Simon Willison’s Weblog

Subscribe

17th November 2025

Research svg-to-png-comparison — Multiple Python-based approaches for converting SVG files to PNG were benchmarked using the tiger.svg image, evaluating file size, output quality, and ease of installation. Pure Python solutions like CairoSVG and svglib+reportlab offered simple pip-based installs with predictable PNGs, though svglib lacks alpha channel support. Wand (ImageMagick bindings) and ImageMagick CLI yielded the highest quality output (16-bit RGBA) at the cost of larger files and system-level dependencies.

This is a beat by Simon Willison, posted on 17th November 2025.

Monthly briefing

Sponsor me for $10/month and get a curated email digest of the month's most important LLM developments.

Pay me to send you less!

Sponsor & subscribe