The Hindu : Business : Viewing SVG files

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 17, 2004

Business

Business

Viewing SVG files

THIS WEEK NetSpeak explores the features of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files and the means to create/view them.

It is likely that you are familiar with HTML codes through which web pages are composed. By inserting certain codes on to a page with text content, we can get the page displayed in a variety of forms with an HTML viewer (our browser). For example, by inserting the HTML tag `{lt}b{gt}' we can get the text that follows the code rendered as bold.

Now, if we can get the browser to draw pictures and animations by inserting specified codes, it would further facilitate us create more interactive web pages with ease. The XML-based graphics language, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) aims to achieve this.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

SVG is an XML-based open standard mark-up language sponsored by W3c (http://www.w3.org/) that can be used to create pictures and animations with text commands. By inserting SVG commands imaginatively one can create spectacular graphics effects quite easily. For example, if you insert the code {lt}circle cx=`200' cy=`200' r=`40' fill=`blue' stroke=`red'/{gt} on to an SVG document and view it with an SVG-enabled browser, it will display a blue circle with an outer red layer. Likewise the tag: {lt}rect width=`210' height=`210' fill=`yellow'{gt}, will create an yellow rectangle. By just changing the values of certain parameters you can change the features of the graphics such as it size, colour, position and the like.

In fact, SVG provides several commands for drawing such graphic elements as rectangle, line, ellipse, polyline, polygon and so on. Apart from these tools for drawing different kinds of shapes, the SVG standard also provides tags for manipulating/animating these shapes and thereby enables us to generate interactive/dynamic images.

The highlight of this technology is that you can develop wonderful graphics using a few text commands. Also, as the SVG standard is open, anyone can use it without any legal hassles.

You can create an SVG file with any text editor. Take a look at this link: http://www.kevlindev.com/tutorials/basics/index.htm, where you can find a tutorial that describes the basic structure of an SVG file. To get a taste of this technology's potential, have a look at this link: http://home.mindspring.com/,SYM,126>quetz/svg/panda/PandaAnd TheFlower.svgz that hosts a small animated movie, developed entirely using SVG language.

How to view SVG files

As most of the current popular browsers (IE, Mozilla and the like) don't support SVG directly, you need to install an SVG plug-in. The Adobe plug-in, SVG viewer, which can be downloaded for free from the link: http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/ is a good product in this category. Once the viewer is installed on your machine, IE will become automatically SVG-enabled.

If you are a user of `Firefox', the optimum solution is to download the version of Firefox with SVG support from the link: http://pryan.org/mozilla/firefox/ and install it. Now copy the files npvsg3.dll and npvsg3.zip from the directory: `C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\SVG Viewer 3.0\Plugins' to the Firefox's plug-in directory. While invoking Firefox in Windows, if you get the error message `GDIPLUS.DLL not found', download the archive `gdiplus' from the link: http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/redist/3097/W98NT42KMeXP/EN-US/gdiplus_dnld.exe, and extract the relevant files.

Numerous free SVG-format graphics files are available on the Net. The free open source graphics repository, `Open Clip Art Project' (http://clipart.freedesktop.org/index.php), which aims to create "a free archive of clip art that can be used with free software", is a good source for SVG files.

SVG resources

1.A good article on SVG that points out its various advantages (http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/02/13/ svg.html)

W3c's SVG specification ((http://www.w3.org/ Graphics/SVG/)

Mozilla SVG resources (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/svg/)

Links to several SVG related sites/tools (http://www.svgx.org/)

Darknet: Open source book

It is a well-known fact that open source programs are created with the help of developers spread across the Net. The collaboration is achieved through various Net technologies as mailing lists, e-mail, versioning systems and so on. Darknet is an attempt to create an on-line book by deploying the open source software development methods. The book tries to explore the idea that "digital technologies are empowering people to create, reuse and reinvent media". The author intends to publish each chapter of the book on the Wiki Web, which can be reviewed/edited by interested netizens. For more details: http://www.socialtext.net/darknet/.

Apart from being the leader in its main business, search service, Google provides many other useful services also. Services such as Google catalogs (http://catalogs.google.com/), Google Labs (http://labs.google.com/) and Google's University Search (http://www.google.com/options/universities.html) are some examples. Now, Google has started an official blog, where you can read the latest news on the various developments that take place at this wonderful company. Check out: http://www.google.com/googleblog/

Useful RSS feeds

Would you like to get updated with the latest news available with Reuters news service through your RSS newsreader? Check out this page: http://www.reuters.com/newsrss.jhtml, which hosts links to RSS files for various subjects that include Business News, Technology and Science.

As regular readers of this column would know, the goal of the `Project Gutenberg' (http://www.gutenberg.net/) is to digitise `copyright free' books on literature that are available worldwide and publish them on the Net so that anyone can download it for free. If you want to regularly watch the latest additions to the Gutenberg's on-line repository through your RSS aggregator, you may use the project's RSS feed available at: http://www.gutenberg.net/.

MS-Word tips

Though many word processing packages are available with open source/free licenses, MS-Word continues to be popular among the computing users. Those of you who use MS-Word may take a look at this free document 'Tips for Word users' (http://techrepublic.com.com/5138-6249-729220.html) that contains several tips for efficiently using the software. Apart from the document mentioned above, a variety of free resources that can enrich your computing knowledge are also available on this site. To use the service's resources you need to sign-up with it (of course, for free).

J. Murali

Email the author at:
murali27@satyam.net.in

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section

Income from property — how computed?

Tax obligations as between husband and wife

Bio-diesel — fuel of the future

Wanted, a job-oriented economic policy

Stock markets do not vote

Viewing SVG files