Introduction

The SVG format is well suited for web graphics technology. It is based on XML and can be easily manipulated (for example, using JavaScript) and efficiently compressed, and it can be scaled and resized without losing image quality. It is a W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) recommendation and an open standard. So why isn't it supported by web browsers?

At this time of writing, SVG is officially supported by nearly all major web browsing technologies, including the Trident engine in Internet Explorer 9 (which will probably be released in 2011). Mobile device support is lagging behind, but will eventually catch up (especially on Apple and Android devices).

Therefore, it makes sense to start learning how to use SVG in our web projects, especially in games, where HTML5 and SVG is seen as a strong competitor to Adobe Flash and Silverlight technologies.

Note

Be aware, however, that SVG element's support and rendering are implemented differently in each browser, or might not be complete...