Opera has released a beta of its browser, Opera 8 beta 3, with native support for Scalable Vector Graphics. SVG is an XML syntax for creating vector images, and allows an image to be rendered sharply irrespective of the display device.
This is the first time Opera has supported SVG natively. If this beta was fully released this would be the first browser to have native SVG. Mozilla Firefox is available with experimental native SVG support, but this isn't included in any released version of the browser.
SVG is a W3C standard and was first created in 1999. The latest version, 1.1, was ratified in January 2003, with version 1.2 being scheduled for release in May this year. SVG promises to greatly simplify the creation, transport and display of line-based graphics such as diagrams and graphs in Web pages.
In this beta Opera only supports a small subset of SVG designed for mobile phones, called SVG 1.1 Tiny, but this is enough for simple illustrations and images. Opera plans to support the full SVG specification in a later version of the browser, but was unable to say when this would be. Similarly, support for SVG Tiny is planned for Opera for Mobile, but again doesn't have a definite release date.
"We believe SVG will enter mainstream Web design in the future and we are very pleased to add native support in the Opera browser", says Hakon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera Software in a statement. Jon S. von Tetzchner, Opera's CEO, added that "it is only natural that Web browsers support Web technologies natively, rather than by having to keep adding plug-ins. By integrating SVG support, Opera continues its tradition of bringing innovation to the Web and setting the de-facto standard for Web browsers".
Although no released browser has native support for SVG, plug-ins are available for most browsers, such as Adobe's SVG Viewer. The advantage of native support should be that SVG can be embedded directly in XHTML documents, rather than created in separate files. Embedded SVG can't be used with HTML 4.01, since it needs XML namespaces to work. The W3C promotes a combination of XHTML, SVG and MathML for authoring technical and scientific documents.
