Adobe has posted release candidates of its SVG Viewer 3.0, a plugin for viewing data-driven, interactive, and personalized SVG-based graphics on the Web. Version 3.0 includes support for more elements CSS properties, and DOM Support as well as a new OS X 10.1 native version, performance improvements, and compressed file support. It is available in several languages. [Classic, Carbon]
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Do any sites outside of Adobe actually use SVG? I installed the 2.0 plugin when it came out, but I have yet to see it used anywhere beyond the demo pages. Looks to me like the world has gone Flash, and Adobe may as well concentrate their energies elsewhere. Does SVG offer any significant benefits that aren't available in more established vector graphics architectures?
The only people who are using SVG are companies contracted by Adobe (in other words, PAID) to create content for the Adobe web site. Adobe will most likely further bundle SVG into Go Live and their other apps, in the hopes of using their other apps as leverage.
But Adobe is way late, and Flash rules this domain. However, the CSS abilities of SVG do sound intriguing, but it'll never catch up to Flash.
I've never understood why Adobe made SVG anyway...seems like such a waste of money.
SVG is indeed catching on in many arenas. See and http://www.adobe.com/svg/community/external.html and http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/SVG-Implementations.htm8 for examples of hundreds of web sites and implementations ranging from hand held devices (phones, PDAs, etc.) to servers and authoring tools. I work regularly with companies of all sizes and ac cross many industries who are depending on SVG as important technology for dynamic, data driven, interactive graphics. They like that it is XML, and that it is an open standard. The postings above sound like critics who have not investigated the facts, or who have some commercial interest in Open standards failing.
Michael Bierman
Senior Product Manager, SVG Adobe
...at least in this thread, it would appear.
Repeat slowly, after me : "SVG is not a proprietary Adobe standard. SVG is a W3C standard."
That means that it is part of the web standard repoitire, as much as HTML, CSS and the DOM are. Adobe is a strong supporter - but so is Microsoft, Netscape, and others. Right now, browsers do not have a built-in understanding of SVG, and you require a plug-in to view SVG content (much as one did when the PNG format was first introduced) - but since SVG is a subset of XML, the next generation of browsers should have full and native comprehension. That means no plug-in problems - no downloads to endure, no upgrades.
What are the other advantages of SVG?
It is text - you can script vector shapes right in the body of the web page, if you want to. It can be animated with JavaScript. And since it is XML, you can take data and transform it into vectors (Macromedia's solution to that is Generator, costing several thousand dollars for a server-side solution.)
It is an OPEN standard. That means no control over it by any one company. No Macromedia to pull strings. (The implementation and interpretation of SVG, on the other hand, is up to the browser designer.)
I have great hopes for SVG, and see Flash simply becoming another way of designing and scripting for this open, extensible format.
Thanks for the information on SVG. As for Bierman's paranoid conspiracy theory above, save it. I'm as much an open standards advocate as anyone; if people haven't heard much about SVG, it's because SVG has a long way to go. So far it seems to be pretty confined to the handheld set, but hopefully that will spread. The need for a device-independent, fully open vector image standard has long been obvious. But it's also true that Adobe is a purely for-profit company that's done a heck of a lot of irritating and counterproductive things in the past; being suspicious of their actions is intelligent and normal. Nonetheless I for one am glad to see a native SVG viewer for OS 9 from them, since we're unlikely to see another (most require Java 2).
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I couldn't care less...
but the forums seem to be down AGAIN. Upgraded server huh??? I hope this doesn't turn into the death of AI revisited. GIVE US FORUMS, NOT CRAPPY NEWS.
Oh Yeah, and FIRST POST, YEAH BABY, YEAH!!!