From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scalable vector graphics are a commonly used file format for providing a mathematical description of an image using basic objects such as labels, circles, lines, curves and polygons. By using a optimisation algorithm based upon the relative sizes of re-usable objects, one can create an image that has a smaller filesize, can be reduced or enlarged to an arbitrary size, and will not suffer image data loss, nor will it become pixelated. As such SVG makes an excellent format for printable artwork, specifications, diagrams and drawings including gigantic professional billboards.

However the rendering engine used by Wiki has a few careful considerations and a couple of bugs in it, and as such may cause the image to be shown incorrectly, or differently from how it is displayed in your vector editor of choice. This page is created to allow authors experiencing problems with SVG graphics to obtain some help and get their images into wiki the way the author intends.

[edit] Assistance

If you have a tricky SVG file with a problem not described, or can't quite figure out what the previous section was talking about, you can simply ask for assistance by posting a quick note below that outlines the problem, as well as providing links to the files that are exhibiting these problems. Don't forget to sign your name with four tilde symbols (~~~~) and an editor will attempt to reply here to help!

When you are happy that a request has been fulfilled, just leave a note so that the request can be archived later, as needed.

[edit] Rendering files

Mediawiki (the software from which Wikipedia is run) uses the program RSVG (librsvg) to rasterize all of its svg files. The version of the RSVG program that is installed on wiki does not always correctly raster the Inkscape SVG files. As such, Inkscape images must be modified before uploading to any wiki. To achieve this, simply perform "stroke to path" under the path menu in Inkscape whilst selecting all of the objects that need to be modified.

Objects that need to be modified include:

• Lines with arrow heads (the arrows need to be converted)
• Text
• Compound objects created with the binary path tools (union, intersect etc)

Failure to convert these objects appropriately, which is often not user error, may lead to incorrect Z-ordering, phantom black boxes or missing (not rasterized) objects. If operating on a system with RSVG installed, it may be a good idea to check the image before uploading to Mediawiki servers. If black boxes still appear after converting all objects appropriately, it may be necessary to hand-edit the XML to remove any rectangles with color FFFFFF (black), this can be easily done using the search tool of a text editor to locate rectangles or black objects.

Due to copyright restrictions, Mediawiki cannot use proprietary fonts that are commonly found on several proprietary operating systems. Fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman require licencing fees to distribute. As such RSVG will not be able to locate this fonts, making text fail to appear in rendered images. There are two solutions to this issue, firstly one can simply substitute a font that is available on wikipedia or alternatively one can convert the text into path information in inkscape. For ease of editing and (significantly) smaller file sizes, substituting the font with an available font is the recommended option. Many of the common fonts have non-proprietary alternatives that are very similar in typographical style, resulting in minimal disruption to existing images during substitution, for example Nimbus Roman is a possible replacement for Times New Roman .

The RSVG version used in Mediawiki requires the presence of x="0" y="0" to correctly calculate the bounding box for the object. Failure to have this can mean that the image will appear to be stretched or compressed in one direction when uploaded. Simply insert ``"x=0" y="0"`` into the opening SVG tag to remedy this. Newer versions of RSVG do not appear to be affected by this problem (confirmed for RSVG 2.16.1).

[edit] Requests for assistance

Create a new request

[edit] Inconsistent SVG rendering engines

Hi, I'm working with EasyTimeline and I'm getting problems with inconsistent svg rendering engines. See User:Dhatfield/Sandbox for an example. The inline render using the "timeline" tag generates a different output from the offline svg render of the same engine and Wikimedia generates a different appearance on the upload page than if you click on the image itself in Wikimedia. Can you please explain what is happening here? Dhatfield (talk) 14:36, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

comment - I have never used this "easytimeline" extention, but I will take a stab in the dark. Looking at your sandbox images there are only two differences between them that I note. One is that the font that is being used is slightly smaller on the wiki version than on your SVG version, and two the frame is absent. The font problem may stem from different fonts being used on wiki to your machine, can you specify a font size with the easy timeline extension thing? The frame absence is not really a SVG render thing as far as I can see - its how wikipedia is including the image. In the SVG the image is being generated by the "frame" tag in the image [[Image:Post_WWII_Tanks9.svg|center|Post-WWII tank development timeline 1945-2008: Tank deployment dates are approximated to the nearest year and the wars shown are a limited selection of those used in tank performance assessment|frame]]. This is not being set for the timeline itself - however I note that some of the example timelines have a background or a line running along one edge One and Two. Alternatively you could create a frame using some CSS/html; though it might look out of place - failing that you might be able to achieve a similar effect using transclusion, simply transclude the page and frame that. If none of those work, I would be talking to the author of the extension - because the rest of the image seems OK. Alternatively you could just go with the SVG and include the source of the timeline if anyone needs to regenerate it. User A1 (talk) 15:17, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, it looks like transclusion is exactly what I need, but I must be having a blonde day because I can't figure out how to apply image properties to a transcluded page. For example, [[Image:{{User:Dhatfield/Sandbox/Transclusion test}}|center|frame]] overrides the image tag and transcludes the page inside the text, and placing the parameters inside the transclude braces just ignores them. Thanks for your help. Dhatfield (talk) 18:03, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Resolution problem with Image:Post_WWII_Tanks.svg

Hi my first .svg uploaded. I join the land of the infinitely scaleable. Woohoo! Problem is that the nominal size assigned is 256x256. I then opened it in Inkscape and resaved it, but Inkscape cunningly doubled the file size and put it on an A4 page Image:Post_WWII_Tanks2.svg. I was hoping that I would be able to dynamically assign the size in both dimensions. Suggestions on how to solve this in future? Dhatfield (talk) 23:49, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

comment - You can specify the SVG's size by changing the number of pixels to render the page as, then grouping your objects and scaling them to fit the full page. In inscape, this can be done via the document properties (Shift+Ctrl+D). You can then set the size (in px) of the page, and make your objects fit that. User A1 (talk) 11:38, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Auagrouplogo.svg

I opened Inkscape, inserted the logo, saved it in the SVG format, uploaded it to wikipedia, but all that came out is a blue question mark in a middle of a white/grey sqaure pattern.

Another question: If I'm working on an A4 page, how do I cut out only the part that I want to upload?

What did I do wrong? Thanks,

Ferdinand h2 (talk) 17:28, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

I can't answer your first question as the image in question has been deleted - making it hard to diagnose. I would hazard a guess that perhaps you tried to make an SVG from simply cutting and pasting a raster (eg PNG or JPG) image into inkscape - that wont work as the information contained in the raster image is different to that of an SVG iamge. You have to use manual or automated tracing methods; inkscape has a built in tracer that I have previously used with mixed levels of success, highly dependant on the image content. As for your second question you can resize the document to fit the objects you are editing in the document properties window of inkscape. (file menu) User A1 (talk) 11:48, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Flow_Template_AI3.svg

(1) I am trying to use SVG for creating flowcharts, as I want the decision boxes to be easily searchable. I created an SVG file in Inkscape and cleaned it up in Adobe Illustrator and could see a tremendous decrease in file size (from 15 KB in Inkscape format, 12 KB Inkscape Plain SVG format to 3 KB opened, locked and saved SVG using Adobe Illustrator).

(2) When I use the image in a simple HTML file, I am able to open in IE (v7.0.6) with Adobe SVG viewer and Safari (3.1.1), but my Firefox (v2.0.0.14) always gives me the question: "You have chosen to open xxx.svg which is an SVG document. What should Firefox do with this file?...."

SVG files in Firefox renders well when served from a server (through a URL). However, when I copy the source to my local drive, it gives me the above question.

I searched posts and found that this is due to a MIME type problem. But none of them gave me a solution to fix it.

Can someone help me?

Kashivis (talk) 10:04, 18 May 2008 (UTC)Kashi

Hello Kashivis

this page might be worth a read - It states that firefox requires the incoming SVG to be in XML form or it won't like you. This seems more like a generic SVG problem, rather than a wikipedia related one - what is it that you want to do? You don't need to use html directly in wiki, except if you have very specific needs.

As for the reduction in file size, it may have come at a cost, as with almost all benefits. You will most likely have lost the inkscape namespace data, which may have been stripped out by Adobe's SVG parser. This usually includes information such as page viewing position, connector locations, tool options etc full list. You can do this in inkscape too, using save as "plain SVG". If you save a file as plain SVG and re-open it in inkscape, some of the more advanced "features" may have disappeared. A good example would be the 3D box tool - if you make a 3D box in inkscape, then save it as plain SVG the 3D box is no longer a 3D box, but becomes a a group of paths.

Finally to upload files, there is a box on the left hand side of this page, and indeed all wiki pages. There should be a box labelled "toolbox" - you can then select the "upload file" link and follow the instructions. Just don't forget to stick a licence your material or a bot/efficient editor will tag your file for deletion. Adding a licence is easy and well explained in the upload process User A1 (talk) 15:09, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Hello Kashivis,

reply- By actually looking at the SVG file data you uploaded (rather than embedded source code), then transferring it to a local file I am able to view it fine on my computer (using inkscape). When creating image pages, you dont just create a new page labelled "Image:blah.svg" and cut & paste the SVG code in there - you actually have to use the upload form. I'm still not clear why you want what appears to be some kind of printout form in wikipedia - what article to you plan to use it in?

As far as local opening in firefox, try creating a simple HTML page which links to your SVG file, rather than putting the SVG straight into firefox, this is a work-around and not a real solution. For firefox support (which this seems to be) you can read their SVG faq which has a section titled "Why am I asked to choose a program to open SVG files?" or post a question on their forums somewhere.

In the interests of readability, when replying to posts please don't update your post, but actually create a new section at the bottom of the current conversation, that way one can quickly read all the correspondence without having to look through the history. As a final note it is also considered to be improper etiquette to modify other author's posts, even if they (i.e. myself) are typing like a drunkard with internet access ;). Regards User A1 (talk) 08:36, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

comment This firefox plugin might be of interest. User A1 (talk) 08:38, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:BarsParams.svg

First I have a minor question about this image: why don't the bars appear? All I'm seeing is the two A's on a gray-checkerboard background, the bars don't show up until I view the .svg itself with Firefox by clicking on the checkerboard. I'm not too worried about that however unless the answer is that Wikipedia doesn't support "use" at all.

More importantly, what I haven't been able to figure out from any of the SVG manuals, documentation, and tutorials is how to pass parameters in SVG. I've been illustrating the Wikipedia math articles I write with figures where possible, sometimes using PostScript that I then have to convert to PNG or GIF because Wikipedia can't handle PS directly, and otherwise using SVG when possible so that the result will be scalable (like PS would have been if Wikipedia could handle it). PS to SVG would be great but all the extant PS2SVG converters either seem to have died of software rot or didn't work to begin with. Because SVG is (or seems to be) very primitive procedurally by comparison to Postscript there are many things I haven't been able to do directly in it. However I feel I could do vastly more with it if only parameter-passing were possible.

My BarsParams.svg image is intended as a trivial example where I would like to use parameter passing. I'd like to be able to declare a variable in g id="bars" , replace the constant text A (the text being printed between the two bars) in the definition of "bars" by the declared variable, and then bind that variable to different strings in each of the uses of "bars". Is this possible in SVG with "use"? Or should I bypass "use" and escalate the whole thing to Javascript? Or something else again? If Wikipedia SVG can't handle parameters period I'll just stick with Postscript-to-PNG hackery, but if it can it would be nice to know how. --Vaughan Pratt (talk) 05:17, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Comment Not sure how useful I can be here... I am not overly familiar with the spec enough to comment on the "use" tag. It seems that you can use the use element on any object, so cant you just tag your text with an ID say "#myTextID" then use it? My comments are entirely based upon the spec for the use tag, as I don't know enough about it to comment without experimentation.

As far as PS to SVG goes, I usually use ps2pdf, then import the PDF into inkscape (the latest inkscape has a PDF import). The objects are editable once they are imported and it seems to work. Let me know how you get on - I am interested to see how far this can be taken. User A1 (talk) 14:32, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Comment Hmm well inkscape wont render the bars, nor does rsvg, however firefox (3.0b5) does seem to render them. The SVG code looks fine from where I'm standing - curious. I'd relegate it to the "bug" drawer, except for the fact that the programs must be parsing the use tag to get to the text! I would say that one would need to have a greater understanding of the RSVG internals. If you feel enthusiastic enough, you could probably take this to the librsvg or inkscape support page and ask if its a bug, or if we have missed something. Any way you look at it *someone* is wrong, 'cause firefox gets it OK. User A1 (talk) 14:41, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image dimensions on description page

On Talk:European Union#Image map of the EU, there has been some discussion about Image:Location European Union.svg (also see the image talk page). Some editors prefer a fixed-size PNG for the sole reason that the SVG image turns out very small on the description page. Remember, the description page is often used by readers, not only editors, to view a larger version of the image. Of course, everyone prefers an SVG (there's also a projection discussion going on, but that's unrelated) if it can only be enlargened on the image description page. Help needed. -- Jao (talk) 12:57, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

fixed See Image:Location European Union-rescale.svg I have rescaled the image. SVG images have a number of pixels embedded into it which is used to identify the size of the raster when it needs to be performed, such as when wiki generates its preview images. I have made this image such that it rasters with 1,427 × 628 pixels instead of the previous 250 x 170 pixels. The physical size embedded in the image is now set such that when it is printed it should completely fill (from edge-edge) an A4 page. At least I can solve one problem today! User A1 (talk) 15:26, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

There's something green in the Sahara.Tomeasy_talk 15:41, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

comment Glentamara appears to have solved that problem. Though this will also be the case in the non-rescaled version as well - just hard/impossible to see in the rastered version. User A1 (talk) 00:45, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:McDonaldsLogo200A.svg

I followed the instructions at the top of this article regarding Inkscape SVG compatibility with Wikipedia. I selected the object (which was the entire image), then clicked "Stroke to Path" under the Path menu. I then uploaded it to Wikipedia. All it gave me was a blank image with the name of the file on it. The image wasn't even in the proportions of the original once uploaded. Wikipedia acted like the image didn't even exist.

The image in question does not exist. You appear to have imported a png (raster) graphic into an SVG file. When I opened the file in inkscape I get "linked image not found". Browsing the image source shows that you have linked to an image "C:\C:\DOCUMENTS\Pictures\McDonaldsLogo.png"; This exists only on your computer - not on Wikipedia. As such attempting to render this simply won't work, wikipedia has no idea what the contents of the linked file actually is. Simply cutting and pasting raster graphics into an SVG file does not actually render the data in vector form - to do this you must either use automatic image tracing tools (the quality of the result is highly variable and depends upon the image's content) or manually trace/redraw it.

As an aside, fair use images in SVG format is very murky waters indeed, owing to their (theoretically) infinite scalability - I wouldn't be surprised if someone objects to it. User A1 (talk) 11:17, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Dielectric_responses.svg

This image has problems in the PNG preview shown on the Image: page. Earlier versions had much worse problems. What exactly is meant by "installing RSVG"? I have librsvg2-2.22.2-1.fc9.i386 installed, but don't know what programs use it. Which version is wikipedia using now? I did notice some glitches in the file browser preview dialog which firefox 3 beta 5 puts up when you click on the "browse" button to fill in the path to file to upload, suggesting that librsvg2 might even be being used in the file browser. But the artifacts were nowhere near as bad as on wikipedia. Is there a way to see the PNG file wikipedia will generate without uploading (and permanently storing) the SVG file?

Archimerged (talk) 00:00, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

RSVG's front end will allow you to generate the same file as wiki does. When you install librsvg you also should find that it installs an associated python script called "rsvg". If you have a unix box you can try "rsvg" at the command line. I will reply in a more full fashion soon. User A1 (talk) 01:03, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. That works. I notice that rsvg version 2.22.2 correctly rasterizes images such as 20080427112630%21Dielectric_responses.svg. Wikipedia needs to upgrade to a more recent version. Archimerged (talk) 09:25, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Agreed - it seems that the version they use is moderatly outdated. Anyway, it looks like you were able to solve this one yourself; Pop a reply back here if you want me to take a look at anything. User A1 (talk) 14:44, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Black background when printing

When I print the articles group (mathematics) and modular lattice, the SVG images have a black background. The server converts the images into PNG, and my guess is that they have a transparent black background, even though this doesn't seem to make any sense. Is this a bug or a feature? What can I do about this? --Hans Adler (talk) 12:38, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

This really isn't an SVG question, and it works for me (firefox, Mac OSX & Fedora Core 7). I would suggest using firefox as a web-browser, rather than Internet Explorer, if that is what you are doing. IE has never supported PNG transparency correctly - could be your problem. Alternatively you could try sending it through a PDF first. Anyway, if you don't want to do that or that isn't the case, try over at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) - its more likely someone there can solve your problem. Sorry for passing the buck. User A1 (talk) 15:52, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm, the images I mean are definitely SVG. I don't know why they are served as PNG to me. I am using Firefox 2.0.0.14 on Windows XP, and I print to a LaserJet 1020. (To clarify: I am talking about printing the pictures as part of the page.)

What's funny is that I had not tried Internet Explorer because it didn't even display the images correctly in print preview. But now it turns out it prints correctly (at least the pictures on modular lattice). Weird. --Hans Adler (talk) 16:01, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:World_War_II_Casualties.svg

Please take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:World_War_II_Casualties.svg -- why does it not render when embedded into a page but shows OK when opened directly as an SVG? TheShadowed (talk) 07:02, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Fixed A few things going on here. I inserted the x="0" y="0" in the opening XML tag of the SVG file using a text editor. I also replaced the flag of Hungary, which was an image file called "pastedpic_04182008_164253.png" which would have caused Hungary's flag to not have appeared. When editing SVG images for uploading to wiki, do not include any raster graphics (png,bmp, jpg etc) elements as the SVG does not (nor should it) embed the image, it merely links to it, such that when you move the file, the raster graphics components disappear. Anyways, I'll tag this as resolved, but let me know if it needs more attention. User A1 (talk) 13:52, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for fixing things up! The problem is, it was a standard SVG created by Inkscape. I do not understand how to save it with the GUI (and not with an XML editor) for it to look and act OK. I also think we need to put up some sort of a guide for creating SVGs with Inkscape, since it seems to be the most popular and widely used SVG editor out there. TheShadowed (talk) 05:45, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Comment No problems. Unfortunately there is no way to use the GUI (Inkscape) to do this because the Inkscape is doing things correctly - RSVG is not. This is why when you click on the SVG it goes back to normal, because you use your browser's renderer (i assume firefox, IE doesn't support SVG if I recall correctly) does the rendering and gets it right (many elements are not supported by firefox 2.x, such as gaussian blurring). This problem would resolve itself if Mediawiki would update their version of RSVG, which renders the images correctly; but they still appear to be using an older version. I made this page for solving these problems and this page for using inkscape. Feel free to add things to either page if you think they need to be there. An editor recently gave a link to a list of available fonts (i.e. not proprietary fonts) that wiki can legally render - this should be mentioned somewhere more obviously. User A1 (talk) 06:40, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:OODA.Boyd.svg

Please take a look at the OODA.Boyd.svg file that I posted on Commons. I had to make arrow heads to paste on top of the arrowheads that I made with the Inkscape software because they did not come through. I have also noticed that vertical text does not come through. Maybe the failure to work properly is because I have saved files as "standard svg" rather than "inkscape svg."

I've also noticed that text blocks that look correct in svg may get moved when Wikipedia turns them into png images for display. See: Image:Attosecond Double-Slit Experiment.svg

Firefox displays the svg files without any problem. It's the png files that are off. P0M (talk) 15:23, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

It looks like I should try the hints above. Sorry that I did not see them when I followed a link to get here.P0M (talk) 19:39, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

No worries, let me know if you are still having problems, then I will take a look at them. User A1 (talk) 00:15, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Win-like-userbox.svg

The alignment of objects isn't correct (dark boarder of diamonds is bigger on right than left -- funny, when viewed small, it's almost like the opposite is happening in Inkscape). What's going on? I made this in Inkscape, and I converted objects and strokes to path, but that didn't help. Althepal (talk) 19:08, 14 April 2008 (UTC) Hello, Althepal.

I can't look at this immediately, real world constraints, etc. I will examine it later, but a quick note: As far as I can see, you shouldn't need to convert objects to path, only markers (eg arrowheads) and text. Everything else should be fine and will reduce the filesize if you don't convert everything to a path object. Anyway, if you have a screenshot of what the image *should* look like (i.e. a raster image), that would help. User A1 (talk) 01:53, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I didn't think that I needed to do anything with path, seeing as I didn't have text, but I did anyway just in case. There is a PNG linked to from the other picture. You can see that some edges of the diamonds are darker, or the light centers of the diamonds are not centered to the dark boarders. I noticed similar, though not really damaging, problems with a couple other svgs I made (the shadow on Image:AlthepalHappyface.svg isn't centered, for example). Althepal (talk) 03:07, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Comment I will hazard a guess as to the problem and the image to the right may illustrate my point. The image is the division of the RSVG rastered bitmap of a blurred circle with the inkscape bitmap of the same image. This should be exactly the same, but its not.

This circle should be a uniform colour. The fact that it is not indicates that the gaussians being used to blur the images are not the same for some reason when using RSVG vs inkscape

It appears that the application of a gaussian blur in inkscape and the application of the same in RSVG result in different images' when rastered. Personally I think it is a bug in either RSVG or inkscape. One would have to calculate the correct answer to find the culprit (it could be both!). It is possible it is related to inkscapes use of IIR filters, but I find that unlikely. My suggestion is you grab yourself a copy of RSVG, this is easy under a unix OS eg Linux or Mac, linux just use your package manager yum or apt-get or use fink or darwinports for mac. Windows? I have no idea if someone has made a windows binary. Then I recommend trying to over-do the gaussian blur in inkscape, then check the result as rendered by RSVG on your local computer, upload that to wiki to when you are happy with it.

Its not the neatest solution, but you could spend more time figuring out who is at fault, or ask around on the inkscape forums & rsvg forums to get others to help you there, then submit a bug to the appropriate software package - assuming there isn't already one. Remember that this is all educated conjecture. User A1 (talk) 12:27, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Flype.svg

I made this file with Inkscape and I tried adding the x="0" y="0", but I still can't see it and I'm not sure it worked. Can someone please help me fix this file? - Jkasd 20:27, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Fixed - It would appear that the objects in the diagram were somewhere outside the page boundaries. I simply zoomed out in inkscape, selected the objects, then moved them onto the page & resized the page boundary to fit the image. Secondly I converted the text into path objects, also the same with the arrow head. Let me know if this is not how it is supposed to look User A1 (talk) 01:35, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, it looks great. - Jkasd 06:16, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:ZirconiumOutput.svg

I could not see this SVG, I uploaded, on my IE7.Anwar (talk) 10:27, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Zirconium2005.svg

Anwar (talk) 13:08, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] SVG editor

Which software should I use to open a SVG file?Anwar (talk) 12:17, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] PNGphobia

Why all Portable NG images need to be converted into Scalable VG? I can start editing PNG images instantly from Microsoft Paint. Its resolution is higher and the file size is smaller in comparison to SVG. For instance, this derivative SVG image is 26 times larger than the original PNG image I uploaded. It means the web page loaded quicker even with a higher resolution PNG than with a lower resolution SVG.

It is better to confine SVG versions to Commons and not replace each and every article with it. Else, each page is load slower and slower.

Change policy to run wikipedia faster.Anwar (talk) 12:21, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Hello Anwar, I will try to answer your questions one at a time.

• I think there may be some confusion between what a vector graphic provides and what a PNG provides. A PNG is a raster graphic, consisting of a colour for each pixel, which is then compressed when writing the final file (among other things); As such it has a fixed resolution (number of pixels). An SVG is a Scalable Vector Graphic, and is a mathematical description of a picture, it defines lines and curves, as well as colours to fill those curves in with (an example of an SVG opened with a text editor is below). However the actual image, if someone wants to make it the size of a large poster, would look blocky and pixelated if it was a bitmap (png) at close range. If it was an SVG, it would look as good as your poster printer could make it.

• Policy on which images to use in which circumstance is fairly well defined. If its a photo of a real scene, use JPEG or PNG. I will get back to you in about 8 hours with links to some appropriate pages. Whilst I am certainly in no position to make accurate judgements, it would seem to me that much time is spent on making wiki run as fast as it can - SVG/png is a good example

• Wikipedia uses a command line program under unix to render the SVG into a PNG, such that browsers like IE can more readily render this image correctly. When you view the web-page you don't actually view the SVG until you click on it. What you see is a PNG that is automatically generated for a fixed resolution.

• Microsoft paint is a terrible image editing software package. I highly recommend GIMP for image editing raster graphics. Like photoshop it takes time to get used to using it, but once you do it is worth it.

• For editing scalable vector graphics, I highly recommend Inkscape. But remember, once you have makde a PNG of your SVG (rastering), you cannot return back to the original SVG as information is (often) discarded in this process.

I hope that this helps your questions. Meanwhile I will look at your image and see what I can find. User A1 (talk) 16:32, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

It appears that there is two reasons why you cannot see anything, I verified this by opening the SVG file (which is uses the XML language) in a text editor kwrite (notepad would work). I was able to see that the x="0" y="0" bug (see above example) has shown its ugly head again :( and thus the bounding box of the image is being incorrectly calculated. Manually inserting this fixes that problem. Secondly and more importantly the SVG file appears to reference a "C:\maps\BlankMap-World.png" as a linked image file.

Here is the offending XML tag from the file:

<image xlink:href="C:\maps\BlankMap-World.png" sodipodi:absref="C:\maps\BlankMap-World.png" width="1425" height="625" id="image2466" x="0" y="0" style="fill:#000000;fill-opacity:1" />

When this has been uploaded,the link is no longer valid (in fact if it is on a computer that either a) doesnt have C:\ (ie any non-windows computer) or b) doesnt have the file "C:\maps\BlamkMap-World.png", then the link is lost, so it has no idea what was in the file. This has occured when being uploaded to wiki. I would guess that maybe one cannot insert a bitmap directly into an SVG file, but only as a link (I dont know this, but I am providing an educated guess).

I will attempt to insert the original blankmap used in this image as an SVG (is it Image:BlankMap-World6,_compact.svg?), reduce the detail in the territorial boundaries and then upload that.... later (8hrs?). Hope this helps User A1 (talk) 17:04, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Response - OK, so I used an SVG version for the world map (Image:BlankMap-World6,_compact.svg) as the background map, then resized it appropriately. I modified the thickness on the territory boundaries by using a slightly thicker stroke - Not sure that that was a good idea, now the edges of the map (esp. around northern canada) appear slightly blurred. Anyway, the image itself is now most likely incorrect as the projection between the two maps was slightly different :(. If you can move the bubbles back to where they are supposed to be, and re-upload the file, then everything should be fixed. Let me know how you go. User A1 (talk) 06:00, 13 April 2008 (UTC)