Advertise here via BSA As browser adoption of HTML5 continues apace, developers are finding more and more options for creating elegant, highly responsive UIs. In the case of Scalable Vector Graphics ( SVG ), what’s old is new again, and quite slick. The SVG spec has been around for a while now. Under development since 1999, the spec, or more accurately a family of specs, describes an XML-based file format for vector graphics. An SVG block defines the individual components of a vector image, such as paths, shapes, fills, strokes and other features. This provides a lightweight option for certain types of graphics that might otherwise have been created in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and then exported to a raster format. It also promises a raft of potential functionality in manipulating an image on the fly—hence the “scalable” part of SVG. With widespread adoption of HTML5 standards, browsers are taking SVG in new directions, such as emphasizing the tag for inline SVG, using CSS for styling, and opening up the DOM so that SVG images can be created or manipulated on the client side with JavaScript.
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