---
name: "scour"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "scour"
version: "0.38.2-6"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/scour"
---

# scour(1)

Optimize and clean SVG files

## NAME

scour - Optimize and clean SVG files

## SYNOPSIS

**scour** \[*INPUT.SVG* \[*OUTPUT.SVG*\]\] \[*OPTIONS*\]

## DESCRIPTION

Scour is an SVG optimizer/cleaner that reduces the size of scalable vector graphics by optimizing structure and removing unnecessary data.

The goal of Scour is to output a file that renderes identically at a fraction of the size by removing a lot of redundant information created by most SVG editors.

Optimization options are typically lossless but can be tweaked for more agressive cleaning.

If the input/output files are not specified, stdin/stdout are used. If the input/output files are specified with a svgz extension, then compressed SVG is assumed.

## OPTIONS

- **--version**

  show program's version number and exit

- **-h**, **--help**

  show this help message and exit

- **-q**, **--quiet**

  suppress non-error output

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  verbose output (statistics, etc.)

- **-i** INPUT.SVG

  alternative way to specify input filename

- **-o** OUTPUT.SVG

  alternative way to specify output filename

-

  Optimization:

- **--set-precision**=*NUM*

  set number of significant digits (default: 5)

- **--set-c-precision**=*NUM*

  set number of significant digits for control points (default: same as '--set-precision')

- **--disable-simplify-colors**

  won't convert colors to #RRGGBB format

- **--disable-style-to-xml**

  won't convert styles into XML attributes

- **--disable-group-collapsing**

  won't collapse \<g\> elements

- **--create-groups**

  create \<g\> elements for runs of elements with identical attributes

- **--keep-editor-data**

  won't remove Inkscape, Sodipodi, Adobe Illustrator or Sketch elements and attributes

- **--keep-unreferenced-defs**

  won't remove elements within the defs container that are unreferenced

- **--renderer-workaround**

  work around various renderer bugs (currently only librsvg) (default)

- **--no-renderer-workaround**

  do not work around various renderer bugs (currently only librsvg)

-

  SVG document:

- **--strip-xml-prolog**

  won't output the XML prolog (\<?xml ?\>)

- **--remove-titles**

  remove \<title\> elements

- **--remove-descriptions**

  remove \<desc\> elements

- **--remove-metadata**

  remove \<metadata\> elements (which may contain license/author information etc.)

- **--remove-descriptive-elements**

  remove \<title\>, \<desc\> and \<metadata\> elements

- **--enable-comment-stripping**

  remove all comments (\<!-- **--**\>)

- **--disable-embed-rasters**

  won't embed rasters as base64-encoded data

- **--enable-viewboxing**

  changes document width/height to 100%/100% and creates viewbox coordinates

-

  Output formatting:

- **--indent**=*TYPE*

  indentation of the output: none, space, tab (default: space)

- **--nindent**=*NUM*

  depth of the indentation, i.e. number of spaces/tabs: (default: 1)

- **--no-line-breaks**

  do not create line breaks in output(also disables indentation; might be overridden by xml:space="preserve")

- **--strip-xml-space**

  strip the xml:space="preserve" attribute from the root SVG element

-

  ID attributes:

- **--enable-id-stripping**

  remove all unreferenced IDs

- **--shorten-ids**

  shorten all IDs to the least number of letters possible

- **--shorten-ids-prefix**=*PREFIX*

  add custom prefix to shortened IDs

- **--protect-ids-noninkscape**

  don't remove IDs not ending with a digit

- **--protect-ids-list**=*LIST*

  don't remove IDs given in this commaseparated list

- **--protect-ids-prefix**=*PREFIX*

  don't remove IDs starting with the given prefix

-

  SVG compatibility checks:

- **--error-on-flowtext**

  exit with error if the input SVG uses nonstandard flowing text (only warn by default)

## EXAMPLES

Standard:

-

  **scour -i input.svg -o output.svg**

For better compatibility with web browsers:

-

  **scour -i input.svg -o output.svg --enable-viewboxing**

Maximum scrubbing:

-

  **scour -i input.svg -o output.svg --enable-viewboxing --enable-id-stripping \\**\
     **--enable-comment-stripping --shorten-ids --indent=none**

Maximum scrubbing and a compressed SVGZ file:

-

  **scour -i input.svg -o output.svgz --enable-viewboxing --enable-id-stripping \\**\
     **--enable-comment-stripping --shorten-ids --indent=none**

## COPYRIGHT

Jeff Schiller, Louis Simard, 2010

## MAN PAGE

Enkelena Haxhija (EnkelenaH) has produced this man page from the upstream README and the --help output for Debian with the help of [**pandoc**(1)](/pandoc/1.md) and [**help2man**(1)](/help2man/1.md). The latter is executed at build time so --help output and this man page should stay consistent.