One can do more than simple convert vector to raster drawings with inkscape from the command line. In fact, there are other tools if the goal is just converting files, as rsvg and convert. With inkscape, is also possible to change the drawing, using verbs . From the inkscape man page , we can find the folowing example: Duplicate the object with id="path1555", rotate the duplicate 90 degrees, save SVG, and quit: inkscape filename.svg --select=path1555 --verb=EditDuplicate --verb=ObjectRotate90 --verb=FileSave --verb=FileClose Googling a little on inkscape "--verb" , I did find more examples , a list with the available verbs and details from the inkscape wiki .