The Future of SVG

The Future of SVG

This section presents a few probable directions the future of SVG could take. When you’re designing SVG systems with an intended lifespan of more than a few years, it is prudent to review these future directions to ensure the system design is flexible enough to accommodate probable changes.

Direct Web Browser Support for SVG

Currently, major Web browsers are enabled for SVG via plug-ins, most notably the Adobe SVG Viewer. Gradually, SVG support will be added to the core capabilities of the major Web browsers, and it will no longer be necessary to install plug-ins separately. When this is achieved, vector graphics support will exist alongside bitmap graphics sup-port currently available in Web browsers.

New SVG Applications

New SVG applications will appear across a variety of application domains, including data visualization, games, and animation. The breadth of SVG applications will expand.

Expanding the Scope of SVG

Graphical applications that are currently realized using bitmap graphics will start using vector graphics in the form of SVG. The scope of SVG use will expand and it will dis-place the use of bitmap graphics in many areas, prime examples of which include map-ping and GIS applications.