This is the official W3C overview of the Scalable VectorGraphics (SVG) format. SVG 1.1 and SVG Mobile Profilesare Web standards (W3C Recommendations). Work continues on SVG 1.2 and futureprofiles for Mobile and Printing.The current list of SVG Working Group Members is available.
"Things to watch: SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics - at last, graphics which can be rendered optimally on all sizes of device" - Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web
Overview
SVG is a platform for two-dimensional graphics. It has twoparts: an XML-based file format and a programming API forgraphical applications. Key features include shapes, text andembedded raster graphics, with many different paintingstyles. It supports scripting through languages such asECMAScript and has comprehensive support for animation.
SVG is used in many business areas including Web graphics,animation, user interfaces, graphics interchange, print andhardcopy output, mobile applications and high-quality design.
SVG is a royalty-free vendor-neutral open standard developedunder the W3C Process. It has strong industry support; Authorsof the SVG specification include Adobe, Agfa, Apple, Canon,Corel, Ericsson, HP, IBM, Kodak, Macromedia, Microsoft, Nokia,Sharp and Sun Microsystems. SVG viewers are deployed to over100 million desktops, and there is a broad range of support inmany authoring tools.
SVG builds upon many other successful standards such as XML(SVG graphics are text-based and thus easy to create), JPEGand PNG for image formats, DOM for scripting andinteractivity, SMIL for animation and CSS for styling.
SVG is interoperable. The W3C release a test suite andimplementation results to ensure conformance.
Applications of SVG in industry
Mobile
In 2001 the mobile phone industry chose SVG as the basis for its graphics platform. Many leading companies joined the SVG effort to produce the SVG Tiny and SVG Basic profiles, collectively called SVG Mobile and targetted at resource-limited devices such as mobile handsets and PDAs.
The SVG Mobile specification was adopted by 3GPP as the required graphics format for next-generation phones and multimedia messaging (MMS). Already there are SVG-enabled handsets shipping worldwide.
SVG Mobile is primarily used for messaging in applications suchas greeting cards, diagrams and animations.
For more details refer to the SVG Mobile specification, authoredby a subgroup of the SVG Working Group including Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola.
The combination of rich graphical features, comprehensive text supportand resolution independence in SVG produce a format suited toprinting. Leading print hardware companies are currently developingthe SVG Print specification: a version of SVG specifically suitedto hard-copy output.
Use cases of SVG include an XML-based page description languagesimilar to Postscript and PDF, a final-form archiving formatand variable data printing, where the information is provided bya database and output using a graphical SVG template. SVG provides identical online and hardcopy display.
Being based on XML, SVG Print fits neatly into existing XMLworkflows. That is, organizations which have a data processingpipeline that supports XML can insert SVG Print capabilities easilyinto their publishing workflow, enabling dynamic document generation.SVG Print also integrates with common job description formatssuch as PODi's PPML and CIP4's JDF.
More details refer to the SVG Print Specification, authoredby a subgroup of the SVG WG including Canon, HP, Adobe and Corel.
Web Applications
Web-based applications are increasing in popularity. Developersare often limited by browser incompatibilities and missingfunctionality. With powerful scripting and event support, SVG can be used as a platform upon which to build graphically richapplications and user interfaces.
With SVG, the application developer gets to use a collection of open standards. They are not tied to one particular implementation,vendor or authoring tool.
Design and Interchange
SVG is well suited to the high-end graphical design marketcommon in the Aerospace, Transportation, Automotive andTelecommunication industries. The extensibility of XMLallows SVG diagrams to have embedded metadata in proprietaryformats without affecting the presentation.
For example, a CAD program could export to SVG for onlinedisplay, but embed data within the file that facilitatesfuture editing or roundtripping.
Also, since many design tools support import and export ofSVG, it can be used as an interchange format between applications.
GIS and Mapping
Geographic Information Systems have very specific requirements:rich graphics features, support for vector and raster contentand the ability to handle a very large amount of data. SVG iswell-suited to this market and many GIS systems provide SVGexport.
Like the design case mentioned above, the ability to extendSVG and embed metadata is useful to the mapping community.For example, graphical elements can be identified as theirnative objects (such as a lake), allowing applications to interact with the objects in a graphical manner.
SVG is a perfect complement to the OpenGIS consortium's GML format. GML, also XML-based, describes geographical elements such as rivers and roads. It can be converted into SVG using an XML pipeline for online display.
Embedded Systems
Most embedded systems have severe resource limitations, including smaller screens, limited memory and reduced processing capability compared to typical desktop systems. The SVG Mobile specification was designed for such devices and allows for the development of graphical user interfaces for embedded systems. In its support for input events and scripting, devices can use an SVG frontend for control and monitoring, such as a control system for industrial devices.
Technical Details
SVG is a language for describing two-dimensional graphicsin XML. SVG allows for three types of graphic objects:vector graphic shapes (e.g., paths consisting of straightlines and curves), images and text. Graphical objects canbe grouped, styled, transformed and composited intopreviously rendered objects. Text can be in any XMLnamespace suitable to the application, which enhancessearchability and accessibility of the SVG graphics. Thefeature set includes nested transformations, clippingpaths, alpha masks, filter effects, template objects andextensibility.
SVG drawings can be dynamic and interactive. The DocumentObject Model (DOM) for SVG, which includes the full XMLDOM, allows for straightforward and efficient vectorgraphics animation via scripting. A rich set of eventhandlers such as onmouseover and onclick can be assignedto any SVG graphical object. Because of its compatibilityand leveraging of other Web standards, features likescripting can be done on SVG elements and other XMLelements from different namespaces simultaneously withinthe same Web page.
