The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released its recommendation of a graphics language that allows Web designers to create two-dimensional vector graphics and exchange them between platforms.
Scalable Vector Graphics 1.0 (SVG) is based on the XML (Extensible Markup Language) standard for describing data in Web pages and business-to-business documents. By recommending SVG, W3C certifies that it is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C members, who favor its widespread adoption, the consortium said in a statement.
Unlike the bitmap graphics currently used in most Web applications, vector graphics store images in the form of points, lines, and shapes, and hence are scalable: they can be resized without the loss of image quality.
The standard will help Web-based graphics move from simple decoration to reusable content, W3C said, allowing it to be searched, indexed, and displayed in multiple languages. The hope is that SVG will do for graphics what XML is already doing for documents and data on the Web.
W3C, with over 520 member organizations, develops common protocols that promote Web interoperability. The consortium's SVG Working Group has tested the SVG language in a wide range of open-source and commercially available platforms, W3C said.
Members of the Working Group include Adobe Systems Inc., America Online Inc. subsidiary Netscape Communications Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., Quark Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., and Xerox Corp.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) can be contacted at +1-617-253-5884 or http://www.w3.org/.
