Problem converting Jupyter notebook file to PDF - "...-svg-tex.pdf" files not found

[stefkuypers]

Description

I wanted to convert an existing Jupyter notebook file to PDF using Quarto. The error I get suggests that PDF versions of the plots need to be generated and that they are missing. The command and its output are below.

I looked at the log file and apart from some missing symbols in the fonts I don't see anything related except maybe for this:

Package svg Warning: You didn't enable `shell escape' (or `write18')
(svg)                so it wasn't possible to launch the Inkscape export
(svg)                for `AMS inequality_files/figure-pdf/cell-2-output-1.svg' on input line 1144.  

What is 'shell escape' or 'write18'?

quarto render "AMS inequality.ipynb" --to pdf
pandoc 
  to: latex
  output-file: AMS-inequality.tex
  standalone: true
  pdf-engine: lualatex
  variables:
    graphics: true
    tables: true
  default-image-extension: pdf
  
metadata
  documentclass: scrartcl
  classoption:
    - DIV=11
    - numbers=noendperiod
  papersize: letter
  header-includes:
    - \KOMAoption{captions}{tableheading}
  block-headings: true
  engines:
    - path: /Applications/quarto/share/extension-subtrees/julia-engine/_extensions/julia-engine/julia-engine.js
  title: 'Why Redistributing Income Does Not Redistribute Wealth: A Monetary-Design Alternative, Calibrated to Belgium.'
  

Rendering PDF
running lualatex - 1
  This is LuaHBTeX, Version 1.24.0 (TeX Live 2026) 
   restricted system commands enabled.
  
updating tlmgr

updating existing packages
ERROR: 
compilation failed- error
Package svg Error: File `cell-2-output-1_svg-tex.pdf' is missing.

See the svg package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.1144 ...ity_files/figure-pdf/cell-2-output-1.svg}}
                                                  


see AMS-inequality.log for more information.
WARN: Error encountered when rendering files

[cscheid]

Package svg Warning: You didn't enable shell escape' (or write18')

SVG is not a supported image format for PDF files. When your ipynb has them, Quarto tries to convert them to svg, using an external tool. I believe this warning is coming from rsvg-convert, the tool we use that happens to be available in your environment. If you want to avoid that, then you need to change whatever you used to create that .ipynb file and have it emit images that are PDF-compatible (like .png)

[rgaiacs]

Without have full access to your Jupyter Notebook, I can only give you some explanation of the error.

LaTeX by default does not supports SVG. Authors should use PDF, EPS, PNG or JPG as format for images.

Some LaTeX packages provides support to SVG by using Inkscape to convert the SVG to PDF. For the package to work, user must allow LaTeX to escape the sandbox and call other programs. The explicit permission is required because run third-party instructions is dangerous given that they could remove your files by running rm -rf ~.

Quarto runs LaTeX in the safe mode and this creates the error that you see.

When working with Quarto and R, some packages like ggplot know what output you are producing and create the figures in the correct format. You should be able to manually change the output format in the code cell of your Jupyter Notebook to PDF, EPS, PNG or JPG and you will solve the problem you reported.

[stefkuypers]

I manually changed the presentation to PNG (through the dropdown menu next to the output of the code cell in VS code) but that doesn't seem to solve the problem.

I tried to solve the problem by converting the Jupyter notebook file to a .qmd file (since I plan to migrate to those) and render it from there but I get the same error.

The full file is available here

I just started using Quarto yesterday so I'm probably making some beginner's mistakes. Thank you in advance for the help.

[mcanouil]

I suggest you try with something small to see what's the issue, especially since you are using the native Julia engine.

In the link you shared I don't see anything regarding you setting a format for the emitted images which is usually set in YAML with fig-format (which can be set globally or per format) or in Julia for your chosen graphics device.

Finally, the Julia engine is community contributed, so the documentation is mostly external for what the engine supports, etc.:

• https://github.com/PumasAI/QuartoNotebookRunner.jl

• https://quarto.org/docs/computations/julia.html

Important

Accessibility: For better accessibility, please ensure link text is descriptive and meaningful rather than using generic terms such as "here". This helps all users understand the link's destination. See Writing meaningful link text (WCAG).

[mcanouil]

In case you didn't know, you can use quarto convert to convert qmd<->ipynb.

What's usually left to set is the Jupyter kernel and/or computing engine.

[stefkuypers]

I solved it! Apparently the problem was the space in the filename.
When I run this command:

quarto render "AMS inequality.qmd" --to pdf

I get a .aux, .log and .tex file and an "AMS inequality_files" folder with a "figure-pdf" subfolder containing only .svg files and the error mentioned before.

When I rename the file and run this command:

quarto render AMS_inequality.qmd --to pdf

everything works just fine. I'm guessing this is some bizarre bug.

[rgaiacs]

I'm guessing this is some bizarre bug.

When you have many layers of abstraction, it might happen that one or more layers did not consider handling files with space in the name.

[futurismsec]

Thanks for posting the fix, @stefkuypers. Since the space in the filename seems to be the trigger, here's my guess at why it happens, plus some options.

Likely cause: Quarto normally converts SVG figures to PDF itself before LaTeX runs (e.g. with rsvg-convert), so LaTeX never sees SVGs. The Package svg error in your log means the raw .svg files reached LaTeX, which then tried to call Inkscape. That needs shell escape, and Quarto doesn't enable it. The Package svg Warning about write18 was only a symptom. The real issue was that the SVG-to-PDF step didn't happen. My guess is that a path containing a space (AMS inequality files/figure-pdf/...) broke that conversion step somewhere, but I haven't confirmed this.

Workarounds if you hit it again:

Avoid spaces in filenames, as you did (AMS_inequality.qmd).
Ask for a non-SVG figure format in the YAML, so no conversion is needed:
yaml
format:
pdf:
fig-format: png # or pdf
Check that rsvg-convert is on your PATH (rsvg-convert --version). On macOS, brew install librsvg provides it.

Suggestion: This looks reproducible with a small example (a .qmd with one plot, filename containing a space, rendered --to pdf), so it may be worth opening an issue in quarto-cli. Include the Quarto version, OS, and whether the Julia engine is involved. Maintainers can then decide whether this is a Quarto bug or an engine-specific one.

[cderv]

I believe this is this one

• Rendering a PDF file from a file with a space in the name fails #14623

and it was solved in 1.10. please check your version