SVG is a language for describing two-dimensional vector graphics in XML.
Before you continue, you should have some basic understanding of the following:
If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page.
SVG 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation on 4 September 2001.
SVG 1.1 became a W3C Recommendation on 14 January 2003.
SVG 1.1 (Second Edition) became a W3C Recommendation on 16 August 2011.
Advantages of using SVG over other image formats (like JPEG and GIF) are:
The main competitor to SVG is Flash.
The biggest advantage SVG has over Flash is the compliance with other standards (e.g. XSL and the DOM). Flash relies on proprietary technology that is not open source.
SVG images can be created with any text editor, but it is often more convenient to create SVG images with a drawing program, like Inkscape.