The use of Scalable Vector Graphics, better known as SVG, has long been a great way to create dynamic graphics on the web – just feed your ever-changing values into an SVG XML file and you've got an always up-to-date image. It's a great tool for displaying dynamic charts, graphics and other data visualizations on the web.
But of course, there are some issue with SVG, namely (what else?) inconsistent support across browsers. Eventually, SVG will likely enjoy native support in all the major browsers. In the mean time, there's a possible solution on the horizon – the SVG Web JavaScript Library.
SVG Web is a JavaScript library which provides SVG support for most browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. Combining the library with the native SVG support in many browsers brings you to a solution that reaches about 95 percent of the web.
That's pretty good by nearly anyone's standards, and the demos on the project's website show off some impressive tools – drag and drop photo editing, a Tetris knock off and more.
The only catch is that the SVG Web project is still in the early alpha stage and has quite a few bugs (several of the examples don't work with Firefox's native SVG support, though everything we tried did work with the Flash fallback option).
Still, despite the early alpha status, quite a few big names, including Wikipedia, are either currently using or working on projects that plan to use the SVG Web library. If you've been itching to get your SVG graphics on the web, but you've been hesitant due to browser compatibility issues, give SVG Web a try. And remember, if you find any bugs, be sure to add them to tracker.
To see what all SVG Web has to offer, check out the short demo video below.
[Hat tip to Simon Willison]
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