SVG help Scalable vector graphics is a commonly used file format for providing a geometrical description of an image using basic objects such as labels, circles, lines, curves and polygons. An image can be reduced or enlarged to an arbitrary size, and will not suffer image data loss, nor will it become pixelated. SVG makes an excellent format for artwork, diagrams and drawings. SVG images are defined in XML text files. This means that they can be searched, indexed, scripted and, compressed. Since they are XML files, SVG images can be edited with any text editor, but SVG-based drawing programs are also available. However, the rendering engine used by wiki is not perfect, and may cause the image to be shown incorrectly, or differently from how it is displayed in your vector editor of choice. This page enables authors experiencing problems with SVG graphics to obtain some help in getting their images into wiki the way they intend. |
Things we can help with Understanding SVG
Using SVG appropriately
What you see is not what you get
Something new
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Common problemsTesting for problemsThe following SVG checkers may help you to detect SVG problems before you upload: flowRoot does not appearIf black box appear, read c:User:JoKalliauer/RepairFlowRoot how to solve this issue, but do not remove those objects since they might contain text. The workarounds that one can employ are either not to use flowed text (by using the text tool without creating a text field), or convert the text to normal text (by Text-editor or sed-comand, or with Inkscape-GUI or with a Inkscape-batch), but to stroke the text using "object to path", since path-text is not recomended and increases file-size. font-family issuesRendering anomalies of small fonts in thumbnail views Fallback fonts Due to copyright restrictions, MediaWiki cannot use proprietary fonts that are commonly found on several proprietary operating systems. Fonts such as Geneva require licensing fees to distribute. rsvg will not be able to locate such fonts, and the text will fail to appear in the rendered image. There are three solutions to this issue:
For ease of subsequent editing and significantly smaller file sizes, substituting the font with an available font is recommended. Many common fonts have non-proprietary alternatives that are similar in typographical style, resulting in minimal disruption to existing images during substitution. For a list of fonts available in Wikipedia, see available fonts on Meta. Wikimedia has default fonts, and will use Liberation Serif for Times New Roman and Liberation Sans for Arial. For further fallbacks see c:Help:SVG#fallback. Fonts that are available on Wikimedia servers may or may not be available on a visitor's machine. If the placement or appearance of text in the image is important and there is uncertainty about which fonts are installed on a visitor's machine, then converting text into path information may be necessary. bad letter-alignment on small font-sizeLibrsvg calculates the letter-distances inaccurantly for font-sizes of 20px and below. For a text like <svg viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<text x="20" y="30" font-size="5px">exampletext</text>
</svg>
you can replace it with: <svg viewBox="0 0 1000 1000" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<text x="200" y="300" font-size="50px">exampletext</text>
</svg>
or with <svg viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<g transform="scale(0.1)"><text x="200" y="300" font-size="50px">exampletext</text></g>
</svg>
Missing embedded JPEG imagesWhen a raster graphic is embedded in an SVG it is encoded into base64 data. That data is then assigned a MIME type in the <image> element. In the case of an embedded JPEG, the MIME type is "image/jpeg". Older versions of Inkscape (and possibly other editors) assigned the MIME type "image/jpg". While Inkscape and most web browsers will display such an SVG image just fine, the MediaWiki software that rasterizes the SVG file will have trouble with it. Not recognizing the MIME type "image/jpg" there will simply be an empty space where the image is supposed to be. The fix is to open the SVG file in a text editor, find the <image> element, locate "image/jpg", change it to "image/jpeg" and re-save. At right is an example of this problem. The Commons SVG Checker looks for this problem; see Commons:Commons:Commons SVG Checker/KnownBugs#Checks for details. Though Web browsers cope with image tags without width and height specified, librsvg ignores such images. arc flagsIf circle-segmentes are distorted it is often due to reduced spaces between arc-to-flags, see phab:T217990 for details. Further issuesFurther issues can be found at c:Librsvg_bugs or at Commons:Commons:Commons SVG Checker/KnownBugs, and examples can be found at c:Category:Pictures_demonstrating_a_librsvg_bug. However most issues (for files <1MB) can be fixed using https://svgworkaroundbot.toolforge.org/ (enable "run svgcleaner" and enable "run scour" before clicking convert), for a more detailed list check c:User:SVGWorkaroundBot. Rendering filesMediaWiki (the software from which Wikipedia is run) uses the librsvg-library 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 or OpenOffice.org SVG files, and does not recognize some formats in text-editor SVG files. The file manager GNOME Files or c:Commons:Commons_SVG_Checker relies on librsvg, so it can be used to check the quality before a SVG is uploaded. Rendering Inkscape filesThere is a simple work-around for the scarcities of librsvg. The operation "Stroke to Path", to be found under Menu>Path in Inkscape or via Ctrl+Alt+C, can be applied to all of the objects that are not rendered correctly. To keep the SVGs editable, this should only be done to the files intended for upload, and these files can be deleted afterwards. As of February 2014, the objects that must be modified to render correctly by librsvg include:
Rendering OpenOffice.org SVG filesOpenOffice.org SVG files may require manual modification before being uploaded to Wikipedia. To achieve this:
NB: Vector graphics line widths may also need to be set explicitly in OpenOffice.org Draw. SVG code replacement guide (executing replace all using Nedit regular expressions)
This SVG export procedure has been tested using OO 2.3.0 and OO 3.2.1 with a simple .odg candidate. Rendering text-editor SVG filesSVG files created from scratch in a text editor may make use of any valid SVG syntax, so long as your browser supports the given version of the SVG specification. On Wikipedia however, SVGs are interpreted by the librsvg-library to create PNG previews at different image sizes. That library only recognizes a subset of all valid SVG syntax, and may render your SVG without many features. In order to bypass these deficiencies in the library, there are certain parameters that need to be formatted in specific ways or be assigned a workaround value in order for librsvg to accurately render views of your SVG file. <mask> parameter maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse"The librsvg-library does not interpret the value of parameter stroke-dasharrayThe librsvg-library does not accept a Use xlink:href=, not href= alone, in
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I've uploaded .xlsx (Microsoft Excel) spreadsheets that automatically generate XML code for charts in SVG format.
You simply paste your X-Y data into the spreadsheet, and specify image dimensions, number of grid lines, font sizes, etc. The spreadsheet instantly and automatically generates a column of XML code that you simply copy and paste into a text editor and save as an ".svg" file. It produces lean SVG code, avoiding the "extra stuff" that Inkscape inserts, and should save you time.
Feedback and suggestions on my talk page are welcome. RCraig09 (talk) 23:41, 19 February 2021 (UTC)
- Warming stripes (download v3.8) produces XML code for applications of Ed Hawkins' warming stripes graphics. User chooses vertical or horizontal stripes; normal or reverse data ordering; or from a variety of geometric shapes (updated 3 June 2021).
- Click here to see examples of warming stripes embedded in different shapes.
- Warming stripes bar chart (download v1.0) Creates a bar chart whose individual bars/columns are coloured according to Dr. Hawkins' warming stripes colour scheme. Alternate option: choose one colour for ascending bars and another colour for descending bars. One dataset only (updated 27 Jan 2022).
- Line charts (download v2.2)— Accepts up to five datasets for LINE charts (example at right) (updated 25 Jan 2022).
- Vertical bar charts (column charts) (download v1.1)— Accepts up to six datasets for VERTICAL BAR CHARTS (COLUMN CHARTS)—toggle between clustered and stacked charts; user can adjust "Yfloor"—the Y level (usually=0) from which columns rise or fall; user chooses to keep or ignore negative input values (example at right) (updated 25 Jan 2022).
- Horizontal bar charts (download v1.0)— Accepts up to six datasets for HORIZONTAL BAR CHARTS—toggle between clustered and stacked charts; user can adjust "Yfloor"—the value (usually=0) from which bars extend; user chooses to keep or ignore negative input values (updated 27 Jan 2022).
- Scatter plots (download v1.0)— Accepts up to five datasets for SCATTER PLOTS (updated 25 Jan 2022).
- Pie charts (download v1.0)— Accepts a series of up to 36 items for PIE CHARTS (updated 26 Jan 2022).
See examples in Category:SVG diagrams created with spreadsheet.
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 hereafter 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.
An alternative source of help is Commons:Graphics village pump.
Current requests
Create a new request
Distortion effect with circle shapes
Hello. I recently became more familiar with using a text editor for more simple images, with inkscape being my previous main tool of choice. I still use inkscape to inspect my images after encoding them in text script, and have noticed a problem with my circles. When rotating a "perfect" circle it should always stay in the same measurements, for example a circle set to 500px should always be 500px no matter the degree of rotation. However when a circle is set as a stroke, it becomes distorted when rotated. This peculiarity can be observed with this file. The red circle is set as a stroke of the yellow one, instead of placing two path circles one over the other. When rotating the image in inkscape, the red circle that should remain at 500px instead distorts to other measurements such as 499.922px and 500.017px. This is only happening to circles set as strokes, the path circles behave as expected. I am observing this in other files as well. Is this just a peculiarity of text encoding? Placing two circles set as paths would solve the issue and I have no objection to using it, but some other users might find it objectionable because it would increase the code in a way they see as unnecessary. Is there any other solution? Fry1989 eh? 16:25, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
- @Fry1989: I've experienced similar micro-distortions using Inkscape, though they never made a difference big enough to be noticeable in my projects. I hypothesize the micro-distortions may be Inkscape's rounding errors in complex calculations like trigonometry. If accuracy and precision are that important, I use a text editor to correct. —RCraig09 (talk) 17:19, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
- The level of importance depends on the user. I am guilty as charged being a perfectionist, so it matters to me. Since it doesn't affect paths, as I stated I am perfectly fine using only paths. In fact, that was my standard way of going about it for the longest time. I just didn't know if it was my fault or a fault of text editing or something else. Thank you. Fry1989 eh? 18:51, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
- @Fry1989: You appear to be mixing up two different concepts.
path
is an element of SVG (as iscircle
);stroke
is an attribute that may be used on several SVG elements, includingpath
andcircle
. Here are the relevant documentation pages: - Attributes and properties are different ways of specifying the same information. This element uses attributes, and may alternatively be specified as
<circle cx="251" cy="251" r="212.5" fill="#ffd700" stroke="#d40000" stroke-width="75"/>
which does exactly the same thing using properties instead of attributes. Which you choose is largely personal preference. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:09, 13 January 2022 (UTC)<circle cx="251" cy="251" r="212.5" style="fill:#ffd700; stroke:#d40000; stroke-width:75;"/>
- Thank you for the further assistance. I'll have to play around and see how it goes. I am still learning. Fry1989 eh? 19:41, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
- @Fry1989: As a comparison, here's the same circle drawn using a path element, first using attributes then using properties: Each one is drawn as two semicircles, because I don't think that it's possible to use a single path command draw a non-point shape where the start and end points are coincident. The newlines are optional - I put them in to help distinguish the four path commands.
<path d="M 38.5,251 a 212.5,212.5 0 0,1 425,0 a 212.5,212.5 0 0,1 -425,0 z" fill="#ffd700" stroke="#d40000" stroke-width="75" /> <path d="M 38.5,251 a 212.5,212.5 0 0,1 425,0 a 212.5,212.5 0 0,1 -425,0 z" style="fill:#ffd700; stroke:#d40000; stroke-width:75;" />
- @Fry1989: As a comparison, here's the same circle drawn using a path element, first using attributes then using properties:
- Thank you for the further assistance. I'll have to play around and see how it goes. I am still learning. Fry1989 eh? 19:41, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
- @Fry1989: You appear to be mixing up two different concepts.
- The level of importance depends on the user. I am guilty as charged being a perfectionist, so it matters to me. Since it doesn't affect paths, as I stated I am perfectly fine using only paths. In fact, that was my standard way of going about it for the longest time. I just didn't know if it was my fault or a fault of text editing or something else. Thank you. Fry1989 eh? 18:51, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
- @Fry1989: Not sure if this is the effect you're seeing, but some renderers appproximate circles with cubic Bézier curves. The error is under 0.1%, though. Another possible effect is the anti-aliasing. I've found that if the same shape is drawn multiple times (on top of one another), the boundary starts looking ugly (e.g. in File:SVG_highlight_on_hover_template.svg, shapes are drawn multiple times to achieve the hover effecct). Cheers, cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 00:45, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
- Your example appears to be a slightly different issue. That file appears to have the exact same shapes drawn on top of themselves. My issue with File:Romanian traffic sign - II-02 Circulatia din ambele sensuri interzisa 1950+1957.svg (and similar images) is choosing between drawing a solid red circle and then a smaller solid yellow circle on top of the red one, or drawing a solid yellow circle and using a stroke to create the outer red circle. I am alright using the first method, although some other users won't like it because it does come with a larger file code than the second method. I also tried the code provided above, and in that case both the red circle and yellow one become distorted when rotated, so using <circle> instead of <path> appears to be the only way to avoid the problem. Fry1989 eh? 17:00, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
Our Darker Purpose text logo
Could someone please make a SVG logo of this text logo? --Trade (talk) 14:08, 23 January 2022 (UTC)
- Hi Trade,
- Try asking on Wikipedia:Graphics_Lab/Illustration_workshop. This page is more for issues with the Wikimedia thumbnail renderer.
- Cheers,
cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 02:11, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
Objects missing from image
For some reason, a bunch of objects are not showing up. I can't figure out why some show up and some don't. If you open the original file, it looks fine. I've reuploaded the file a couple of times with slight modifications thinking it would do something, but it didn't.
Does anyone know why this is happening? --Diriector_Doc├─────┤TalkContribs 18:05, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
- Hi Diriector Doc,
- Librsvg has a bug causing nested use tags to not render. I've worked around it as shown.
- Cheers,
cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 13:44, 4 February 2022 (UTC)