OSNews: SVG and Its Path Into the Linux Desktop

“Computer graphics have long been dominated by bitmapped images.
However, the free software community has taken an innovative lead
by adopting scalable graphic formats on its desktops. In this
article I cover the history and rise of scalable graphics on the
desktop from my viewpoint–a proponent of its use in the GNOME
platform. This article mostly focuses on SVG’s progress from a
GNOME viewpoint, both because GNOME has progressed the furthest and
because I am most knowledgable with GNOME’s efforts. I will however
mention major landmarks in other projects where appropriate.

“The rise of scalable graphics on the desktop has been enabled
by many factors. First and foremost is the W3C SVG XML based vector
graphics format. SVG provides us with an open, standard format for
creating such graphics. Using SVG has numerous advantages over
other scalable formats. Because it is an XML based file format, SVG
allows the creator to conveniently embed arbitrary information
inside of the file. Using this feature, an author can store
accessibility information or categorization information inside the
SVG file–two things that are useful for the indexing engines such
as Medusa and for query systems such as Dashboard…”

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