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SVG

Two-dimensional vector image file format

  • 18 min read
  • 7 chapters

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SVG images are defined in a vector graphics format and stored in XML text files. SVG images can thus be scaled in size without loss of quality, and SVG files can be searched, indexed, scripted, and compressed. The XML text files can be created and edited with text editors or vector graphics editors, and are rendered by most web browsers. SVG can include JavaScript, potentially leading to cross-site scripting.

History

SVG has been in development within the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) since 1999 after six competing proposals for vector graphics languages had been submitted to the consortium during 1998 (see below).

The early SVG Working Group decided not to develop any of the commercial submissions, but to create a new markup language that was informed by but not really based on any of them.

SVG was developed by the W3C SVG Working Group starting in 1998, after six competing vector graphics submissions were received that year:

  • Web Schematics, from CCLRC
  • PGML, from Adobe Systems, IBM, Netscape and Sun Microsystems
  • VML, by Autodesk, Hewlett-Packard, Macromedia, Microsoft, and Vision
  • Hyper Graphics Markup Language (HGML), by Orange UK and PRP
  • WebCGM, from Boeing, PTC, InterCAP Graphics Systems, Inso Corporation, CCLRC, and Xerox
  • DrawML, from Excosoft AB

The working group was chaired at the time by Chris Lilley of the W3C.

Early adoption was limited due to lack of support in older versions of Internet Explorer. However, as of 2011, all major desktop browsers began to support SVG. Native browser support offers various advantages, such as not requiring plugins, allowing SVG to be mixed with other content, and improving rendering and scripting reliability. Mobile support for SVG exists in various forms, with different devices and browsers supporting SVG Tiny 1.1 or 1.2. SVG can be produced using vector graphics editors and rendered into raster formats. In web-based applications, Inline SVG allows embedding SVG content within HTML documents.

The SVG specification was updated to version 1.1 in 2011. Scalable Vector Graphics 2 became a W3C Candidate Recommendation on 15 September 2016. SVG 2 incorporates several new features in addition to those of SVG 1.1 and SVG Tiny 1.2.

Version 1.x

  • SVG 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation on 4 September 2001.
  • SVG 1.1 became a W3C Recommendation on 14 January 2003. 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.
  • SVG Tiny 1.2 became a W3C Recommendation on 22 December 2008. It was initially drafted as a profile of the planned SVG Full 1.2 (which has since been dropped in favor of SVG 2), but was later refactored as a standalone specification. It is generally poorly supported.
  • 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.
  • SVG Tiny 1.2 Portable/Secure, a more secure subset of the SVG Tiny 1.2 profile introduced as an IETF draft standard on 29 July 2020. Also known as SVG Tiny P/S. SVG Tiny 1.2 Portable/Secure is a requirement of the BIMI draft standard.

Version 2

SVG 2 removes or deprecates some features of SVG 1.1 and incorporates new features from HTML5 and Web Open Font Format (WOFF):

  • For example, SVG 2 removes several font elements such as glyph and altGlyph (replaced by the WOFF).
  • The xml:space attribute is deprecated in favor of CSS.
  • HTML5 features such as translate and data-* attributes have been added.
  • Text handling features from SVG Tiny 1.2 are annotated as to be included, but not yet formalized in text. Some other 1.2 features are cherry picked in, but SVG 2 is not a superset of SVG Tiny 1.2 in general.

SVG 2 reached the Candidate Recommendation stage on 15 September 2016, and revised versions were published on 7 August 2018 and 4 October 2018. The latest draft was released on 14 September 2025.

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Source and licence. Adapted from the Wikipedia article “SVG” (this version, 2026-08-31) by its contributors, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Lablypedia has left out its tables, references and most pictures, and linked it to other Lablypedia articles.