SVG?

[GiddyupGilbert]

You hear more and more about SVG and vector graphics for the WEB. Is that in the form of .EPS or what? Thanks for any input.

[wizard509]

This from:

http://www.quora.com/Adobe-Illustrat...be-Illustrator

I don't know if this is good information but here it is anyway.

Adobe Illustrator: Is there a preference between working with EPS or SVG files on Adobe Illustrator?
I am making a figure with matplotlib that has many vector features (1e5 or 1e6) to be rendered. I'd like to further tweak the figure in Illustrator, and I have the option of generating either an SVG or EPS. Which one will be better to work with?

3 Answers

Jim Thornton, digital strategy
Votes by Sherry Samples and Belle Vasquez.
I disagree with Artur Muller.

Simply put, SVG was designed for the web and EPS is intended for print.

SVG can be edited with a text editor and it follows a readable XML format. You can find and replace colors, text effects, etc.. Web crawlers can see the text because its an XML structure.

The concerns about SVGZ are concerns about compression, not SVG format, and issues with data lost which is, by definition, what happens with compression. It's unrelated to SVG vs EPS. And you don't need to compress because most image SVG files are typically under 100kb and often under 60kb.

Checking matplotlib documentation, support is availabe for both svg and eps. If you're using it in a web application server, you can still use either SVG or EPS:

Matplotlib in a web application server
http://matplotlib.org/faq/howto_...
Many users report initial problems trying to use maptlotlib in web application servers, because by default matplotlib ships configured to work with a graphical user interface which may require an X11 connection. Since many barebones application servers do not have X11 enabled, you may get errors if you don’t configure matplotlib for use in these environments. Most importantly, you need to decide what kinds of images you want to generate (PNG, PDF, SVG) and configure the appropriate default backend. For 99% of users, this will be the Agg backend, which uses the C++antigrain rendering engine to make nice PNGs. The Agg backend is also configured to recognize requests to generate other output formats (PDF, PS, EPS, SVG).


Upvote • Comment • Written 14 Jan
Jim Thornton
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2

Artur Müller, I like my curves with handles...
Vote by Sérgio Pinto.
I would go with EPS. Mostly because it will probably give you more flexibility then SVG when re-saving and editing the file.

Looking into Illustrator documentation, here are some differences between working with the two formats, starting with EPS:

The EPS format preserves many of the graphic elements you can create with Adobe Illustrator, which means that EPS files can be reopened and edited as Illustrator files. [...] If your artwork contains multiple artboards, these artboards are preserved when you save to EPS format.


SVG on the other hand:

SVGZ [compressed version of SVG] can reduce file sizes by 50% to 80%; however, you cannot edit SVGZ files using a text editor.


So you are saving some space here but I would also expect that compressed SVG might be slower to open and save. Not something you want to suffer through with an extremely complicated file.

When you save artwork in an SVG format, mesh objects are rasterized. In addition, images that have no alpha channel are converted to the JPEG format. Images with an alpha channel are converted to the PNG format. If your document contains multiple artboards and you save to SVG, the active artboard is preserved. You cannot save individual artboards as separate SVG files.


Seems like SVG format tries to do some optimisation here, but I personally quite dislike when things like converting images and rasterizing meshes are done automatically, especially because this is exactly the kind of stuff where your file can get all messed up and it gets very tedious to troubleshoot.

Also keep in mind that EPS is still a very popular format when supplying your artwork to the printers, whereas SVG is primarily for the web.

More detail in Illustrator documentation: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illu...

Upvote • Comment • Written 27 Jul, 2012
Artur Müller
1

Quora User
I agree with Artur - EPS is a more established and powerful format.

However, once you get your source into Illustrator, you may find the best results come from working with it as a native Illustrator (.ai) file. I don't know if EPS or SVG support all the new fancy goodies that Illustrator offers (like gradient paths, etc.). Regardless, AI probably works best with files in its own format, at least during the creating & editing stages of your project.

To summarize, I suggest exporting your original data as EPS, import it into Illustrator, then do your tweaking, refining, and enhancing as a native Illustrator file. What you need to do with the finished product will drive your final output choice (but that's an entirely different matter).

[handrawn]

in a nutshell - Scalable Vector Graphic was devised as a vector alternative to a raster image file such as JPG or PNG - I believe modern hand-held devices make more use of vector images in their display [but I don't have one]

[GiddyupGilbert]

I would like to thank you for the detailed information put since my initial question. I have a great deal more to learn, but this makes things a lot clearer. I knew EPS was mainly for the print industry. I did that for about 23 years. I'm new to SVG and was curious because I just began noticing talk about it fairly recently. If SVG is useable in WEB work it could be a lot easier to work with in the long run. I just noticed, for the first time today, that in XaraX9 you can export as SVG. It would also be neat if you could import into video editing programs as well. Thanks again for the knowledgeable input by the Wiz. I'm sure Illustrator is great, but XaraX9 does everything I need at the moment. And I only use Photoshop for the "Magic Wand."

[gwpriester]

Think of SVG as the new Flash.

[mwenz]

Well, think of html5 manipulating svg assets as a replacement for flash, which (flash) doesn't work on most mobile devices.

[gwpriester]

Flash does not work on most mobile devices because Apple decided not to support Flash in their ongoing pissing contest with Adobe. (Sorry but those are the best words to describe this nonsense--Like two bald headed men fighting for a comb). You can get Flash players for mobile devices that work just fine.

[wjg]

The problem with SVG is that is has a limited set of colors, and other features. Vector graphics created in applications like Illustrator, CorelDraw or Xara Pro and employing all the features and extras those applications can bear, may not convert well to SVG especially if the vectors have transparencies and fills.

[Egg Bramhill]

And I've yet to see a program that manipulates svg's in a straigh forward way. Flash was excellent for this. Can anyone name a program that replaces Flash re this situation?

[mwenz]

And I've yet to see a program that manipulates svg's in a straigh forward way. Flash was excellent for this. Can anyone name a program that replaces Flash re this situation?

While I only played with this a couple times back when it first appeared on the scene, have you tried Hippo Animator?
https://www.hippostudios.co/?S=Anima...imatorFeatures

if I recall, I didn't have any issues getting SVG out of XDP and into it, albeit fairly simple ones. It's drawing interface for creating vector graphics was OK, suppose to be improved.

Mike