Inkscape Page Size Hack

jamely · January 6, 2026, 7:56pm

A little trick that I found that makes sizing the Inkscape Page to match Glowforge is to “hack” the file where the default Page sizes are. What follows is a mildly techy hack. Long story short: find your pages.csv file and change it to what you would like to make changing the page size in Inkscape a cinch.

What is a Page in Inkscape
Where to Find it’s Settings
What Format Options are There Already
What I Changed Mine To
Where to Find the pages.csv file on Windows
Edit File
Text I Used

What is a Page in Inkscape
When you open Inkscape, there is a white rectangle that is the working area for Inkscape.

Where to Find it’s Settings
File>Document Properties (shift+ctrl+d on Windows) will open the menu for Document Properties, and the first tab, “Display” has the Front Page with Format, Width, Height, and many more settings. This hack is to change the Format options.

What Format Options are there already
When you click on the down arrow for Front page Formats, you’ll see “Others” and “Custom”. Click on Others, and you will see a list such as this:

A4
US Letter
US Legal
US Executive
A0
A1
etc.

What I Changed Mine To
None of the default options are useful for me, so I changed mine to:

Where to Find the pages.csv file on Windows
If you installed Inkscape by downloading the install file from inkscape.org, you will find the pages.csv file most likely in folder here:
C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Roaming\inkscape

Replace YOU with whatever your computer calls you , aka what User are you in the User file (not Default or Public)

Edit File
Open the pages.csv file in Notepad. The format is CSV = Comma Separated Values, so each comma holds a value that goes into the correct place in the Inkscape page formatter. The computer ignores the spaces, but for humans it helps so that the data is easier to understand. Heck, you can even import into your favorite spreadsheet program, then export the file as a CSV again.

Your pages.csv file will have all the original settings from the second bullet pointed list. Try adding on one new name/width/height/unit, save, open Inkscape to check that it worked, then go to town!

Text I Used
This is a direct copy/paste of what my pages.csv file has in it.
inkscape page sizes
#NAME, WIDTH, HEIGHT, UNIT
Purebond 1/4", 19.125, 11.938, in
Proofgrade, 20.375, 12, in
Glowforge, 20, 12, in
Glowforge True, 495, 279, mm
Standard Paper, 8.5, 11, in
Half Paper, 5.5, 8.5, in

Notes
Since this is a Wiki, information it could use that I don’t know:
Apple: Shortcut keys to open the Document Properties tab, file location of pages.csv, what program to easily open and edit in.
Windows: Inkscape installed via Microsoft Store file location for pages.csv
Also, it would be useful to find out how to set the default page size it opens at, but since I found this in 2023, I don’t remember how to do that anymore

Good Luck!

evansd2 · January 6, 2026, 8:17pm

That’s exactly the direction I went.

I sized my page to be 10.95"x19.5", which is (almost exactly) the cutting area of my Pro.

I set the units to inches in the document.

Then go to File->Save Template… and name it as you see fit. I chose to make mine the default template with the checkbox at the bottom.

Now whenever I open a new document it’s correctly sized for the Glowforge bed and I can lay my job out to fit a full sheet.

I find that if I am trying to hit a certain material size I just draw a rectangle as needed and fit my stuff inside there. Seems to do the job for me.

If I were going to be using a lot of the same material I would probably setup guides or a rectangle for the smaller material on a blank fullsize template like this, then save that as a template with a special name. I have not found a need for it yet.

You could easily save different templates at different page sizes and then when opening a new document select File->New From Template…

Four things I can’t live without in Inkscape: correct page size, imperial units, geometric bounding boxes and an ordered color palette so I can set the job order in inkscape.

deirdrebeth · January 6, 2026, 9:28pm

This is grand. I did like @evansd2 except I set mine to the “Glowforge, 20, 12, in” that means the won’t resize anything no matter where it came from

I love the idea of having dropdowns for the other things I might use this program for!

rvogt · January 6, 2026, 10:04pm

I did this some time ago and love it! Great write up!

markevans36301 · January 6, 2026, 11:06pm

Thanx for another way to do this and reminding me that I don’t have to waste 40-50s resizing each and every time. Like so many computer things, 10 minutes now will be made up in a few months.

CMadok · January 7, 2026, 12:19am

There was a page template here in the forum I downloaded when I first got my glowforge. It has the bed size, and marks all the cutting and engraving areas with named guidelines, too. I’ve been using it ever since because I can line up everything along the guidelines and it loads everything perfectly in the right spot in the UI. I just made that template my default page, so I’ve never even had to mess with page sizes.

ca_worth · January 7, 2026, 1:36pm

have had GLOWBED template in my Inkscape app for years now. makes things EASY.

that and the GFUI palette to organize the step order.

jamely · January 9, 2026, 4:17pm

Thank you all for the comments! @evansd2 Glad that the “Set as Default Template” checkbox is so easy to find, and thanks for adding it here. I remember it being a pain to change the default and get it to open with that back when I started using Inkscape

@deirdrebeth sometimes it is easier to design a PDF in Inkscape, and having the correct page size easy to select for that is useful. Specifically flyers or odd sized labels!
@rvogt great minds think alike

@markevans36301 jigs and templates are like 30% the work of makers

@CMadok that would be a useful template to have! I don’t do engraving very often, and had laid out a whole sheet of small engraves sized to the Glowforge true cutting bed size, then realized that it wouldn’t work because the engrave size was different. Something I knew but didn’t occur to me until I loaded it into the Dashboard

The Inkscape interface has changed since 2023, where it took one click to select the page format from a list, but I find that I still use it to change page sizes quickly.

@ca_worth the color palette is also a great hack, although I did add white to use occasionally!

CMadok · January 10, 2026, 2:39pm

This was it

jamesdhatch · January 10, 2026, 2:39pm

When I was teaching classes in our makerspace I’d tell them the first day that they would spend 90% of their time in software and only 10% on the machine.

With all the models that are available on the internet, the ratio has changed but that’s not the point. Most of your time as a maker won’t be spent in making what you were envisioning

evansd2 · January 10, 2026, 2:45pm

Yeah, design time is always the bottleneck when making your own unique projects.

Several times I’ve gone down a rabbit hole with my design, creating something that would be cool but after all of that design work I just didn’t have it in me to build the thing. Polyhedra with extraordinarily large part counts, etc.

It’s like I burned out on the project before I could even get to the good part. 0/10 stars, do not recommend doing that.

markevans36301 · January 10, 2026, 8:28pm

I’ve done this enough times that I am slowly learning to put everything into a folder that I can find later if and when I circle back around. Even if futrer me decides to go in a somewhat different direction there is often some good starter material that past me left.