ODG to AVI Converter

Convert ODG to AVI: What This Tutorial Covers

An .odg is an OpenDocument Graphic — a vector drawing of shapes, lines and text made in LibreOffice Draw or Apache OpenOffice Draw and stored as ZIP-compressed XML under the OpenDocument standard, ISO/IEC 26300. AVI is Microsoft's Audio Video Interleave container, the RIFF-based format that defined desktop video on Windows from the early 1990s onward. Turning a drawing into an AVI is a narrow job with two properties that surprise people: the vector art is rasterised to a fixed pixel grid, and the result is a silent clip of held still frames rather than an animation. This tutorial sets those expectations, names the controls that matter, and points to the targets most people who land here actually want.

How to Convert ODG to AVI

1. Upload Your ODG File: Drag your .odg onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse. The whole Draw document is read, so a multi-page file needs no splitting first.
2. Pick a Video Codec: "Video Codec" opens on MPEG-4 — MPEG-4 Part 2, the codec classic Windows software and DivX/Xvid-aware players decode without complaint. H.264, H.265, Xvid, DivX, MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV 1, WMV 2 and several others are available if a specific player names one.
3. Set File Compression and Video resolution: "File Compression" opens on "Quality Preset" at "Very High (Recommended)", with Constant Quality and Constraint Quality for driving a quantizer and capping the bitrate. "Video resolution" starts on "Keep original" and takes a preset height, a percentage or an explicit Width x Height — this is the pixel grid the drawing is rendered onto.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download the AVI. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

Walk-through: A Drawing Becomes Pixels, and the Output Is Still and Silent

A .odg is a page-layout document, not a picture, so it never touches an image converter. LibreOffice Draw's own PDF export filter reads the drawing and writes a PDF that keeps the document's page size and object positions; each PDF page is rendered to a full-colour raster at 300 DPI; ffmpeg then encodes those renders as held frames inside the AVI. Three things follow, and all three are worth understanding before you convert:

• The vector drawing is rasterised, and its scalability does not survive. ODG stores artwork as editable objects that redraw cleanly at any size. A video frame is a fixed grid of pixels, so the drawing is rendered once at whatever "Video resolution" you choose. After that, zooming into the video softens exactly like enlarging a JPG.
• The output is a sequence of held frames, not an animation. Each rendered page sits on screen unchanged — no panning, no zoom, no transitions. Each page is held for about five seconds unless you change the Image Duration setting, which runs from a single frame up to ten seconds per page.
• There is no sound. A drawing carries no audio, so the encoder writes video only. That is a property of the source, not of AVI, which carries audio perfectly well.

Two patterns cover most real needs:

• A diagram slate for a timeline. Render at the project's resolution — 1080p is common — so the slate matches the surrounding footage, and shorten the hold to a fraction of a second if your editor prefers a single-frame still.
• A title card that lingers. Leave the hold at several seconds so the drawing stays on screen long enough to read, and pick a "Video resolution" close to the drawing's own aspect ratio so no filler bars appear around it.

Because a motionless frame barely changes between samples, MPEG-4 compresses it heavily — a rendered drawing held for a few seconds produces a small AVI.

What Happens to Each Part of the Drawing

Which Output Should You Pick for an ODG?

For nearly everyone a still image or a PDF is the better target; AVI earns its place only with older tooling.

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "The video looks soft when I zoom in" — Expected. The drawing was rendered to a fixed pixel grid, so there is no detail beyond that. Pick a higher "Video resolution" before converting, or enlarge the page inside LibreOffice Draw and re-save.
• "There is a coloured border around my drawing" — The page's proportions do not match the output frame, so the gap is filled rather than the picture stretched. Choose a resolution closer to the drawing's own aspect ratio, or set the fill colour deliberately under Background Color, which opens on White.
• "The AVI is silent" — Expected. There is no audio in an OpenDocument drawing, so none is written. Add a track in a video editor afterwards.
• "It won't play in my browser or on my phone" — AVI has no native HTML5 video support and most phones will not open one. That is the container, not the conversion; ODG to MP4 is the fix.
• "Fonts or spacing look wrong" — A typeface referenced by the drawing was not available when it was rendered, so a metric substitute was used. Convert text to curves in Draw before uploading if exact letterforms matter.

When This Doesn't Work — and What to Use Instead

For almost everyone, AVI is the wrong target for a drawing. Mainstream drawing tools export PNG, JPG, SVG or PDF because a diagram is a static graphic, not time-based media. If your real goal is a sharp picture, ODG to PNG renders each page losslessly with clean edges. If it is a portable, printable copy, ODG to PDF keeps the vectors so the drawing stays crisp at any zoom and its text stays selectable. If you genuinely need a video clip, the modern default is ODG to MP4, which plays in browsers, on phones and on smart TVs where AVI does not. Pick AVI only when a specific older tool or device — a pre-2012 non-linear editor, a DivX/Xvid set-top box, a Windows-only workflow that lists AVI as its accepted format — actually requires that container. And remember the conversion is one-directional: once the vector art is rasterised into a frame, the editable line work is gone, so keep the original .odg.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does converting ODG to AVI keep the drawing editable or scalable?

No. ODG stores editable vector objects, but a video frame is a fixed grid of pixels, so the conversion renders the drawing once at the "Video resolution" you choose. After that the AVI holds flat pixels — the shapes cannot be moved and the text cannot be restyled. If you may need to change the drawing later, keep the source .odg; a rasterised frame cannot be turned back into objects.

Does the AVI have any motion or sound?

No. Each rendered page is displayed as a static image for the hold time, with no panning, zoom or transitions, and no audio track is written because the source has none. A multi-page drawing plays as a sequence of held pages rather than as an animation.

Which video codec does the AVI output use?

MPEG-4 Part 2 by default, which is what classic Windows software and DivX/Xvid-aware players expect from an .avi. The "Video Codec" list also offers H.264, H.265, Xvid, DivX, MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Theora, VP8, VP9, AV1 and the WMV codecs if a particular player names one. Because the source is a drawing, no audio codec is used at all.

My ODG has several drawing pages — what happens to them?

Every page is rendered and becomes a held frame inside one AVI, in page order. The office stage exports the entire document to PDF first, so nothing is skipped and there is no need to split the file. If you want the pages as separate images instead, ODG to PNG returns one file per page.

Why would I convert an ODG to AVI instead of MP4?

Usually you would not. AVI made sense for older Windows tools and DivX/Xvid hardware, but it has no native browser or phone support and its usual codecs are less efficient than modern ones. Choose AVI only when a specific destination — a pre-2012 non-linear editor, a DivX-certified set-top box, a Windows-only workflow — lists it as the accepted format.

Is ODG the same as ODP or ODT?

They are siblings in the OpenDocument family but hold different content: .odg is a Draw graphic, .odp is an Impress presentation, and .odt is a Writer text document. All three are ZIP-XML packages under ISO/IEC 26300, but the internal structure differs, so each has its own converter. This page expects a Draw file.

What is the largest frame I can render the drawing to?

Under "Video resolution" you can pick presets up to 4320p or enter a custom Width x Height. Rendering larger than the destination needs only inflates the file — the underlying page render is fixed at 300 DPI, so beyond that size you are enlarging pixels rather than adding detail. If you truly need a bigger crisp frame, enlarge the page in LibreOffice Draw and re-save the .odg first.

Do I need LibreOffice installed to convert an ODG?

No. The Draw document is opened and rendered on our servers, so an .odg someone sent you converts on any operating system with no office suite installed. LibreOffice Draw remains worth having if the drawing is yours — it is free on Windows, macOS and Linux and it is the only way to make real edits.

How are my uploaded ODG files handled?

Your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection, rendered and encoded on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after conversion along with the AVI it produced — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public. The main practical limit is upload size and time rather than the number of pages.