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Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an
XML-based
vector image format for two-dimensional graphics that has support for interactivity and animation. The SVG specification is an
open standard developed by the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) since 1999.
SVG images and their behaviors are defined in XML text files. This means that they can be searched, indexed,
scripted, and, if need be,
compressed. As XML files, SVG images can be created and edited with any
text editor, but it is often more convenient to create them with drawing programs such as
Inkscape.
SVG has been in development since 1999 by a group of companies within the W3C after the competing standards
Precision Graphics Markup Language (PGML, developed from
Adobe'sPostScript) and
Vector Markup Language (VML, developed from Microsoft's
RTF) were submitted to W3C in 1998. SVG drew on experience from the designs of both those formats.[3]
SVG allows three types of graphic objects:
vector graphics,
raster graphics, and text. Graphical objects, including
PNG and
JPEG raster images, can be grouped, styled, transformed, and composited into previously
rendered objects. SVG does not directly support
z-indices[4] that separate drawing order from document order for overlapping objects, unlike some other vector markup languages like VML. Text can be in any
XML namespace suitable to the application, which enhances search ability and
accessibility of the SVG graphics. The feature set includes nested
transformations,
clipping paths,
alpha masks,
filter effects, template objects, and
extensibility.
Since 2001, the SVG specification has been updated to version 1.1 (current Recommendation) and 1.2 (still a Working Draft).
The SVG Mobile Recommendation introduced two simplified profiles of SVG 1.1, SVG Basic and SVG Tiny, meant for devices with reduced computational and display capabilities.
SVG Tiny later became an autonomous Recommendation (current version 1.2) and the basis for SVG 1.2.
In addition to these variants and profiles, the SVG Print specification (still a Working Draft) contains guidelines for printable SVG 1.2 and SVG Tiny 1.2 documents.
Printing
Though the SVG Specification primarily focuses on
vector graphics markup language, its design includes the basic capabilities of a
page description language (PDL), like Adobe's
PDF. It contains provisions for rich graphics, and is also compatible with
CSS for styling purposes. It is unlike
XHTML, whose primary purpose is communication of content, not presentation, and therefore specifies objects to be displayed but not where to place such objects. Conversely SVG is an ideal PDL for print-oriented uses, as it contains all the functionality required to place each glyph and image in a chosen location on the final page.[5] A much more print-specialized subset of SVG (
SVG Print, authored by
Canon,
HP,
Adobe and
Corel) is currently[update] a
W3C Working Draft.[6]
SVG drawings can be dynamic and interactive. Time-based modifications to the elements can be described in
SMIL, or can be programmed in a
scripting language (e.g.,
ECMAScript or
JavaScript). The W3C explicitly recommends SMIL as the standard for animation in SVG.[7] A rich set of
event handlers such as onmouseover and onclick can be assigned to any SVG graphical object.
Compression
SVG images, being XML, contain many repeated fragments of text, so they are well suited for
lossless data compression algorithms. When an SVG image has been compressed with the industry standard
gzip algorithm, it is referred to as an "SVGZ" image and uses the corresponding .svgz filename extension. Conforming SVG 1.1 viewers will display compressed images.[8] An SVGZ file is typically 20 to 50 percent of the original size.[9] W3C provides SVGZ files to test for conformance.[10]
SVG 1.1 became a W3C Recommendation on 14 January 2003.[12] The SVG 1.1 specification is modularized in order to allow subsets to be defined as profiles. Apart from this, there is very little difference between SVG 1.1 and SVG 1.0.
SVG Tiny and
SVG Basic (the Mobile SVG Profiles) became W3C Recommendations on 14 January 2003. These are described as profiles of SVG 1.1.[13]
SVG Tiny 1.2 became a W3C Recommendation on 22 December 2008.[14]
SVG Full 1.2 has had a W3C Working Draft in process for years, but now will be dropped soon in favor of a SVG 2.0.[15] SVG Tiny 1.2 was initially released as a profile and later refactored to be a complete specification, including all needed parts of SVG 1.1 and SVG 1.2. SVG 1.2 Full adds modules onto the
SVGT 1.2 core.
SVG Print adds syntax for multi-page documents and mandatory color management support.
SVG 1.1 Second Edition, which includes all the errata and clarifications, but no new features to the original SVG 1.1 was released on 16 August 2011.[16]
SVG 2.0 will completely rework draft 1.2 with more integration with new web features such as CSS, HTML5 and
WOFF. It is scheduled as "recommendation" for August 2014.[17]
The
MPEG-4 Part 20 standard - Lightweight Application Scene Representation (LASeR) and Simple Aggregation Format (SAF) is based on SVG Tiny.[18] It was developed by
MPEG (
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11) and published as ISO/IEC 14496-20:2006.[19] SVG capabilities are enhanced in MPEG-4 Part 20 with key features for mobile services, such as dynamic updates, binary encoding, state-of-art font representation.[20] SVG was also accommodated in
MPEG-4 Part 11, in the
Extensible MPEG-4 Textual (XMT) format - a textual representation of the MPEG-4 multimedia content using
XML.[21]
Mobile profiles
Because of industry demand, two mobile profiles were introduced with SVG 1.1: SVG Tiny (SVGT) and SVG Basic (SVGB). These are subsets of the full SVG standard, mainly intended for
user agents with limited capabilities. In particular, SVG Tiny was defined for highly restricted mobile devices such as
cellphones, and SVG Basic was defined for higher-level mobile devices, such as
PDAs.
In 2003, the
3GPP, an international telecommunications standards group, adopted SVG Tiny as the mandatory vector graphics media format for next-generation phones. SVGT is the required vector graphics format and support of SVGB is optional for
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Packet-switched Streaming Service (
PSS).[22][23][24] It was later added as required format for vector graphics in 3GPP
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).[25]
Neither mobile profile includes support for the full DOM, while only SVG Basic has optional support for scripting, but because they are fully compatible subsets of the full standard, most SVG graphics can still be rendered by devices which only support the mobile profiles.[26]
SVGT 1.2 adds a microDOM (μDOM), allowing all mobile needs to be met with a single profile.
Functionality
The SVG 1.1 specification defines 14 functional areas or feature sets:[12]
Paths
Simple or compound shape outlines are drawn with curved or straight lines that can be filled in, outlined, or used as a
clipping path. Paths have a compact coding. For example M (for 'move to') precedes initial numeric x and ycoordinates and L (line to) precedes a point to which a line should be drawn. Further command letters (C, S, Q, T and A) precede data that is used to draw various
Bézier and
elliptical curves. Z is used to close a path. In all cases, absolute coordinates follow capital letter commands and relative coordinates are used after the equivalent lower-case letters.[27]
Basic shapes
Straight-line paths and paths made up of a series of connected straight-line segments (polylines), as well as closed polygons, circles and ellipses can be drawn. Rectangles and round-cornered rectangles are also standard elements.[28]
Text
Unicode character text included in an SVG file is expressed as
XML character data. Many visual effects are possible, and the SVG specification automatically handles bidirectional text (for composing a combination of English and Arabic text, for example), vertical text (as Chinese was historically written) and characters along a curved path (such as the text around the edge of the
Great Seal of the United States).[29]
Painting
SVG shapes can be filled and/or outlined (painted with a color, a gradient, or a pattern). Fills can be opaque or have any degree of transparency. "Markers" are line-end features, such as arrowheads, or symbols that can appear at the vertices of a polygon.[30]
Color
Colors can be applied to all visible SVG elements, either directly or via 'fill', 'stroke,' and other properties. Colors are specified in the same way as in
CSS2, i.e. using names like black or blue, in
hexadecimal such as #2f0 or #22ff00, in decimal like rgb(255,255,127), or as percentages of the form rgb(100%,100%,50%).[31]
Gradients and patterns
SVG shapes can be filled or outlined with solid colors as above, or with color gradients or with repeating patterns. Color gradients can be linear or radial (circular), and can involve any number of colors as well as repeats. Opacity gradients can also be specified. Patterns are based on predefined raster or vector graphic objects, which can be repeated in x and/or y directions. Gradients and patterns can be animated and scripted.[32]
Since 2008, there has been discussion[33][34] among professional users of SVG that either
gradient meshes or preferably
diffusion curves could usefully be added to the SVG specification. It is said that a "simple representation [using diffusion curves] is capable of representing even very subtle shading effects"[35] and that "Diffusion curve images are comparable both in quality and coding efficiency with gradient meshes, but are simpler to create (according to several artists who have used both tools), and can be captured from bitmaps fully automatically."[36]
Clipping, masking and compositing
Graphic elements, including text, paths, basic shapes and combinations of these, can be used as outlines to define both 'inside' and 'outside' regions that can be painted (with colors, gradients and patterns) independently. Fully opaque clipping paths and semi-transparent masks are composited together to calculate the color and opacity of every pixel of the final image, using
alpha blending.[37]
SVG images can interact with users in many ways. In addition to hyperlinks as mentioned below, any part of an SVG image can be made receptive to user interface
events such as changes in
focus, mouse clicks, scrolling or zooming the image and other pointer, keyboard and document events. Event handlers may start, stop or alter animations as well as trigger scripts in response to such events.[39]
Linking
SVG images can contain hyperlinks to other documents, using
XLink.
URLs of SVG images can specify geometrical transforms in the
fragment section.[40]
Scripting
All aspects of an SVG document can be accessed and manipulated using scripts in a similar way to HTML. The default scripting language is
ECMAScript (closely related to
JavaScript) and there are defined
Document Object Model (DOM) objects for every SVG element and attribute. Scripts are enclosed in <script> elements. They can run in response to pointer events, keyboard events and document events as required.[41]
Animation
SVG content can be animated using the built-in animation elements such as <animate>, <animateMotion> and <animateColor>. Content can be animated by manipulating the DOM using ECMAScript and the scripting language's built-in timers. SVG animation has been designed to be compatible with current and future versions of
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL). Animations can be continuous, they can loop and repeat, and they can respond to user events, as mentioned above.[42]
Fonts
As with HTML and CSS, text in SVG may reference external font files, such as system fonts. If the required font files do not exist on the machine where the SVG file is rendered, the text may not appear as intended. To overcome this limitation, text can be displayed in an 'SVG font', where the required
glyphs are defined in SVG as a font that is then referenced from the <text> element.[43]
Metadata
In accord with the
W3C's
Semantic Web initiative, SVG allows authors to provide
metadata about SVG content. The main facility is the <metadata> element, where the document can be described using
Dublin Core metadata properties (e.g., title, creator/author, subject, description, etc). Other metadata schemas may also be used. In addition, SVG defines <title> and <desc> elements where authors may also provide plain-text descriptive material within an SVG image to help indexing, searching and retrieval by a number of means.[44]
An SVG document can define components including shapes, gradients etc., and use them repeatedly. SVG images can also contain
raster graphics, such as
PNG and
JPEG images, and further SVG images.
SVG on the web
Google announced on 31 August 2010 that it had started to index SVG content on the web, whether it is in standalone files or embedded in
HTML, and that users would begin to see such content listed among their search results.[45]
It was announced on 8 December 2010 that
Google Image Search would also begin indexing SVG files.[46] On 28 January 2011, it was discovered that Google was allowing Image Search results to be restricted exclusively to SVG files.[47] This feature was announced officially on 11 February 2011.[48]
The use of SVG on the web is still limited by the lack of support in older versions of
Internet Explorer (IE).
Version 8 does not support SVG.[49][50] IE9 (released 14 March 2011) supports the basic SVG feature set.[51] Many web sites that serve SVG images, such as
Wikipedia, also provide the images in a raster format, either automatically by
HTTPcontent negotiation or by allowing the user directly to choose the file.
Native support
Konqueror was the first browser to support SVG in release version 3.2 in February 2004.[52] As of 2011, all major desktop browsers, and many minor ones, have some level of SVG support. Other browsers' implementations are not yet complete; see
comparison of layout engines for further details.
Some earlier versions of Firefox (e.g., versions between 1.5 and 4.0[53]) and some other outdated web browsers that can display SVG graphics needed them embedded in <object> or <iframe>elements to display them integrated as parts of an HTML webpage instead of using the standard way of integrating images with <img>.[54] However, SVG images may be included in XHTML pages using
XML namespaces.[55]
Opera (since 8.0) has support for the SVG 1.1 Tiny specification while Opera 9 includes SVG 1.1 Basic support and some of SVG 1.1 Full. Opera 9.5 has partial SVG Tiny 1.2 support. It also supports SVGZ (compressed SVG).
Browsers based on the
Geckolayout engine (such as
Firefox,
Flock,
Camino, and
SeaMonkey) all have had incomplete support for the SVG 1.1 Full specification since 2005. The Mozilla site has an overview of the modules which are supported in Firefox[57] and of the modules which are in progress in the development.[58] Gecko 1.9, included in
Firefox 3.0, adds support for more of the SVG specification (including filters).[59]
Native support became partially available in
Internet Explorer 9 (released in March 2011).[51]
There are several advantages to native and full support:
plugins are not needed, SVG can be freely mixed with other content in a single document, and rendering and scripting become considerably more reliable.[citation needed]
Compatibility
Internet Explorer, up to and including IE8, was the only major browser not to provide native SVG support. IE8 and older require a plug-in to render SVG content. There are a number of plug-ins available to assist, including:
Ample SDK Open-Source JavaScript GUI Framework provides partial support for SVG 1.1, SMIL, DOM and style scripting in Internet Explorer (5.5 - 8.0) too. It is not dependent on any plugins and relies on presence of alternative Vector Graphics format VML in Internet Explorer.
Adobe SVG Viewer from
Adobe Systems plugin supports most of SVG 1.0/1.1. Zooming and panning of the image are also supported to enable viewing of any area of the SVG lying outside the visible area of its containing window, but scrolling is not supported. Adobe SVG Viewer is available for download from Adobe Systems free of charge.[63] However, on 1 January 2009, Adobe Systems discontinued support for Adobe SVG Viewer.[64]
Raphaël is another JavaScript library that takes advantage of the intersection between VML's and SVG's features to create vector graphics and animate them.
Renesis Player for Internet Explorer from examotion GmbH, supports SVG 1.1 on
IE 6 and
7 (discontinued)[66]
SVG Web[67] is a JavaScript library for Web developers, targeted at Internet Explorer and dependent on the presence of an installed
Adobe Flash plugin on the client machine. SVG Web provides partial support for SVG 1.1, SVG Animation (SMIL), Fonts, Video and Audio, DOM and style scripting.[68]
On 5 January 2010, a senior manager of the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft announced on his official blog that Microsoft had just requested to join the
SVG Working Group of the W3C in order to "take part in ensuring future versions of the SVG spec will meet the needs of developers and end users," although no plans for SVG support in Internet Explorer were mentioned at that time.[69] Internet Explorer 9 beta supported a basic SVG feature set based on the SVG 1.1 W3C recommendation. Functionality has been implemented for most of the SVG document structure, interactivity through scripting and styling inline and through CSS. The presentation elements, attributes and DOM interfaces that have been implemented include basic shapes, colors, filling, gradients, patterns, paths and text.[70]
Software can be programmed to render SVG images by using a
library such as
librsvg or
Batik. SVG images can also be rendered to any desired popular image format by using the
free softwarecommand-line utility
ImageMagick.
This is an incomplete list of web applications that can convert SVG files to raster image formats (this process is known as
rasterization), or raster images to SVG (this process is known as
image tracing or vectorization) - without the need of installing a desktop software or browser plug-in.
SVG to raster images only
FileFormat.info [71] - Converts SVG to PNG, JPEG, TIFF. Output resolution can be specified. No batch processing. Upload limit: 5MB.
SVGConv [72] - Converts SVG to JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TGA, TIFF, PDF, PS, EPS. Allows the user to customize the output (like image size, background color) and has batch processing features (converting multiple files in a single step). Upload limit: 10MB
Raster images to SVG only
VectorMagic [73] - Converts JPEG,GIF, PNG to vector formats like SVG, EPS, PS, PDF. No batch processing.
Both directions
Go2convert [74] - Converts to/from over 100 major image formats including BMP, EPS, GIF, JPEG, IMG, PDF, PNG, PSD, SVG, and TIFF. The output image is hosted on the site for 2 days; size and quality are customizable. Batch processing with separate desktop app. Upload Limit: 10MB.
OnlineConvert [75] - Converts to/from BMP, EPS, GIF, HDR, ICO, JPEG, PNG, SVG, TGA, TIFF, WBMP, WebP. No batch processing. The output (e. g. image size) is customizable.
SVG Tiny (SVGT) 1.1 and 1.2 are mobile profiles for SVG. SVGT 1.2 includes some features not found in SVG 1.1, including non-scaling strokes, which are supported by some SVG 1.1 implementations, such as Opera, Firefox and WebKit. As shared code bases between desktop and mobile browsers increased, the use of SVG 1.1 over SVGT 1.2 also increased.
History of SVG mobile support
Support for SVG may be limited to SVGT on older or more limited
smart phones, or may be primarily limited by their respective operating system.
Adobe Flash Lite has optionally supported SVG Tiny since version 1.1. At the SVG Open 2005 conference,
Sun demonstrated a mobile implementation of SVG Tiny 1.1 for the
Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) platform.[77]
Mobiles that use
Opera Mobile, as well as the
iPhone's built in browser, also include SVG support. However, even though it used the
WebKit engine, the
Android built-in browser did not support SVG prior to v3.0 (Honeycomb).[78] Prior to v3.0, Firefox Mobile 4.0b2 (beta) for Android was the first browser running under Android to support SVG by default.[79]
The level of SVG Tiny support available varies from mobile to mobile, depending on the SVG engine installed. Many newer mobile products support additional features beyond SVG Tiny 1.1, like gradient and opacity; this is sometimes referred as "SVGT 1.1+", though there is no such standard.
Rim'sBlackBerry has built-in support for SVG Tiny 1.1 since version 5.0.[80] Support continues for WebKit-based BlackBerry Torch browser in OS 6 and 7.[81]
Nokia'sS60 platform has built-in support for SVG. For example, icons are generally rendered using the platform's SVG engine. Nokia has also led the JSR 226: Scalable 2D Vector Graphics
API expert group that defines
Java ME API for SVG presentation and manipulation. This API has been implemented in S60 Platform 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and onward.[82] Some
Series 40 phones also support SVG (such as
Nokia 6280).
Most
Sony Ericsson phones beginning with
K700 (by release date) support SVG Tiny 1.1. Phones beginning with
K750 also support such features as opacity and gradients. Phones with
Sony Ericsson Java Platform-8 have support for JSR 226.
Implementations of SVG that uses the
OpenVGAPI will be
hardware accelerated on devices which have hardware acceleration of OpenVG. Examples include
Unix-like operating systems with
Gallium3D based graphics drivers and several
GPUs intended for handheld devices (see
OpenVG).
^See
http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/conform.html#ConformingSVGViewers which states, "SVG implementations must correctly support gzip-encoded [RFC1952] and deflate-encoded [RFC1951] data streams, for any content type (including SVG, script files, images)."
^"IRC log of svg on 2008-11-17". W3C. 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2009. DS: Priorities should be layout, diffusion curves, 2.5D and make sure we work well with CSS on that
^"Propositions for the next SVG spec". W3C. 16 March 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2009. Indeed, we do plan to add new gradient capabilities to SVG in the next version, and we are looking into diffusion curves, which I think will meet your needs ... *Diffusion curves* seems really a great idea.
Army Civilian Employment An example of an SVG website delivered as HTML with a non-standard <embed> tag. Works in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, IE7 w/Adobe and IE8 w/Adobe.
Army Civilian Service An example of an SVG website delivered as SVG. Works in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, IE9, IE8 w/Adobe and IE7 w/Adobe.