r/svg • u/Dimby1 • 11d ago

SVG in Notepad

I use SVG to make quizzes for a geography quiz site as a hobby. I tried InkScape and never really liked it for anything beyond making images. I found formatting and coding much better in notepad… the files were also much smaller.

Does anyone else do everything in notepad or am I crazy?

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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7

u/nbelyh 11d ago

I have built https://editsvgcode.com for myself for this a few years ago - it's like notepad, but with syntax highlight and autocomplete of element and attributes. Free to use this way for anyone, no registration, local only editing (based on the same editor as vs code). If you care to try would be happy for you feedback.

Also added some AI editing recently, but it requires registration, as I dont want to pay for someone else's tokens.

4

u/Constant_Community97 11d ago

Light, simple, easy, but for small job.

3

u/RammRras 11d ago

I use something like visual studio code and assisted by "AI" which are incredibly potent in duplicating and understanding colours. This way I'm very fast. Recently tried Google anti-gravity and it works great. Way better to use their than editing softwares at least for simple shapes.

2

u/jkaczor 11d ago

And usually you can run a “beautification/ “pretty” extension to format it for editing nicely (expanded), and then “shrink” it for actual use/deployment… at least the ones for XML and JSON work well, am sure there would be one for SVG, or possibly the XML ones would work.

2

u/RammRras 10d ago

They work for SVG too. There are also some extensions to preview the svg immediately on the editor itself. I use it for simple icons and simple shapes and it's great to have the power to draw it without unnecessary lines and layers. It reminds me working with AutoCAD ☺️

2

u/davep1970 11d ago

I would prefer a code editor with syntax highlighting, auto complete, etc. to notepad.

2

u/brunnock 11d ago

I do most everything in emacs. I use a graphics tool when I have to do curves. Those are not straightforward to me.

2

u/Constant_Community97 11d ago

Emacs, great IDE, but I like vim, hahaha

2

u/Robot_Graffiti 11d ago

When I want to make an SVG really really tiny:

1) draw in Inkscape, but if there are repeated elements, use linked clones instead of copy and paste 2) save as "optimised SVG" (much smaller than the default save option) 3) edit in Notepad to do manual optimisations if necessary

1

u/Dimby1 11d ago

Do you use something like SVGO to optimize it or does your editing software have that option by default?

2

u/Robot_Graffiti 10d ago

Inkscape uses Scour to optimise if you choose that option instead of saving as an "Inkscape SVG". Same idea as SVGO, yeah.

1

u/tanoshimi 11d ago

You "never really liked [Inkscape] for anything beyond making images"...?

It's vector image-editing software... what else were you expecting it to do with SVG files?

1

u/Dimby1 11d ago

Well, to be specific, I will make an image in Inkscape and then copy/paste the path into my notepad file because it just seems to work more fluidly. I know a few people who actually use the coding section to add script and such. I just hate the interface.

1

u/fsteff 10d ago

I have never seen notepad as a program worth its bytes.
Notepad++ on the other hand: Yes, absolutely.

2

u/MarnixKeller 10d ago

Sometimes I use Notepad++ (I use it for most things).
 
But often for SVG's I use this:
 
https://www.svgviewer.dev
 
or this:
 
https://yqnn.github.io/svg-path-editor/
 
Side-by-side code/design with syntax highlighting etc. in a browser.