work or if you want there to be multiple copies of it and how many will be available.  You can then list the price for your art (put it up for auction) and also dictate a royalty fee that you will receive of any profits in the future if your art is sold to someone and then they sell it (and on and on).  Meaning if your art becoming desirable and people keep selling your pieces for higher profits you will also get a cut of those higher profits.  This can be done because the blockchain keeps the records of the creation forever and sales of that piece forever, like a never ending ledger of transactions for that one minted asset.  The NFT market has obviously been HUGE in the news lately since Beeple just sold his for 69 Million dollars worth of ETH.  There is definitely a "hype bubble" going on right now but I assure you NFT's are here to stay.  As we move further into the future and Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality becomes more popular digital art to be presented in those spaces will become FAR more common place.  The NFT community is great and the space has so many talented artists.  People are also creating their own collectible lines of NFTs which is really cool since you can create scarcity by how many of each are available. (think pokemon or baseball cards).  The concept is a bit difficult for individuals to wrap their heads around since digital art can easily be screen shot.  But the idea is that there is a 100% truth of record as to who has an original just based on the minted data that exists on the blockchain.  So "forges" are even easier to spot since the minted data is all public record.  The key is that minting an NFT creates a true proof of digital ownership. This is probably A LOT of information.  I would recommend looking up and reading about NFTs, Beeple, and general blockchain concepts to better understand as things can get VERY complex. Art is the simplest form of what an NFT can be. But once you start thinking about the fact that it is digital ownership of ANYTHING the sky is the limit.

Again thank you all for the help on this work. Hopefully it eventually sells but either way I had a blast just being creative and find some nice humans along the way to help me.

CYDN_NFT

This is probably A LOT of information.  I would recommend looking up and reading about NFTs, Beeple, and general blockchain concepts to better understand as things can get VERY complex.

Absolutely.

NFTs and blockchain tech are new (ish), widely hyped and widely misunderstood. Until it is widely understood, the potential for scam and abuse is also great (the sky is the limit).

Don't forget that shares of companies doubled simply by adding "blockchain" to their name, even when they had no relationship to the tech.

I support the legit use of the tech, but caution the investing public to be craeful (NSFW).