Everything you need to know about the svg file format

What is an svg file?

SVG standards for Structured Vector Graphics, unlike common image formats that record pixel colors, it stores the description of lines and curves as text files, that means you can scale it into any dimensions without loss of quality.
you can edit it with text editors or vector graphics editor(e.g. sviga), it can be rendered in any modern browsers as an image file.
Furthermore, the SVG standards also give it the ability to do simple animations.

Capabilities

• XML based vector image formats, lossless with any resolution
• Support animations, makes it an alternative choice for the GIF file
• Interactivity, like mouse hove or other events, but is seldom used.
• Support embed bitmap images. You can store curves and the rasterized image together in one file.

The advantages and disadvantages about svg file

Pros:

• Smaller size
• Vector image with lossless resolution.
• Interchangeable format for many editors.
• Support for animations

Cons:

• A small cost for rendering, especially when the file is big and complicated.
• For modern computers this is not a problem, because the hardware now is very fast, the image file only needs to be rendered once and can be cached for further displays.

What is the apps to make a svg file

The SVG format is actually a xml text file, theoretically you can create or change it with any text editors. but it is not possible when you want to do complicated artwork. lines,points, and curves are all represented using numbers, it is very hard if you can’t see the visual effects.
That is why vector graphics editors come into place. Many vector graphics editors exist even before the days of the svg standard. For example, Adobe illustrator, CoralDraw and many other apps are all that have been used for designers and artists since the PC became popular.
For the modern days, online editors like svgia become more and more popular.

Usages

The small sizes and high resolution makes it ideal for websites, where the transfer speed and visual effects matters.
It is also a standard interchangeable file format for many vector editors
The svg format supports basic capability of page description language like the PDF format, that makes it suitable for printing applications.

How to open an SVG file

You can open it with any browser, select the file in the explorer, right click and choose the ‘open with’ sub menu, then choose your favorite browser, and it will be displayed as an image.
Alternatively, you can just drag the file into the browser.

How to create and edit an SVG file

You can using an online editor like svgia to create and edit the svg file without any setup/installation.

1. Create an SVG file

Login into your svgia account, click the ‘create new’ button on the top left corner, and choose the size and name you want, then click ok, the new file will be created for you.

2. Edit an SVG file

Login into your svgia account, create an empty file, the click the menu button on the top bar, the choose ‘import from SVG’ menu, choose the SVG file you want to edit, you can see the file will be displayed in the workspace and you can do any changes afterwards.

3. Export the SVG file to local disk

Click the menu button on the top bar, then choose the ‘export as SVG’ menu item, choose the location and name you want to save, and that is done.
You can also export the file as the PNG format too. You can use the editor as an SVG to PNG converter by just importing and exporting.

What’s the difference between SVG and PNG/JPG files

SVG is a vector file that stores description of lines and curves, whereas PNG/JPG files only store rasterized images as pixel colors. PNG/JPG can become blurred when you scale it to a very large size. But SVG still keeps the resolution because it stores descriptions of basic glyphs.
PNG/JPG is suited for photos and other types of rasterized images, and SVG is great for digital arts like Logos, cartoons and digital arts.