Hi there can someone help me?

I'm trying to use the CLI to flip text individually in an svg.

inkscape --actions="select-by-element:text;transform-scale:-100;FileSave;FileClose" --batch-process C:\Temp\FlynnHouseinkscape.svg

but this just shrinks and doesn't flip.

Basically the CLI needs to reproduce the behaviour shown here...

Horizontal flip a group without affecting text objects - Beginners' Questions - Inkscape Forum

Forward from Chat:

this is in one of the examples so they probably can: ObjectFlipVertically 
just saw this so yes they can: ObjectFlipHorizontally

https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php?title=Using_the_Command_Line#Modify_files

Just collecting info. Never used CLI.

Thanks I've been all over that site but no real info about whether i can do it.   Maybe I can pass this to a developer?

Do you mind to chime in here? https://chat.inkscape.org/channel/inkscape_user

It´s about your question right now.

For simple conversion ( original files will be overwritten - so ***please*** use copies ) 

inkscape --batch-process --actions="select-by-element:text;ObjectFlipHorizontally;FileSave;" *.svg

will convert and resave every svg file in the folder

For better (safer) batch conversion ( use with script ) below can be used.

export-filename: would usually use a filename generated by bash in linux or powershell in windows 10

inkscape --batch-process --actions="select-by-element:text;ObjectFlipHorizontally;export-filename:flipped.svg;export-do;" drawing.svg

Please note: 

It's possible but not that likely you might come across a nested <text></text> in which case results my not be predictale. <tspan></tspan> children should be okay.

Any command line what use Inkscape menu verbs - the gui is essential. ( That's what --batch-process does - closes the gui at the end of each command. It wouldn't work in Inkscape --shell mode etc.

I had another look at the files you want to flip. 

The files have some text labels which are made of more than one text element aligned next to each other:

For example instead of <text>Text Label</text>

We have <text>Text </text><text>Label</text>

So looping through and flipping each item does solve the problem.

I have attached a video.

Thanks.  Can you send me the CLI commands that does this?  I'll be able to take it from there.

Thanks again this is great!

I've uploaded the extension to:  https://gitlab.com/inklinea/mirror-text

A few notes:

Requires Inkscape 1.1+

Very poor efficiency - using command line calls is not the best way to do this, probably better to apply transformations in python itself using the inkex transform module

The gui actually becomes visible when using the command line, that would indicate just how inefficient it is.

The way the measurements exist in your files  - they are constructed from aligned separate text elements, so 4.5m x 2.5m would become 2.5m x 4.5m, which is obviously a problem ( potentially very expensive if this related to the real world )

Extension verbs memorise the last settings which were used normally in Inkscape, as long as Inkscape exited cleanly.

inkscape --batch-process --actions="org.inkscape.inklinea.flip_text;export-filename:flipped.svg;export-do;" ./drawing.svg

Anyway - it's another thing which exists in the world :)

Thanks I'll have a look.

Again I appreciate your help, at the very least it will help me on how to tackle this problem.

So in regards to the separate text elements issue...we are using inkscape cli to process a pdf from our CAD system to create the svg.  I'll investigate to see if there's a way keep text elemants "whole" when processed.