SVG Now a W3 Recommendation

Bob_Juanita writes: "The W3C has finally made the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format an official recommendation." I'm looking forward to this - SVG looks to have a lot of potential for web development. Easy, dynamic, scalable graphics from database data - nice.

Comments

just check it out

[tobi_pinkjuice.com]

Would any of you use Dreamweaver without being able to view and edit the source? So why would anyone create vector animations in Flash without being able to view and edit the source?
SVG code is a little verbose, but very human readable. Check out a preview version of WebDraw: http://www.jasc.com/webdraw.asp One can also view source of online SVGs; fun.

It's XML, so parse/manipulate/generate it with any of your favourite XML tools in any of your favourite programming languages. XML content can be transformed to visual versions for different environments.
(how fast can you say "QuickJugglingMarkupLanguageViaXSLTtoSVGAnimation" or
"myOwnSlideshowMarkupLanguageViaRubyOrPythonToVect orAnimations" in the Flash/SWF world?)

Since dynamic generation is so convenient, and SVG is a truly high quality format, you can internationalize and personalize content without too much fuss, using all the open source technologies that don't even have to know about SVG. It has Unicode, it's own font format, is searchable and indexable, and works well with CSS, XSLT, RDF, later SMIL and XForms. I'm trying to avoid the word "professional", but don't succeed.

Give it a try, check the spec (not to say RT*M)), and basically have great fun.

The spec: (pretty readable)
http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/
W3's SVG page:
http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/
More links: (mine)
http://www.pinkjuice.com/SVG/SVGlinks.htm

Using SVG

[jdevons]

I know that we have actually been using SVG for some time on one of our production sites. But we have been looking into other alternatives such as flash generation.

So it's good to finally see that this might become a standard. Now, when will IE and Netscape support it?

Adobe plugin and more.

[LetterJ]

Though it's been mentioned in passing, Adobe's SVG viewer, though distributed alone, is also included in the standard distribution of Acrobat Reader 5.

To those who are predicting SVG's demise, I have several comments.

1. No, the current versions of the browsers don't support it natively now. However, did those browsers support HTML 4.0, CSS, PNG or any other of a host of open standards as of the week the spec was finalized?
   
2. Some people seem to be focusing on an either/or between SVG and Flash. Remember that animation isn't SVG's only purpose. There currently isn't any other open standard graphic format for building charts and graphs while letting the text of those charts be indexable.
   
3. For some reason, Macromedia is praised for it's open spec on SWF even though they could close it off. MS has "open" file format specs, but they get bashed. Flash is just like GIF, Fraunhoffer(sp) MP3 codec, Word 6.0, etc. They are controlled by a single company who can change the direction or licensing on a whim. SVG is like HTML, independent and completely open.