Hi there,

I have encountered a strange problem.

When opening a small PDF file, which is created by R, Inkscape 1.3 and 1.3.1 need more than 15 minutes to open it. If opened by 1.2.2, Inkscape responded quickly. I am running Inkscape on Windows 10. Are there any special settings that need to be adjusted?

I have asked the same question on Chat, and someone told me the file could be opened quickly with 1.3. So why is it so slow on my machine?

I attached the PDF file for your information.

Best,

Jinsong

I'd try resetting the preferences: https://inkscape.org/forums/questions/getting-back-to-square-one-and-starting-over-its-easy/

I tried it, but unfortunately, it does not help.

I'd completely uninstall Inkscape and the user profile and re-install.

I have completely removed all user profiles and related files. I also try to install Inkscape with .msi or .7z, the results are the same. It runs with a full CPU and lots of memory and lasts for 15 minutes or more to open the PDF file.

Not replicated here on Win 10.  I'll test on other Win 10 machines later today if time permits.

Are you installing Inkscape somewhere other than the system drive?

I install it to the default place, i.e., C:\Program Files\Inkscape, and also another place, such as D:\Program\Inkscape, all the same phenomenon.

I am running the Inkscape on a machine with Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8250U CPU @ 1.60GHz and 16GB memory.

here is a screenshot of the memory usage during open the PDF file. it's strange.

Like Tyler, I opened the file in just a few seconds.
(Inkscape 1.3 on a vintage Macbook)

It might be a problem for some specific system, as I read a post with a similar problem:

https://inkscape.org/forums/questions/the-pdf-file-does-not-open-in-version-13/

I tested seven machines with Win 10 Pro. All machines open the test file in less than a minute. 🤔

I have also tested the same thing on a Windows 11 machine. The same problem appears. The edition of Windows is HOME and not Pro.

Does the problem relate to the system locale?

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/8503

describe a similar problem.

I can not sign in to gitlab.com, so I can not reply or provide more information.

All those might imply there is something wrong with 1.3 and 1.3.1.

The problem also exists in inkscape-1.4-dev_2023-11-03_84fc2ed-x64...

I also tested the same thing with 1.3.2, the problem also exists.

Please choose "font substitute" instead of "render unknown fonts" and try again.

And let me know.

The same phenomenon. I tried all the options, all the same. I mean the time to open the file. The results I get are different. In fact, if I embed the font, e.g., Arial, the opening time is almost the same.

I am trying my best to narrow the problem down to the commit between 3e2761dd (2022-08-23) and 89b3c1d1 (2022-08-22). I cannot get a binary for Windows between the two commits. I got the Windows binaries for the two commits from https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/pipelines

Are you sure it's 2022 and not 2023?

commit 71c6a47fb212d33b1904224a2197543e405b3ac4
Author: Martin Owens <doctormo@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue Aug 22 08:40:08 2023 -0400

    Parse PDF postscript font names using FontConfig
    
    Use the provided font config postscript name matcher to better identify
    more fonts within a wide verity of PDF files. We also make sure that
    if a font can't be font, we still use the familty name and give more
    reasonable substitutions by using the font config substituion.
    
    Catches a parsing error in the text string start.
    
    Some debug code was also moved to a better location.

I am not sure which commit caused the problem. The problem was certainly introduced before the release of Inkscape 1.3, which was released on 23 July 2023. I just tried to find the first commit that caused the slowness in importing a PDF file by testing each binary for Windows that I could get from https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/pipelines. The last binary of the commit that imports the PDF normally is inkscape-1.3-dev_2022-08-22_89b3c1d1-x64.7z, and the first binary of the commit that has the problem is inkscape-1.3-dev_2022-08-23_3e2761dd-x64.7z.

I was trying to clarify what I had done to determine which commit might have the problem.

I am a not-so-familiar user of Inkscape on Windows 10/11 Home Edition. After upgrading from 1.2.2 to 1.3, I noticed that Inkscape was taking too long (more than 15 minutes) to import a small PDF file. After searching the forums and Inkscape's GitLab repo, I found several similar reports. I tried to file an issue report on GitLab, but I cannot register an account there.

I then found that there are some binaries for Windows in https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/pipelines, so I downloaded the binaries for Windows that appeared before the 1.3 release and after the 1.2.2 release, and finally narrowed it down to the 23 August 2002, which is the first commit with binaries for Windows that demonstrates the problem, the link is:https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/commit/3e2761ddc633b6a25cbe590c39de2004d46e374f, and the last commit with binaries for Windows that works fine, the link is: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/commit/89b3c1d1d4617ce76e2f9c0552456fdd92e4ae91

I know there are many commits in between these two, but I don't know how to identify the specific commit that caused the problem, as I am not a programmer.

I'm having the same problem on Windows 11, Inkscape version is 1.3.2.

Same problem to me. Windows 11 HOME edition Simplified-Chinese.Both .AI and .pdf files are opened very slowly in inkscape 1.3.2.

I have the same problem in Inkscape 1.3.2 @ Win11, which never occurs in 1.2.

But I noticed that pdf conversion works well in command line (I use PowerShell). 

inkscape --export-type=svg abc.pdf
inkscape --export-type=svg --pdf-poppler abc.pdf

Both generate the correct svg file in one second.

Hope this helps you.

Wow, it's great. Thanks!

The conversion provided an alternative way to edit the PDF file since Inkscape 1.3.2 could open the SVG file quickly.

However, it seems that the SVG file lost the font information. All fonts are converted to paths.

You can add --pdf-font-strategy option to keep fonts (--pages option is also needed if your file has more than one page):

inkscape --export-type=svg --pdf-font-strategy=keep --pages=all abc.pdf
inkscape --export-type=svg --pdf-font-strategy=substitute --pages=all abc.pdf

Will keep/substitue missing fonts in exported file.

I prefer using the command line for eazy batch convertion. If you find it tedious, you can first close all Inkscape window and simply type

inkscape abc.pdf

This will call an import window you are familiar with. And this takes just a little bit longer (about 5-10 seconds) to open the pdf file in graphics interface. If you do so, please remember not to close PowerShell window before manually saving your file (otherwise your inkscape window will get closed together).

If I use Inkscape 1.3.2 without --pdf-poppler, then SVG file is not correct, and there are lots of Syntax Error:

C:\Users\Jinso\Desktop>d:\Program\inkscape\bin\inkscape.com --export-type=svg --pdf-font-strategy=keep --pages=1 Rplots.pdf
Syntax Error: No display font for 'Symbol'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'ArialNarrow'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'ArialNarrow,Bold'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'ArialNarrow,Italic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'ArialNarrow,BoldItalic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'ArialNarrow-Bold'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'ArialNarrow-Italic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'ArialNarrow-BoldItalic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'HelveticaNarrow'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'HelveticaNarrow,Bold'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'HelveticaNarrow,Italic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'HelveticaNarrow,BoldItalic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'HelveticaNarrow-Bold'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'HelveticaNarrow-Italic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'HelveticaNarrow-BoldItalic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'BookAntiqua'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'BookAntiqua,Bold'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'BookAntiqua,Italic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'BookAntiqua,BoldItalic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'BookAntiqua-Bold'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'BookAntiqua-Italic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'BookAntiqua-BoldItalic'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'ArialUnicode'

If with --pdf-poppler, then all font strategy does not have effects, and all fonts convert to paths.

Right, font strategy takes effect in default import method (Internal import in graphics interface). Option --pdf-poppler is equivalent to Cario import in graphics interface, which will convert all text into paths. 

Error message depends on how many fonts you have installed on your computer. On my computer, it gives out: 

Syntax Error: No display font for 'Symbol'
Syntax Error: No display font for 'ArialUnicode'

In fact you don't need to worry about error message, because option --pdf-font-strategy=keep will keep fonts dispalyed "as is" even if you don't have the corresponding font installed on your computer. Despite the exrror message, you will still find the text to be editable (with a warning sign in font selection dropbox for all missing fonts) in your Rplots.svg generated.

Besides, you may need to use Text > Remove Manual Kerns before editing to release characters from absolute positioning.

Your conversation inspired me. Thanks a lot.

I think the problem is caused by"Inkscape.exe"， we can use “Inkscape.cmd” to bypass it.

There are some simple methods. We can input "inkscape" in command line to open the graphics interface. Or click “Inkscape.cmd”to open the graphics interface.Or right-click the PDF file->open with->Inkscape.cmd. Than,we can open PDF file quikly use the graphics interface.

Hello, there has been some progress on this issue. I have installed a Windows 10 virtual machine with only English installed. Everything is fine then. That's why the Inkscape developer here says that they couldn't reproduce the problem.  So it might be a locale issue. If I guess correctly, the problem reporters here are using Windows with CJK fonts (language). So the problem is still there.

I am using the Chinese version of Windows 11, and I am experiencing issues with importing PDFs using versions 1.3.2 and 1.4-dev of Inkscape. This problem involves high memory usage, eventual failure to open the PDF, and the program becoming unresponsive without displaying an error.

However, I can successfully open PDFs using the command line #28, and the process is very fast.

Same issue here, just fix by changing the system language to English.

In the Linux system, even if it is a Chinese language system, there is no such problem.

Under the Windows system, only changing the software to English will not solve the problem, you must change the system language to English.

It should be the reason for the CJK font for windows？

I have tried many times.

Under Windows system,

there will be no bugs in Latin alphabet languages ​​(incomplete testing, including English and Azerbaijani),

but there will be bugs in non-Latin alphabet languages ​​(CJK languages ​​(Chinese, Japanese and Chinese) and Tamil........)

The language here refers to the system language. This issue has nothing to do with the interface language of inkscape.

Please add your system info and an example pdf to this report:
https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/8503

I have difficulty registering in GitLab. So I can not report the issue on GitLab or add information to the related issues. I have reported those phenomena or the efforts to locate the possible position of the bug (it might be called a bug) on the chat channel. However, the issue may only related to non-Latin locale (language) on Windows, it may not be easy to reproduce for the Inkscape developers.

I'm pretty sure the devs can manage CJK testing, but they will need reports and example files via GitLab. Other users with the pdf issue may be able to register and report.

I can put a comment in the report linking to this topic, but the devs will be best able to address the issue with direct input from end users experiencing the issue.

The problem is not related to a specific PDF file. It seems that any PDF file could cause the problem. The PDF file attached to the first post in this topic (https://media.inkscape.org/media/resources/file/Rplots.pdf) is the one I used. In fact, the problem is related to the locale on a Windows system.

The possible position that introduced the problem is https://inkscape.org/forums/beyond/13-and-131-are-very-very-slow-opening-a-small-pdf-file/#c65581

I've just provided some information related to this noisy issue. If more information is needed, I'd like to follow the requirements.

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/8503

Yuki Yamamoto reported a similar issue at https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/10740 and located the problem in the source code, which is the commit mentioned in https://inkscape.org/forums/beyond/13-and-131-are-very-very-slow-opening-a-small-pdf-file/#c65564 by Martin Owens @doctormo. However, the issue in this thread appears much earlier than the commit.

The problem exists in 1.4 beta and beta2 yet, but disappears in 1.4 beta3. That's great.