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Since Inkscape 0.92 it's possible to have a checkerboard background in the document settings.

I noticed that Inkscape SVGs that have the checkerboard enabled have the inkscape:pagecheckerboard="true" attribute. I tried adding that to the <group id="template"> in ~/.config/inkscape/preferences.xml, but that doesn't work, and the file is overwritten when I open Inkscape.

How can I enable the checkerboard background as default for new documents?

Laurenz
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3 Answers3

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I figured it out: You just save an svg file with the checkerboard enabled and copy it to ~/.config/inkscape/default.svg.

Laurenz
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    For Windows users, the default.svg file is in the Inkscape install directory: C:\Program Files\Inkscape\share\templates\default.svg – brokethebuildagain Dec 06 '17 at 20:07
  • Hmmm, almost worked for me. Had to place the default.svg into .config/inkscape/templates/ instead – Ole Aug 02 '18 at 13:18
  • Is it possible to set the checkerboard background as replacement to transparent background? – android developer Dec 25 '18 at 11:32
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    This doesn't work for files that are saved and re-opened as e.g. Optimized SVG. i.e. this preference doesn't affect the default for SVG files opened from external sources, which will always have a white background, even if they solely consist of white shapes :( – EoghanM Jan 29 '19 at 11:29
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You can also do it in UI

  1. Set up any changes to the default empty document.
  2. in this case go to File > Document Properties and set checkboard
  3. File > Save Template
  4. and in pop up check the option: "set as a default template"
s.ouchene
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Adam Belis
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In file:

%APPDATA%\inkscape\preferences.xml

Change:

pagecheckerboard="0"

to:

pagecheckerboard="1"
Destroy666
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Javier Ordoñez Ojeda
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