The encyclopedia · Software & IT · Technical decision · 1998-2001
W3C's SVG won web vector graphics by building it on XML.
W3C's SVG, released as a Recommendation in 2001, became the web's vector format by reusing XML so it was text, searchable and plugin-free.
World Wide Web Consortium · Adobe · Microsoft
the move
In the late 1990s, Adobe's PGML and Microsoft's VML both vied to bring vector graphics to the web, splitting the industry on which approach the browser should adopt.
The W3C SVG working group combined the proposals into Scalable Vector Graphics, an XML-based language for two-dimensional vector graphics, and issued SVG 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation on 5 September 2001 after cross-industry agreement.
The design centered on XML: an SVG file was textual, so it was searchable, reusable, stylable with CSS, and generated or edited server-side with the same XML infrastructure the web already used. Web graphics moved from decoration to information, in the words of W3C director Tim Berners-Lee.
why it works
- Reusing XML gave it a parser, an editor base and a style layer for free
- Text-based vector files are searchable, indexable and multilingual
- No plugin and no binary blob meant it fit the open web platform
- One W3C standard ended the VML-versus-PGML split
what transfers
A format that is a thin extension of a standard people already run can win by inheriting that standard's tools, editors and mindset instead of fighting them.
what came after
SVG was later added to HTML5 as a first-class element, so browsers render inline SVG natively. Despite slow early support in old Internet Explorer, it became the standard way to ship resizable icons, logos and charts on the web.
references
- World Wide Web Consortium Issues Scalable Vector Graphics 1.0 as a Recommendation
- W3C gives thumbs up to Scalable Vector Graphics
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