The way technological advancements are making their way to the digital age, it has become imperative for businesses to embrace technologies that enable them to display their documents with utmost clarity on all platforms, systems and screen sizes. Scalable Vector Graphics, generally known as SVG, is the next big thing in the digital world which can cater to all types of graphic requirements of businesses in this hi-tech era.
SVG format allows to display graphics quite clearly at any zoom level, making it a way better option than any types of raster images. That's the reason all popular bitmap based image formats like JPG, PNG, TIFF etc. are being replaced by SVG. This format is absolutely free from compatibility issues as all modern browsers support it.
Have a look at the benefits offered by SVG that make it a perfect image format for modern businesses.
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W3C Open Standard- Scalable vector Graphics were developed as an open standard by none other than the World Wide Consortium. So, it's in the public domain and can be used without any copyright worries. Besides, you can use it across various platforms along with other XML languages without any issues. These qualities make it easy to create, edit and compress images with the help of several existing and popular tools including Notepad and Inkscape.
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Lightweight Files- Vector images have much smaller file size when compared to popular bitmap image formats like JPG, GIF or PNG. On one hand, it results in memory space savings and on the other hand, it makes images easier to load and adds to the user experience. So, people accessing your site from various devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops or desktops can have a brilliant experience when the site takes very less time to load.
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Better Search Engine Optimization- SVG files can boost your SEO efforts as its embedded text content can be indexed by all major search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Doesn't matter whether the file is directly embedded into the code or is a standalone file, it allows search engines to index the content properly. Besides, by increasing the downloading speed, it helps in securing good ranks with search engines.
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Good Web Browser Support- As mentioned at the outset, all major web browsers of present times including Chrome, Mozilla, and Safari support SVG. It means all SVG images on your site will be displayed properly regardless of what browser has been used to access the site.
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Easy to Use- One of the biggest plus point when using SVG is it can be utilized with almost all presently popular technologies like JavaScript, CSS, Ajax, and DOM. Thus, developers and programmers can make use of their existing knowledge while adopting SVG for their projects.
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Backward and Forward Compatibility- Being a backward and forward compatible format, SVG images can be used with all versions of systems, languages, and frameworks. Irrespective of the features of an SVG rendering engine, it can render what's possible for it and ignore the rest.
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Server-side Scripting- Programmers can create and manipulate SVG XML on server utilizing PHP, Python, .NET or any such other language or framework. It becomes an added benefit as no external assistance is required to use SVG when the programmer has reasonable knowledge of any language.
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Client-side Generation- If your site has some special requirements regarding creation and manipulation of SVG on the client side, you can use JavaScript. It allows you to create interactive animations and effects without making your site heavy, i.e. the site loads quickly.
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Accessibility- As SVG source code is developed in XML which is both human and machine-readable format, it can be read by a wide range of devices that are programmed to parse the source for creating images. This feature has made SVG one of the most popular image formats for web development projects.
Though there are a number of SVG conversion applications and tools that claim accurate conversion but many of them provide flawed results which need manual editing. Moreover, just selecting a perfect tool for vectorization is not enough, you also need to know the right process to do it. In fact, outsourcing your vectorization work to professionals seems to be the best alternative. Hiring such a professional or company can make you save good money also, as it saves you from investing in infrastructure, workforce, and technological tools.