Created attachment 87920 [details]
Sample output from systemd-analyze plot version 207

You can manually add a line to the svg in the <defs><style>:
"svg        { background: rgb(255,255,255); }"


I can commit this fix later when I am at my laptop:
index c088cad..3303b55 100644
--- a/src/bootchart/svg.c
+++ b/src/bootchart/svg.c
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ static void svg_header(void) {
         /* style sheet */
         svg("<defs>\n  <style type=\"text/css\">\n    <![CDATA[\n");

+        svg("      svg        { background: rgb(255,255,255); }\n");
         svg("      rect       { stroke-width: 1; }\n");
         svg("      rect.cpu   { fill: rgb(64,64,240); stroke-width: 0; fill-opacity: 0.7; }\n");
         svg("      rect.wait  { fill: rgb(240,240,0); stroke-width: 0; fill-opacity: 0.7; }\n");

I tried editing the SVG file manually as you suggested but it did not work.

I don't know much about SVG but the files generated by previous versions of systemd-analyze used to have an explicit rectangle drawn for the background:

<rect x="0" y="0" width="1035" height="3104" style="fill:rgb(100%,100%,100%);fill-opacity:1;stroke:none;"/>

You were right. Just setting the style for the entire svg only worked in firefox which was where I was testing. I commited a different fix that adds a style:
rect.background   { fill: rgb(255,255,255); }\n
and a rect:
<rect class="background" width="100%" height="100%" />

Tested with firefox, eog, and gimp.

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd/commit/?id=418e37506e6a419a808a82081ca1616caa03a206

I tried manually editing the SVG output with the method described in comment #4 and the result looks good in eog. Thanks for the quick fix!