Web 2D graphics file formats

The earliest Web browsers focussed on the display, of textual information. When graphics were added, essentially, only image graphics and image file formats were supported. For a significant range of applications, image graphics has severe limitations, for example in terms of file size, download time and inability to interact with and modify, the graphics client-side. Vector graphics may be more appropriate in these cases, and this has become possible through the introduction of the WebCGM and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) formats, both of which are open standards, the former from ISO/IEC and W3C and the latter from W3C. This paper reviews the background to Web graphics, presents the WebCGM file format, and gives a more detailed exposition of the most recent format, SVG. The paper concludes with reflections on the current state of this area and future prospects.