SVGraft

SVGraft splits a large SVG file into a multipage PDF, tiling it across standard print pages with configurable margins and alignment corner marks. It is designed for printing oversized vector graphics — such as posters, banners, or blueprints — on ordinary home or office printers.

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Features

• Splits any SVG into a grid of tiles that each fit on a single page
• Outputs a single merged PDF ready to print and assemble
• Configurable page size, margins, and tile orientation
• Automatic orientation optimization — chooses portrait or landscape to minimize page count
• Corner alignment marks on every tile to aid physical assembly
• Progress display and tile summary table via rich

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Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• CairoSVG and its native Cairo library
• See requirements.txt for the full list of Python dependencies

Install system dependencies (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt-get install libcairo2-dev

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Installation

pip install SVGraft

Or install it from source:

git clone https://github.com/deekb/SVGraft
cd SVGraft
pip install .

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Usage

Command Line

svgraft [input_file] [options]

Argument	Default	Description
input_file	./input.svg	Path to the input SVG file
-o, --output	./output_merged.pdf	Path for the output PDF file
--page-width	8.5	Page width in inches
--page-height	11.0	Page height in inches
--margin	5.0	Margin on each page in millimeters

Examples:

Split a poster onto US Letter pages with default settings:

svgraft my_poster.svg

Use A4 pages with a 10 mm margin and a custom output path:

svgraft my_poster.svg --page-width 8.27 --page-height 11.69 --margin 10 -o poster_tiled.pdf

Python API

from svgraft.cli import split_svg

split_svg(
    input_file="my_poster.svg",
    page_width_in=8.5,
    page_height_in=11.0,
    margin_mm=6.35,
    output_file="output.pdf",
    optimize_tile_orientation=True,
)

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SVG Requirements

The input SVG must have:

• A viewBox attribute (e.g. viewBox="0 0 1200 900")
• A width attribute defined in inches (in) or millimeters (mm)

Example SVG header:

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
     viewBox="0 0 2400 1800"
     width="24in" height="18in"/>

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How It Works

1. Parse the SVG and read its viewBox and physical dimensions to determine the internal units-per-inch scale.
2. Compute tiles — calculate the grid of columns and rows needed so each tile fits within the usable page area (page size minus margins).
3. Optimize orientation — if rotating tiles from portrait to landscape (or vice versa) produces fewer total pages, SVGraft automatically swaps the dimensions and re-tiles.
4. Render tiles — for each grid cell, clip and translate the SVG, add corner alignment triangles and a dashed border, then render to PDF via CairoSVG.
5. Merge — all per-tile PDFs are merged into a single output PDF using pypdf.

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Assembly

Each page includes:

• Corner triangles at the four content corners for precise cut-and-align assembly
• A dashed border showing the exact content boundary

To assemble a print: trim half of the pages to their dashed border, then align them to the corner marks of the adjacent tiles.

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Configuration Defaults

Defaults are defined in src/svgraft/config.py:

Setting	Default	Description
DEFAULT_PAGE_WIDTH_IN	8.5	Page width (inches)
DEFAULT_PAGE_HEIGHT_IN	11.0	Page height (inches)
DEFAULT_MARGIN_MM	5.0	Per-page margin
DEFAULT_CORNER_TRIANGLE_MM	5	Size of corner alignment triangles
DEFAULT_CORNER_STROKE_MM	0.1	Stroke width of corner marks
OPTIMIZE_TILE_ORIENTATION	True	Auto-flip orientation for fewer pages

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Running Tests

pip install pdf2image
python -m unittest tests/testSVGraft.py

The test is currently quite simple and splits tests/input/test_poster.svg onto US Letter pages and verifies the output PDF is created.

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Project Structure

SVGraft/
├── src/svgraft/
│   ├── cli.py          # Entry point: argument parsing and split_svg()
│   ├── config.py       # Default settings
│   ├── tiling.py       # Tile grid computation
│   ├── rendering.py    # Per-tile SVG manipulation and PDF rendering
│   ├── pdf.py          # In-memory PDF merging
│   ├── svg_io.py       # SVG unit parsing
│   ├── geometry.py     # Unit conversion utilities
│   └── debug.py        # Debug/console helpers
├── tests/
│   ├── input/test_poster.svg
│   ├── output/
│   └── testSVGraft.py
├── pyproject.toml
└── requirements.txt

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License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. See LICENSE for details.

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Author

Derek Baier — derek.m.baier@gmail.com