---
title: "The benefits of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) · Appnovation"
url: "https://www.appnovation.com/insights/benefits-scalable-vector-graphics-svg"
description: "Why use Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)? The key benefits of SVG for responsive, resolution-independent and lightweight web design."
---
Article
# The benefits of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
[ Appno Blogger Appnovation Coop](/people/appno-blogger.md) Dec 23, 2013
3 min read
According to awwwards.com, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and Responsive Techniques are among the web design trends for 2014. They have been evolving and become more widespread. On a visual level we’ll see trends like the ones coming up in the next point.
SVG specification is an open standard developed by the [World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (opens in new window)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web_Consortium). It is an XML-based vector image format for 2D graphics that has support for interactivity and animation. In 2003 it became a W3C recommendation, but at that time it was not fully supported by some major browsers especially, Internet Explorer (IE). For over a decade SVG has been underused. But things are changing today. SVG is going to be used more and more with browsers that support HTML5.
Today major browsers for SGV support are as the following:
* Internet Explorer 9+
* Firefox 4+
* Chrome 4+
* Safari 4+
* Opera 9.5+
Why is SVG a deal now? What are the benefits for using SVG today? Nowadays, people access the Internet from different devices with different screen size and resolution. Meaning scalability and responsive techniques are more important in web design. Because SVG is vector graphic base, it can scale any size to fit web pages.
Secondly, SVG is defined by XML format. Unlike bitmap image formats such as JPG or PNG, it does not consist of a fixed set of dots, but of shapes and their attributes, so it can be saved as the smallest size possible. No matter how large the graphic gets, the XML that describes the graphic is the only thing transmitted to the client. It can be bandwidth friendly.
There are other benefits like text labels, descriptions that can be searched by search engines, and also scripting control for custom interactive events and animation.
In short, as you can see there are a lot of advantages of SVG: scalability, SEO friendly, editing ability, and resolution independence. The SVG format of font and icons is especially advantageous; we should implement them in daily web design. The future of SVG seems bright and the trends of SVG usage will be continues to increase.
Here is an SVG code example:
#### SVG in CSS
**Inline Style Sheet**
\
**Internal Style Sheet**
\
#### SVG In HTML
\
#### SVG embedded inline in XHTML
\ \ \
#### Referencing a font
\ \ \ \ \My text uses Super Sans\
#### Option: Use CSS @font-face
\ \ \ \ \My text uses Super Sans\
If you want to dive right in and explore the world of SVG for web design, here are some references that I collected from my research. [SVG Tutorial (opens in new window)](http://www.w3schools.com/svg/default.asp) [Resolution Independence With SVG (opens in new window)](http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/01/16/resolution-independence-with-svg/) [Using SVG (opens in new window)](http://css-tricks.com/using-svg/) [Using SVG with HTML5 tutorial (opens in new window)](http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Using_SVG_with_HTML5_tutorial) [SVG animations, CSS Animations, CSS Transitions (opens in new window)](http://blogs.adobe.com/webplatform/2012/03/30/svg-animations-css-animations-css-transitions/) [SVG - Super Vector Graphics (opens in new window)](http://tavendo.com/blog/post/super-vector-graphics/)
[ Appno Blogger Appnovation Coop · Appnovation](/people/appno-blogger.md)
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