SVG was developed during the period 1999–2000 by a group of companies within the W3C after the competing standards PGML (developed from Adobe's PostScript) and VML (developed from Microsoft's RTF), both submitted to W3C in 1998, could not gain enough support for ratification. SVG was initially based on both those formats.
This image illustrates the difference between bitmap and vector images. The vector image can be scaled indefinitely without loss of image quality, while the bitmap cannot.SVG allows three types of graphic objects:
* Vector graphics
* Raster graphics
* Text
Graphical objects can be grouped, styled, transformed, and composited into previously rendered objects. Text can be in any XML namespace suitable to the application, which enhances searchability and accessibility of the SVG graphics. The feature set includes nested transformations, clipping paths, alpha masks, filter effects, template objects and extensibility.
