I am starting this topic to solicit community comments about whether this is a bug, should have a 'new feature' request, or should just use a work-around.

I am trying to use the functionality of the JessyInk extension to export a zip file of a .png for each layer in the Inkscape .svg file.  This is described in the Inkscape wiki (.pdf attached of rather old wiki page).  I get an error message (attached .png snip) when I select File>Save As>Save as type>JessyInk zipped pdf or png output  then select PNG in the dialog box and click 'OK'.

In all cases of using this functionality I used Windows7 (Home) on the same laptop.

I last used this function successfully in 2017 using Inkscape v0.48.5 and it performed as expected (i.e. wrote a zip file of one .png for each layer in the .svg file).

Later in 2017 I installed Inkscape v 0.92.1. I performed the same 'Save As..' procedure and got an Inkscape error message "Could not find Inkscape command" and no zip file was written.

Since then I have been (infrequently) using extensions found on GitHub; usually by a comment by people including a link to the extension in their comment in the Inkscape forum.

In 2019 I was using Inkscape v 0.92.3 and getting a more informative error message but still no zip files written.  The error message was essentially the same as the most recent one (0.92.5 - attached) except 'Line 173' in the 92.5 version was 'Line 172' in the 92.3 version.

Other JessyInk options (Transitions, Effects, Views) have worked reliably in 48.5, 92.1, 92.3, and now in 92.5.

In 0.92.3 I tried using the 'batch export all selected objects' option in the Export PNG Image dialog but that does exactly what it says - it exports all objects as separate png files regardless of object grouping (especially when I grouped all objects in each layer, so I had one group per layer).  (this was not unexpected given that Layers are implemented as Groups in XML)

There is a good discussion of exporting all layers as either svg or png on the inkscape.org forum here: https://inkscape.org/forums/beyond/export-layers-as-svg-files/  . Several extensions on GitHub are linked in the forum comments. One of them:    [Maybe you have seen this one: (?)
https://github.com/jespino/inkscape-export-layers  ] does not work in 92.3 or 92.5 if you download the extension files from GitHub.  Older versions of those files (3 years) work fine in 92.5.

I have not loaded Inkscape 1.0 yet but the Release Notes  ('Export PNG' -attached 1 pg pdf) make no mention of JessyInk or any other export function that works at the 'Layer' level.

So; - is it a bug? Current (almost) versions of Inkscape include JessyInk as an Inkscape extension and have the 'JessyInk zipped... output' as a selection in the 'Save as type' menu of the 'Save As' dialog.

-is it an obsolete function of a still working extension?  I noticed the zip export function is not mentioned in Xav's excellent tutorial [ http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-132/   - for the JessyInk tutorial]. And it is not mentioned in the release notes for 1.0 as a (excellent) method of exporting layers.

- or is it a feature request - to restore the functionality that was previously part of the Inkscape extension.  It seems like the code supplied by the Inkscape JessyInk extension, the Export PNG Image dialog, and the several working GitHub extensions are all 'close' to having this functionality- BUT - I can't write the code and I know simple requests are often impossible implementations.  (I would be happy with this either as a separate export option under Extensions, as an option in the 'advanced' options of the Export PNG dialog, or left as part of the JessyInk extension using the 'Save As' > 'JessyInk zipped...' procedure.)

- or, am I missing something?

I'm happy to answer any questions or supply other information if helpful. I also understand that this may just be a glitch that doesn't have the user demand to support raising its' priority to get fixed.

It seems like there is some demand for exporting Inkscape layers - each, as png, pdf, and svg. Comments please.

I get the same error. Please open a bug report at https://inkscape.org/report .

Bug report (#3110) submitted