Allows 2D vector representation in a Web browser using free plugins. Stored as XML so can be created in a text editor, simpler than DHTML although you can use JavaScript to respond to object events such as drag-and drop, and animation. Note the JavaScript within <svg> tags is separate from that in the HTML when embedded (but both "blocks" of script can communicate and have the same syntax). It is an open standard that can do many of the things that MacromediaFlash does. However, in Sep06 AdobeSystemsInc announced their commercial decision to discontinue the support of Adobe SVG viewer by Jan08. That prompted a pessimistic report of the state of SVG by 
SVGopen 2006 chairman at http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2006/09/wherefore_art_thou_svg.html , despite reports of over 150 million shipments of SVGtiny equipped SmartPhone earlier in 2006.

http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/

Examples:http://www.adobe.com/svg/community/external.html

Downloadable SVG editing program at Inkscape http://www.inkscape.org and their wiki at 
http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl 

A PocketPc version exists at http://www.pocketsvg.com

There are also efforts to port to even smaller devices such as SVGTiny and SVGBasic. Version 1.1 of SVGTiny test suite was released in Dec06

A 3-Dimensional equivalent is VirtualRealityModelingLanguage, although SVG can be used with JavaScript to produce simple 3D as well.

You can convert bitmaps to SVG using the DelineateRasterToSvgConverter. Other conversion tools include RaveGrid (see http://www.lanl.gov/software/RaveGrid/), WMFtoSVG, ill2SVG etc 

I have a program running in RubyLanguage which uses RubyTk to output graphics onto a canvas. I am trying to figure out whether SVG will enable me to send the output instead to a web page, generated using RubyOnRails. If so, what software do I need and how much of it already exists? -- JohnFletcher