Wikipedia:SVG help
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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General suggestions editThe following is a list of common vector editors and suggested settings for compatibility. The user guide of your chosen program may also be valuable in troubleshooting. Browsers editMost modern browsers can render SVGs in view-only mode. It may be convenient to set a browser as the default SVG viewer, but you can also paste the file path into the address bar. Please note that even if your browser renders an SVG correctly, it may render differently on Wikipedia. Text editors editThe raw XML data behind SVG files can be viewed and edited in most text editors. This method works well for small changes, such as altering the color of a certain object. For larger edits, this method may be less desirable, as most text editors do not provide a rendered preview of the changes. Inkscape editThere 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:
OpenOffice.org editOpenOffice.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) edit
This SVG export procedure has been tested using OO 2.3.0 and OO 3.2.1 with a simple .odg candidate. Microsoft Powerpoint editIt is easiest to save entire slides from Powerpoint as svg rather than saving multiselected objects with right click / save as picture, because for entire slides the boundaries will be cropped to the size of the slide and the background will be set to white. To save slides as svg, use file / save as / browse / save as type --> svg. If your slide has text, open the exported svg into Notepad and replace all the existing font-family specifications with Text can also get chopped up on export, which causes rendering and localization bugs. To fix this, search for all Microsoft Visio editGenerating SVG charts from Microsoft Excel editI've uploaded .xlsx (Microsoft Excel) spreadsheets that automatically generate XML code for charts in SVG format. You simply paste or enter your 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. The spreadsheets produce lean SVG code, avoiding the "extra stuff" that Inkscape inserts. They should save you time in creating SVG charts. Feedback and suggestions on my talk page are welcome. RCraig09 (talk) 23:41, 19 February 2021 (UTC) Click HOW TO for detailed explanation.
Example SVG files: Category:SVG diagrams created with spreadsheet.
Text guidance editUse text over paths editConverting text in an SVG file into paths (shapes) increases file size, prevents localization/accessibility features, and complicates edits/modifications down the line. It is therefore generally disfavored, with some exceptions, such as text-based logos. The Wikimedia text renderer can introduce bugs as its fonts may differ from browser fonts or SVG editor fonts, but following the guidance below should minimize these errors. font-family property editDue 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. font-size property editFonts should be sized so that they look good as thumbnails on wikipedia pages and so they are easy to view on smartphones. Smartphones are how most people access wikipedia. Thumbnails are how most other people see images, as very few people click images and zoom them in to see them. Avoid using or creating images with fonts that are too small to be legible in thumbnail or smartphone views. The font size that appears in a thumbnail is a combination of svg width, thumbnail width, and font size. To match wikipedia font size as a thumbnail, use font-size = (63/(your upright value))*((your svg width)/1000). For instance, if the thumbnail will be scaled up to thumb upright=1.35 and your image has svg width of 960, set font-size in the svg to (63/1.35)*(960/1000) = 44.8. Background colors editTransparent backgrounds are fine, but do not think your image will always be displayed on a light or white background. The wikipedia smartphone app, for instance, renders images on a black background, so if you show black text on a transparent background it will be invisible. Testing for problems editThe following SVG checkers may help you to detect SVG problems before you upload: None of these checkers are foolproof, so it's wise to validate images. You can preliminarily validate images by uploading them to the shared, temporary-use location Test.svg, though other users may overwrite your image at any time. To force refresh images in your browser use Ctrl+F5 (Shift-Reload on Mac), so that you see the latest upload and not cached image copies (this is necessary even on wikimedia upload pages). Rendering SVG files editOn Wikipedia SVGs are interpreted by the librsvg-library to create PNG previews at different image sizes (to rasterize them). 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. Some issues are enumerated below, but be sure to test your SVG files before and after uploading them. <mask> parameter maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse" editThe librsvg-library does not interpret the value of parameter stroke-dasharray editThe librsvg-library does not accept a Use xlink:href=, not href= alone, in
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Assistance edit
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 edit
This page has archives. Sections older than 30 days may be automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III when more than 4 sections are present. |
2026 FIFA World Cup qualification eliminations edit
I am trying to edit recent eliminations from World Cup qualifying for this month, but I fear that I may screw up the process. The countries eliminated are Chinese Taipei, Turkmenistan, Hong Kong, Nepal, Pakistan, Turks and Caicos Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands. The image is File:2026 world cup qualification map.svg. Thank you. David Matoushek (talk) 03:26, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
Need code help regarding font and validation edit
Hello, could someone help me with 2 code issues. The SVG file was created with Inkscape.
1) I used the free font "Liberation Sans" in Inkscape and later added the fallback fonts manually into the code. But the tool SVG Check shows the following error: "*Warning* You appear to have specified a font that does not exist on Wikimedia wikis."
Excerpt from the current code:
</g>
<text
xml:space="preserve"
style="font-size:10px;font-family: ' Liberation Sans ', Arial, sans-serif;text-align:center;text-anchor:middle;fill:#231f20;stroke-linecap:round"
x="198.7005"
y="99.675446"
id="text5"
inkscape:label="text5"><tspan
sodipodi:role="line"
id="tspan5"
x="198.7005"
y="99.675446">Example</tspan></text>
<text
2) Regarding validation with the w3c validator I get the following error:
"Attribute data-name not allowed on SVG element svg at this point." which refers to line 12:
xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
Excerpt from the beginning of the code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<svg
id="Layer_1"
data-name="Layer 1"
viewBox="0 0 1938 930.5"
version="1.1"
sodipodi:docname="Project.svg"
inkscape:version="1.3.2 (091e20e, 2023-11-25)"
xmlns:inkscape="http://www.inkscape.org/namespaces/inkscape"
xmlns:sodipodi="http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/DTD/sodipodi-0.dtd"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<sodipodi:namedview
id="namedview107"
pagecolor="#ffffff"
bordercolor="#000000"
borderopacity="0.25"
inkscape:showpageshadow="2"
inkscape:pageopacity="0.0"
inkscape:pagecheckerboard="0"
inkscape:deskcolor="#d1d1d1"
inkscape:zoom="0.87516787"
inkscape:cx="1439.7238"
inkscape:cy="375.35656"
inkscape:window-width="1512"
inkscape:window-height="916"
inkscape:window-x="0"
inkscape:window-y="38"
inkscape:window-maximized="0"
inkscape:current-layer="Layer_1" />
<defs
id="defs1">
Your help would be much appreciated. Thank you. Abvdj (talk) 20:29, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
- @Abvdj: First, which image are you working on? Second, if posting snippets of SVG markup, please place them inside
<syntaxhighlight lang=xml>...</syntaxhighlight>
tags (see for example several of the posts at Wikipedia:SVG help/Archive 8). --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:01, 2 April 2024 (UTC)- The SVG is designed to visualize the complex pathology of a very rare metabolic disease. It is a flow chart. Thanks for the hint, I will integrate code better in the future. The goal is also that the svg file can be translated into several languages and can be updated later as research progresses. Abvdj (talk) 10:02, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
- Hi @Abvdj:
- 1) It's a known issue that the checker warns about fonts that it doesn't recognise, even if they are fallback ones, in this case, Arial. What you did was correct, so you can ignore this warning.
- 2) The error message states it clearly: the svg tag should not have an attribute called data-name. http://stackoverflow.com/a/15580322 explains that data-... attributes are not in SVG 1.1, the version Wikimedia currently uses.
- Hope that helps, cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 10:03, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
Gradients incorrectly rendered edit
The bottoms of the clouds in the first thumbnail are not transparent, as in the browser rendering or the second thumbnail. Would anyone know of a remedy?
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Simplified principle of travelling mattes
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Cartoon scenery
Secondly, in the first uploaded version, the radial gradient behind the lady (grad_studio in the source) is not rendered at all, giving just a solid grey. I think it's because its cy over 100%. I replaced it with a linear gradient in the second upload. Is this a known issue?
Thanks, cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 00:49, 15 April 2024 (UTC)
- It may be a completely different issue, but in earlier versions of this image: , the gradient didn't render. JoKalliauer solved the problem, apparently by using Inkscape to form that element. I don't understand why it works and my text editor attempt did not, or if it's relevant to your problem, but you could try Inkscape to form the element(s) in question. —RCraig09 (talk) 00:54, 15 April 2024 (UTC)