The SVG Working Group is a

working group A working group, or working party, is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals. The groups are domain-specific and focus on discussion or activity around a specific subject area. The term can sometimes refer to an interdis ...

created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to address the need for an alternative to the

PostScript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Do ...

document format. The PostScript format was unable to create scalable fonts and objects without creating files which were inordinately larger than a file which used unscalable fonts and objects. In April 1998, the W3C received a note from representatives of four corporate entities –

Adobe Systems Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the cre ...

, IBM, Netscape and

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, t ...

– with regard to the

Precision Graphics Markup Language Precision Graphics Markup Language (PGML) is an XML-based language for representing vector graphics. It was a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) submission by Adobe Systems, IBM, Netscape, and Sun Microsystems, that was not adopted as a recommenda ...

(PGML), an

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

-based markup language. A second note was submitted came a month later from a team which included representatives of Hewlett Packard, Macromedia,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

, and Visio; the note contained a draft specification for the

Vector Markup Language Vector Markup Language (VML) is an obsolete XML-based file format for two-dimensional vector graphics. It was specified in Part 4 of the Office Open XML standards ISO/IEC 29500 and ECMA-376. According to the specification, VML is a deprecated ...

(VML), another XML-based markup language. As a result of both missives, the W3C convened a working group, and within six months, the group published a working draft of requirements for the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. This format, unlike Postscript, is optimized for the

Web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

. It is able to describe two-dimensional graphics and graphical applications via XML. Initial versions of the SVG specification have now been natively implemented by most modern browsers. The SVG Working Group continues to work on enhancements, which will be published as a comprehensive SVG 2.0 specification. As of September 2014, the various modules of this new specification were expected to reach Candidate Recommendation status in 2015 or early 2016.

Members

Members of the SVG Working Group include representatives from the following organizations: *

Inc. *

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...

* AutoCAD * BitFlash * Open Text ''(BitFlash Division)'' * Canon, Inc. * ERCIM *

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in inform ...

* Expway * France Telecom * Groupe des Écoles des Télécommunications * Ikivo AB *

ILOG ILOG S.A. was an international software company purchased and incorporated into IBM announced in January, 2009. It created enterprise software products for supply chain, business rule management, visualization and optimization. The main product ...

* Inkscape * ITEDO Software GmbH *

KDDI Corporation () is a Japanese telecommunications operator formed on October 1, 2000 through the merger of DDI Corp. (Daini-Denden Inc.), KDD (Kokusai Denshin Denwa) Corp. (itself a former listed state-owned enterprise privatized in 1998), and IDO Corp. It ...

* Keio University *

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

Mozilla Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, ...

Opera Software Opera is a Norwegian multinational technology company and subsidiary of Kunlun that specializes in web browser development, fintech, as well as services such as Opera News and YoYo Games. The company's total user base, including users of it ...

Research In Motion BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian software company specializing in cybersecurity. Founded in 1984, it was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM). As RIM, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablet ...

, Ltd. (RIM) *

Sharp Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products, headquartered in Sakai-ku, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Since 2016 it has been majority owned by the Taiwan-based Foxconn Group. Sharp employs more t ...

Inc. W3C has also invited several experts to collaborate with the working group.

Notes

External links

Official siteSVG Brings Fast Vector Graphics to Web
{{W3C standards

Working Group A working group, or working party, is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals. The groups are domain-specific and focus on discussion or activity around a specific subject area. The term can sometimes refer to an interdis ...

Working groups World Wide Web Consortium