Scalable Vector Graphics (Chris Lilley)

As most of our readers know, bitmapped graphics rendered on the Web suffer from resolution differences across devices. The range in resolution just across computer monitors is very significant. (In fact, our WDVL pages are checked on several different screens.) The problem of using bitmapped images is even worse when you consider other output devices like printers. It is the need for resizable graphics that is the motivation behind Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).

Shortly before the conference, a Java SVG renderer was announced on the www-svg mailing list by Carmen Delessio of BlackDirt Software. This render was demonstrated by W3C's Chris Lilley as part of his talk.

An even more amazing demo was the use of SVG directly within Internet Explorer 5.0! Chris was able to resize his browser window with the image scaling perfectly to his new frame, zoom in and really see details in an image (not just fat pixels), click on text layered over graphics, display fonts having multiple colors for different portions of individual characters, and so on. This was reminiscent of Macromedia Flash, only better. Astute readers may well question how this is possible, since IE5 supports Microsoft's own Vector Markup Language which is really nothing more than an XML way of expressing Microsoft's proprietary Office 2000 format. The incredibly impressive demo was made possible by Adobe's technology preview implementation of an SVG renderer plugin using ActiveX (and Java?) running in IE 5.0. Unfortunately, this renderer is not yet publicly available. Look for an announcement in summer 1999.

Chris indicated that a Proposed Recommendation for SVG is expected in August 1999. A full Recommendation is anticipated for September or October. (I believe he said that SVG efforts started 9 months ago, prior to the first Working Draft.)

A good explanation of the benefits of SVG appear on the W3C Graphics Activity page. [At the time of this writing, Chris's talk has not yet been made available online. It is likely to appear either on the SVG page or the W3C Talks page.]

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