WDVL: IBM SVGView

IBM alphaWorks has long been a leader in free XML and Java software. Much like CSIRO's SVG Viewer, IBM's SVGView is a standalone viewer that requires JDK 1.2 and the IBM xml4j parser. At this time, it doesn't permit panning, but you can rotate an image 90 degrees. We originally used the version date July 30, 1999 for the screenshots in this article, and then later tried the 2.0a version from August 24, which is based on the July 30th DTD.

Although this Windows-only viewer shows promise, it had two problems with our WDVL Example 2 using the August 12, 1999 Working Draft:

IBM SVGView
From the IBM site: "SVGView is a Java program that uses Java 2D and the XML Parser for Java to parse, process, and display SVG files on any XML-enabled Web browser. The viewer enables Web professionals working with SVG files to preview their forms or images. SVGView uses Java 2D and XML Parser for Java to parse, process, and render SVG files locally or over the Internet. The viewer passes the document to the parser, which creates the data tree structure. The parser then traverses the tree in Java 2D, which calls the appropriate functions in the Java2 API."

alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/svgview
Available for Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 98. Requires:

Java^TM 1.2.1 (Java 2) or higher Java Runtime Environment (JRE) that supports the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT). Download from JavaSoft.
XML Parser for Java (XML4J) version 1.1.16 or higher. Download from alphaWorks.

Impressive Screenshots

Default view: text, shapes, polygons, opacity
Clipped image
Curved text using path
Insurance form rendered completely in SVG
Rotation transforms
WDVL's SVG Example 2: interesting differences when compared to the SVG Viewer rendering

Examples/ibm-svgview.bat
WDVL .bat file to run IBM SVGView. After you download and unzip IBM SVGView, place this .bat file in the directory that contains the viewer.jar file. Requires minor editing to specify location of JDK 1.2.* and xml4j parser. Intended to be run from the DOS command prompt, not by clicking on the .bat file. [If you see the message, "Out of environment space", that is the problem.]