What is an SVG file?
SVG stays perfectly sharp at any size, from a tiny favicon to a billboard, because it stores the shapes rather than a grid of pixels. It is the right choice for logos, icons, charts and diagrams, and the wrong one for photographs. You can turn an SVG into other formats here, though nothing can be saved back as SVG.
Specification
| Full name | Scalable Vector Graphics |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .svg |
| Media type | image/svg+xml |
| Compression | Uncompressed |
| Transparency | Supported |
| Animation | Supported |
| Multiple pages | — |
| Colour depth | Vector, resolution independent |
| Size limits | — |
| Introduced | 2001 |
| Developed by | W3C |
| Standard | Open |
| Browser support | Every browser, including older ones |
What SVG is used for
- Logos and icons that must be sharp at every size
- Charts and diagrams generated from data
- UI illustration that needs to respond to theme colours
- Print-ready artwork exported from vector editors
Strengths and limitations
What SVG does well
- Infinitely scalable with no loss of sharpness
- Usually tiny for flat artwork, and compresses well with gzip
- Editable as text and styleable with CSS
Where SVG falls short
- Unsuited to photographs, which have no vector description
- Complex artwork can be slower to render than a bitmap
- Embedded scripts make untrusted SVG a security consideration
Convert SVG to
Every target this format can be written out as, each on its own page.
Tools that accept SVG
Questions about SVG
What is a .svg file?
SVG stays perfectly sharp at any size, from a tiny favicon to a billboard, because it stores the shapes rather than a grid of pixels. The extension .svg identifies it, and its media type is image/svg+xml.
How do I open an SVG file?
Any current browser will open it directly, so dragging the file into a tab is usually enough. Most operating systems also preview it without extra software.
Is SVG lossy or lossless?
Uncompressed. Nothing is discarded, so repeated saves never degrade the contents.
What is SVG good for?
Infinitely scalable with no loss of sharpness. Usually tiny for flat artwork, and compresses well with gzip. Editable as text and styleable with CSS. In practice that makes it a good fit for logos and icons that must be sharp at every size, and Charts and diagrams generated from data.
What are the drawbacks of SVG?
Unsuited to photographs, which have no vector description. Complex artwork can be slower to render than a bitmap. Embedded scripts make untrusted SVG a security consideration.