Document Structure

Defining an SVG document fragment: the 'svg' element

Overview

An SVG document fragment consists of any number of SVG elements contained within an 'svg' element.

An SVG document fragment can range from an empty fragment (i.e., no content inside of the 'svg' element), to a very simple SVG document fragment containing a single SVG graphics element such as a 'rect', to a complex, deeply nested collection of container elements and graphics elements.

An SVG document fragment can stand by itself as a self-contained file or resource, in which case the SVG document fragment is an SVG document, or it can be embedded inline as a fragment within a parent XML document.

The following example shows simple SVG content embedded inline as a fragment within a parent XML document. Note the use of XML namespaces to indicate that the 'svg' and 'ellipse' elements belong to the SVG namespace:



   
   
      
   
   

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This example shows a slightly more complex (i.e., it contains multiple rectangles) stand-alone, self-contained SVG document:

'svg' elements can appear in the middle of SVG content. This is the mechanism by which SVG document fragments can be embedded within other SVG document fragments.

Another use for 'svg' elements within the middle of SVG content is to establish a new viewport. (See Establishing a new viewport.)

In all cases, for compliance with the Namespaces in XML Recommendation [XML-NS], an SVG namespace declaration must be provided so that all SVG elements are identified as belonging to the SVG namespace. The following are possible ways to provide a namespace declaration. An 'xmlns' attribute without a namespace prefix could be specified on an 'svg' element, which means that SVG is the default namespace for all elements within the scope of the element with the 'xmlns' attribute:


  

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If a namespace prefix is specified on the 'xmlns' attribute (e.g., xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"), then the corresponding namespace is not the default namespace, so an explicit namespace prefix must be assigned to the elements:


  

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Namespace prefixes can be specified on ancestor elements (illustrated in the above example). For more information, refer to the Namespaces in XML Recommendation [XML-NS].

The 'svg' element

Attribute definitions:

version = "<number>"
Indicates the SVG language version to which this document fragment conforms.
In SVG 1.0 [SVG10], this attribute was fixed to the value '1.0'. For SVG 1.1, the attribute should have the value '1.1'.
Animatable: no.
baseProfile = profile-name
Describes the minimum SVG language profile that the author believes is necessary to correctly render the content. The attribute does not specify any processing restrictions; It can be considered metadata. For example, the value of the attribute could be used by an authoring tool to warn the user when they are modifying the document beyond the scope of the specified base profile. Each SVG profile should define the text that is appropriate for this attribute.
If the attribute is not specified, the effect is as if a value of 'none' were specified.
Animatable: no.
x = "<coordinate>"
(Has no meaning or effect on outermost svg elements.)
The x-axis coordinate of one corner of the rectangular region into which an embedded 'svg' element is placed.
If the attribute is not specified, the effect is as if a value of '0' were specified.
Animatable: yes.
y = "<coordinate>"
(Has no meaning or effect on outermost svg elements.)
The y-axis coordinate of one corner of the rectangular region into which an embedded 'svg' element is placed.
If the attribute is not specified, the effect is as if a value of '0' were specified.
Animatable: yes.
width = "<length>"
For outermost svg elements, the intrinsic width of the SVG document fragment. For embedded 'svg' elements, the width of the rectangular region into which the 'svg' element is placed.
A negative value is an error (see Error processing). A value of zero disables rendering of the element.
If the attribute is not specified, the effect is as if a value of '100%' were specified.
Animatable: yes.
height = "<length>"
For outermost svg elements, the intrinsic height of the SVG document fragment. For embedded 'svg' elements, the height of the rectangular region into which the 'svg' element is placed.
A negative value is an error (see Error processing). A value of zero disables rendering of the element.
If the attribute is not specified, the effect is as if a value of '100%' were specified.
Animatable: yes.
preserveAspectRatio = "[defer] <align> [<meetOrSlice>]"

See 'preserveAspectRatio'.

If the attribute is not specified, then the effect is as if a value of 'xMidYMid meet' were specified.

Animatable: yes.

contentScriptType = "content-type"

See 'contentScriptType'.

contentStyleType = "content-type"

See 'contentStyleType'.

zoomAndPan = "disable | magnify"

See 'zoomAndPan'.

If an SVG document is likely to be referenced as a component of another document, the author will often want to include a 'viewBox' attribute on the outermost svg element of the referenced document. This attribute provides a convenient way to design SVG documents to scale-to-fit into an arbitrary viewport.

Grouping: the 'g' element

Overview

The 'g' element is a container element for grouping together related graphics elements.

Grouping constructs, when used in conjunction with the 'desc' and 'title' elements, provide information about document structure and semantics. Documents that are rich in structure may be rendered graphically, as speech, or as braille, and thus promote accessibility.

A group of elements, as well as individual objects, can be given a name using the 'id' attribute. Named groups are needed for several purposes such as animation and re-usable objects.

An example:

A 'g' element can contain other 'g' elements nested within it, to an arbitrary depth. Thus, the following is possible:




  Groups can nest
  
     
       
       
     
   

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Any element that is not contained within a 'g' is treated (at least conceptually) as if it were in its own group.

The 'g' element

Overview

SVG allows graphical objects to be defined for later reuse. To do this, it makes extensive use of IRI references [RFC3987] to these other objects. For example, to fill a rectangle with a linear gradient, you first define a 'linearGradient' element and give it an ID, as in:

...
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You then reference the linear gradient as the value of the 'fill' property for the rectangle, as in:


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Some types of element, such as gradients, will not by themselves produce a graphical result. They can therefore be placed anywhere convenient. However, sometimes it is desired to define a graphical object and prevent it from being directly rendered. it is only there to be referenced elsewhere. To do this, and to allow convenient grouping defined content, SVG provides the 'defs' element.

It is recommended that, wherever possible, referenced elements be defined inside of a 'defs' element. Among the elements that are always referenced: 'altGlyphDef', 'clipPath', 'cursor element', 'filter element', 'linearGradient', 'marker element', 'mask element', 'pattern', 'radialGradient' and 'symbol'. Defining these elements inside of a 'defs' element promotes understandability of the SVG content and thus promotes accessibility.

The 'defs' element

The 'defs' element is a container element for referenced elements. For understandability and accessibility reasons, it is recommended that, whenever possible, referenced elements be defined inside of a 'defs'.

The content model for 'defs' is the same as for the 'g' element; thus, any element that can be a child of a 'g' can also be a child of a 'defs', and vice versa.

Elements that are descendants of a 'defs' are not rendered directly; they are prevented from becoming part of the rendering tree just as if the 'defs' element were a 'g' element and the 'display' property were set to none. Note, however, that the descendants of a 'defs' are always present in the source tree and thus can always be referenced by other elements; thus, the value of the 'display' property on the 'defs' element or any of its descendants does not prevent those elements from being referenced by other elements.

To provide some SVG user agents with an opportunity to implement efficient implementations in streaming environments, creators of SVG content are encouraged to place all elements which are targets of local IRI references within a 'defs' element which is a direct child of one of the ancestors of the referencing element. For example:

In the document above, the linear gradient is defined within a 'defs' element which is the direct child of the 'svg' element, which in turn is an ancestor of the 'rect' element which references the linear gradient. Thus, the above document conforms to the guideline.

The 'desc' and 'title' elements

Each container element or graphics element in an SVG drawing can supply a 'desc' and/or a 'title' description string where the description is text-only. When the current SVG document fragment is rendered as SVG on visual media, 'desc' and 'title' elements are not rendered as part of the graphics. User agents may, however, for example, display the 'title' element as a tooltip, as the pointing device moves over particular elements. Alternate presentations are possible, both visual and aural, which display the 'desc' and 'title' elements but do not display 'path' elements or other graphics elements. This is readily achieved by using a different (perhaps user) style sheet. For deep hierarchies, and for following 'use' element references, it is sometimes desirable to allow the user to control how deep they drill down into descriptive text.

In conforming SVG document fragments, any 'title' element should be the first child element of its parent. Note that those implementations that do use 'title' to display a tooltip often will only do so if the 'title' is indeed the first child element of its parent.

The following is an example. In typical operation, the SVG user agent would not render the 'desc' and 'title' elements but would render the remaining contents of the 'g' element.




  
    Company sales by region
    
      This is a bar chart which shows 
      company sales by region.
    
    
  

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Description and title elements can contain marked-up text from other namespaces. Here is an example:



  
    This is an example SVG file
    The global description uses markup from the 
      mydoc namespace.
  
  
    
  

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Authors should always provide a 'title' child element to the outermost svg element within a stand-alone SVG document. The 'title' child element to an 'svg' element serves the purposes of identifying the content of the given SVG document fragment. Since users often consult documents out of context, authors should provide context-rich titles. Thus, instead of a title such as "Introduction", which doesn't provide much contextual background, authors should supply a title such as "Introduction to Medieval Bee-Keeping" instead. For reasons of accessibility, user agents should always make the content of the 'title' child element to the outermost svg element available to users. The mechanism for doing so depends on the user agent (e.g., as a caption, spoken).

The DTD definitions of many of SVG's elements (particularly, container and text elements) place no restriction on the placement or number of the 'desc' and 'title' sub-elements. This flexibility is only present so that there will be a consistent content model for container elements, because some container elements in SVG allow for mixed content, and because the mixed content rules for XML ([XML10], section 3.2.2) do not permit the desired restrictions. Representations of future versions of the SVG language might use more expressive representations than DTDs which allow for more restrictive mixed content rules. It is strongly recommended that at most one 'desc' and at most one 'title' element appear as a child of any particular element, and that these elements appear before any other child elements (except possibly 'metadata' elements) or character data content. If user agents need to choose among multiple 'desc' or 'title' elements for processing (e.g., to decide which string to use for a tooltip), the user agent shall choose the first one.

The 'symbol' element

The 'symbol' element is used to define graphical template objects which can be instantiated by a 'use' element.

The use of 'symbol' elements for graphics that are used multiple times in the same document adds structure and semantics. Documents that are rich in structure may be rendered graphically, as speech, or as braille, and thus promote accessibility.

The key distinctions between a 'symbol' and a 'g' are:

Closely related to the 'symbol' element are the 'marker element' and 'pattern' elements.

'symbol' elements are never rendered directly; their only usage is as something that can be referenced using the 'use' element. The 'display' property does not apply to the 'symbol' element; thus, 'symbol' elements are not directly rendered even if the 'display' property is set to a value other than none, and 'symbol' elements are available for referencing even when the 'display' property on the 'symbol' element or any of its ancestors is set to none.

The 'use' element

Any 'svg', 'symbol', 'g', graphics element or other 'use' is potentially a template object that can be re-used (i.e., "instanced") in the SVG document via a 'use' element. The 'use' element references another element and indicates that the graphical contents of that element is included/drawn at that given point in the document.

Unlike 'image', the 'use' element cannot reference entire files.

The 'use' element has optional attributes 'use/x', 'use/y', 'use/width' and 'use/height' which are used to map the graphical contents of the referenced element onto a rectangular region within the current coordinate system.

The effect of a 'use' element is as if the contents of the referenced element were deeply cloned into a separate non-exposed DOM tree which had the 'use' element as its parent and all of the 'use' element's ancestors as its higher-level ancestors. Because the cloned DOM tree is non-exposed, the SVG Document Object Model (DOM) only contains the 'use' element and its attributes. The SVG DOM does not show the referenced element's contents as children of 'use' element.

For user agents that support Styling with CSS, the conceptual deep cloning of the referenced element into a non-exposed DOM tree also copies any property values resulting from the CSS cascade ([CSS2], chapter 6) on the referenced element and its contents. CSS2 selectors can be applied to the original (i.e., referenced) elements because they are part of the formal document structure. CSS2 selectors cannot be applied to the (conceptually) cloned DOM tree because its contents are not part of the formal document structure.

Property inheritance, however, works as if the referenced element had been textually included as a deeply cloned child of the 'use' element. The referenced element inherits properties from the 'use' element and the 'use' element's ancestors. An instance of a referenced element does not inherit properties from the referenced element's original parents.

If event attributes are assigned to referenced elements, then the actual target for the event will be the SVGElementInstance object within the "instance tree" corresponding to the given referenced element.

The event handling for the non-exposed tree works as if the referenced element had been textually included as a deeply cloned child of the 'use' element, except that events are dispatched to the SVGElementInstance objects. The event's target and currentTarget attributes are set to the SVGElementInstance that corresponds to the target and current target elements in the referenced subtree. An event propagates through the exposed and non-exposed portions of the tree in the same manner as it would in the regular document tree: first going from the root element to the 'use' element and then through non-exposed tree elements in the capture phase, followed by the target phase at the target of the event, then bubbling back through non-exposed tree to the use element and then back through regular tree to the root element in bubbling phase.

An element and all its corresponding SVGElementInstance objects share an event listener list. The currentTarget attribute of the event can be used to determine through which object an event listener was invoked.

The behavior of the 'visibility' property conforms to this model of property inheritance. Thus, specifying 'visibility:hidden' on a 'use' element does not guarantee that the referenced content will not be rendered. If the 'use' element specifies 'visibility:hidden' and the element it references specifies 'visibility:hidden' or 'visibility:inherit', then that one element will be hidden. However, if the referenced element instead specifies 'visibility:visible', then that element will be visible even if the 'use' element specifies 'visibility:hidden'.

Animations on a referenced element will cause the instances to also be animated.

A 'use' element has the same visual effect as if the 'use' element were replaced by the following generated content:

For user agents that support Styling with CSS, the generated 'g' element carries along with it the "cascaded" property values on the 'use' element which result from the CSS cascade ([CSS2], chapter 6). Additionally, the copy (deep clone) of the referenced resource carries along with it the "cascaded" property values resulting from the CSS cascade on the original (i.e., referenced) elements. Thus, the result of various CSS selectors in combination with the 'class' and 'style attribute' attributes are, in effect, replaced by the functional equivalent of a 'style attribute' attribute in the generated content which conveys the "cascaded" property values.

Example Use01 below has a simple 'use' on a 'rect'.

The visual effect would be equivalent to the following document:

Example Use02 below has a 'use' on a 'symbol'.

The visual effect would be equivalent to the following document:

Example Use03 illustrates what happens when a 'use' has a 'transform' attribute.

The visual effect would be equivalent to the following document:

Example Use04 illustrates a 'use' element with various methods of applying CSS styling.

The visual effect would be equivalent to the following document. Observe that some of the style rules above apply to the generated content (i.e., rules 1-6, 10-12), whereas others do not (i.e., rules 7-9). The rules which do not affect the generated content are:

  • Rules 7 and 8: CSS selectors only apply to the formal document tree, not on the generated tree; thus, these selectors will not yield a match.
  • Rule 9: The generated tree only inherits from the ancestors of the 'use' element and does not inherit from the ancestors of the referenced element; thus, this rule does not affect the generated content.

In the generated content below, the selectors that yield a match have been transferred into inline 'style attribute' attributes for illustrative purposes.

When a 'use' references another element which is another 'use' or whose content contains a 'use' element, then the deep cloning approach described above is recursive. However, a set of references that directly or indirectly reference a element to create a circular dependency is an error, as described in References and the 'defs' element.

Attribute definitions:

x = "<coordinate>"
The x-axis coordinate of one corner of the rectangular region into which the referenced element is placed.
If the attribute is not specified, the effect is as if a value of "0" were specified.
Animatable: yes.
y = "<coordinate>"
The y-axis coordinate of one corner of the rectangular region into which the referenced element is placed.
If the attribute is not specified, the effect is as if a value of "0" were specified.
Animatable: yes.
width = "<length>"
The width of the rectangular region into which the referenced element is placed. A negative value is an error (see Error processing). A value of zero disables rendering of this element.
Animatable: yes.
height = "<length>"
The height of the rectangular region into which the referenced element is placed. A negative value is an error (see Error processing). A value of zero disables rendering of this element.
Animatable: yes.
xlink:href = "<iri>"
A IRI reference to an element/fragment within an SVG document.
Animatable: yes.

The 'image' element

The 'image' element indicates that the contents of a complete file are to be rendered into a given rectangle within the current user coordinate system. The 'image' element can refer to raster image files such as PNG or JPEG or to files with MIME type of "image/svg+xml". Conforming SVG viewers need to support at least PNG, JPEG and SVG format files.

The result of processing an 'image' is always a four-channel RGBA result. When an 'image' element references a raster image file such as PNG or JPEG files which only has three channels (RGB), then the effect is as if the object were converted into a 4-channel RGBA image with the alpha channel uniformly set to 1. For a single-channel raster image, the effect is as if the object were converted into a 4-channel RGBA image, where the single channel from the referenced object is used to compute the three color channels and the alpha channel is uniformly set to 1.

An 'image' element establishes a new viewport for the referenced file as described in Establishing a new viewport.  The bounds for the new viewport are defined by attributes 'x', 'y', 'width' and 'height'. The placement and scaling of the referenced image are controlled by the 'preserveAspectRatio' attribute on the 'image' element.

When an 'image' element references an SVG image, the 'clip' and 'overflow' properties on the root element in the referenced SVG image are ignored (in the same manner as the 'x', 'y', 'width' and 'height' attributes are ignored). Unless the value of 'preserveAspectRatio' on the 'image' element starts with 'defer', the 'preserveAspectRatio' attribute on the root element in the referenced SVG image is also ignored (see 'preserveAspectRatio' for details). Instead, the 'preserveAspectRatio' attribute on the referencing 'image' element defines how the SVG image content is fitted into the viewport and the 'clip' and 'overflow' properties on the 'image' element define how the SVG image content is clipped (or not) relative to the viewport.

The value of the 'viewBox' attribute to use when evaluating the 'preserveAspectRatio' attribute is defined by the referenced content. For content that clearly identifies a viewBox (e.g. an SVG file with the 'viewBox' attribute on the outermost svg element) that value should be used. For most raster content (PNG, JPEG) the bounds of the image should be used (i.e. the 'image' element has an implicit 'viewBox' of '0 0 raster-image-width raster-image-height'). Where no value is readily available (e.g. an SVG file with no 'viewBox' attribute on the outermost svg element) the 'preserveAspectRatio' attribute is ignored, and only the translation due to the 'x' & 'y' attributes of the viewport is used to display the content.

For example, if the image element referenced a PNG or JPEG and preserveAspectRatio="xMinYMin meet", then the aspect ratio of the raster would be preserved (which means that the scale factor from image's coordinates to current user space coordinates would be the same for both X and Y), the raster would be sized as large as possible while ensuring that the entire raster fits within the viewport, and the top/left of the raster would be aligned with the top/left of the viewport as defined by the attributes 'x', 'y', 'width' and 'height' on the 'image' element.  If the value of 'preserveAspectRatio' was 'none' then aspect ratio of the image would not be preserved. The image would be fitted such that the top/left corner of the raster exactly aligns with coordinate ('x', 'y') and the bottom/right corner of the raster exactly aligns with coordinate ('x'+'width', 'y'+'height').

The resource referenced by the 'image' element represents a separate document which generates its own parse tree and document object model (if the resource is XML). Thus, there is no inheritance of properties into the image.

Unlike 'use', the 'image' element cannot reference elements within an SVG file.

Attribute definitions:

x = "<coordinate>"
The x-axis coordinate of one corner of the rectangular region into which the referenced document is placed.
If the attribute is not specified, the effect is as if a value of '0' were specified.
Animatable: yes.
y = "<coordinate>"
The y-axis coordinate of one corner of the rectangular region into which the referenced document is placed.
If the attribute is not specified, the effect is as if a value of '0' were specified.
Animatable: yes.
width = "<length>"
The width of the rectangular region into which the referenced document is placed.
A negative value is an error (see Error processing). A value of zero disables rendering of the element.
Animatable: yes.
height = "<length>"
The height of the rectangular region into which the referenced document is placed.
A negative value is an error (see Error processing). A value of zero disables rendering of the element.
Animatable: yes.
xlink:href = "<iri>"
A IRI reference.
Animatable: yes.
preserveAspectRatio = "[defer] <align> [<meetOrSlice>]"

See 'preserveAspectRatio'.

If attribute 'preserveAspectRatio' is not specified, then the effect is as if a value of xMidYMid meet were specified.

Animatable: yes.

An example:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" 
  "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd">
<svg width="4in" height="3in" version="1.1"
     xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
  <desc>This graphic links to an external image
  </desc>
  <image x="200" y="200" width="100px" height="100px"
         xlink:href="myimage.png">
    <title>My image</title>
  </image>
</svg>

Conditional processing

Conditional processing overview

SVG contains a 'switch' element along with attributes 'requiredFeatures', 'requiredExtensions' and 'systemLanguage' to provide an ability to specify alternate viewing depending on the capabilities of a given user agent or the user's language.

Attributes 'requiredFeatures', 'requiredExtensions' and 'systemLanguage' act as tests and return either true or false results. The 'switch' renders the first of its children for which all of these attributes test true. If the given attribute is not specified, then a true value is assumed.

Similar to the 'display' property, conditional processing attributes only affect the direct rendering of elements and do not prevent elements from being successfully referenced by other elements (such as via a 'use').

In consequence:

The 'switch' element

The 'switch' element evaluates the 'requiredFeatures', 'requiredExtensions' and 'systemLanguage' attributes on its direct child elements in order, and then processes and renders the first child for which these attributes evaluate to true. All others will be bypassed and therefore not rendered. If the child element is a container element such as a 'g', then the entire subtree is either processed/rendered or bypassed/not rendered.

Note that the values of properties 'display' and 'visibility' have no effect on 'switch' element processing. In particular, setting 'display' to none on a child of a 'switch' element has no effect on true/false testing associated with 'switch' element processing.

For more information and an example, see Embedding foreign object types.

The 'requiredFeatures' attribute

Definition of requiredFeatures:

requiredFeatures = list-of-features
The value is a list of feature strings, with the individual values separated by white space. Determines whether all of the named features are supported by the user agent. Only feature strings defined in the Feature String appendix are allowed. If all of the given features are supported, then the attribute evaluates to true; otherwise, the current element and its children are skipped and thus will not be rendered.
Animatable: no.

If the attribute is not present, then its implicit return value is "true". If a null string or empty string value is given to attribute 'requiredFeatures', the attribute returns "false".

'requiredFeatures' is often used in conjunction with the 'switch' element. If the 'requiredFeatures' is used in other situations, then it represents a simple switch on the given element whether to render the element or not.

The 'requiredExtensions' attribute

The 'requiredExtensions' attribute defines a list of required language extensions. Language extensions are capabilities within a user agent that go beyond the feature set defined in this specification. Each extension is identified by an IRI reference.

Definition of requiredExtensions:

requiredExtensions = list-of-extensions
The value is a list of IRI references which identify the required extensions, with the individual values separated by white space. Determines whether all of the named extensions are supported by the user agent. If all of the given extensions are supported, then the attribute evaluates to true; otherwise, the current element and its children are skipped and thus will not be rendered.
Animatable: no.

If a given IRI reference contains white space within itself, that white space must be escaped.

If the attribute is not present, then its implicit return value is "true". If a null string or empty string value is given to attribute 'requiredExtensions', the attribute returns "false".

'requiredExtensions' is often used in conjunction with the 'switch' element. If the 'requiredExtensions' is used in other situations, then it represents a simple switch on the given element whether to render the element or not.

The IRI names for the extension should include versioning information, such as "http://example.org/SVGExtensionXYZ/1.0", so that script writers can distinguish between different versions of a given extension.

The 'systemLanguage' attribute

The attribute value is a comma-separated list of language names as defined in BCP 47 [BCP47].

Evaluates to "true" if one of the languages indicated by user preferences exactly equals one of the languages given in the value of this parameter, or if one of the languages indicated by user preferences exactly equals a prefix of one of the languages given in the value of this parameter such that the first tag character following the prefix is "-".

Evaluates to "false" otherwise.

Note: This use of a prefix matching rule does not imply that language tags are assigned to languages in such a way that it is always true that if a user understands a language with a certain tag, then this user will also understand all languages with tags for which this tag is a prefix.

The prefix rule simply allows the use of prefix tags if this is the case.

Implementation note: When making the choice of linguistic preference available to the user, implementers should take into account the fact that users are not familiar with the details of language matching as described above, and should provide appropriate guidance. As an example, users may assume that on selecting "en-gb", they will be served any kind of English document if British English is not available. The user interface for setting user preferences should guide the user to add "en" to get the best matching behavior.

Multiple languages MAY be listed for content that is intended for multiple audiences. For example, content that is presented simultaneously in the original Maori and English versions, would call for:

<text systemLanguage="mi, en"><!-- content goes here --></text>

However, just because multiple languages are present within the object on which the 'systemLanguage' test attribute is placed, this does not mean that it is intended for multiple linguistic audiences. An example would be a beginner's language primer, such as "A First Lesson in Latin," which is clearly intended to be used by an English-literate audience. In this case, the 'systemLanguage' test attribute should only include "en".

Authoring note: Authors should realize that if several alternative language objects are enclosed in a 'switch', and none of them matches, this may lead to situations where no content is displayed. It is thus recommended to include a "catch-all" choice at the end of such a 'switch' which is acceptable in all cases.

For the 'systemLanguage' attribute: Animatable: no.

If the attribute is not present, then its implicit return value is "true". If a null string or empty string value is given to attribute 'systemLanguage', the attribute returns "false".

'systemLanguage' is often used in conjunction with the 'switch' element. If the 'systemLanguage' is used in other situations, then it represents a simple switch on the given element whether to render the element or not.

Applicability of test attributes

The following list describes the applicability of the test attributes to the elements that do not directly produce rendering.

Specifying whether external resources are required for proper rendering

Documents often reference and use the contents of other files (and other Web resources) as part of their rendering. In some cases, authors want to specify that particular resources are required for a document to be considered correct.

Attribute 'externalResourcesRequired' is available on all container elements and to all elements which potentially can reference external resources. It specifies whether referenced resources that are not part of the current document are required for proper rendering of the given container element or graphics element.

Attribute definition:

externalResourcesRequired = "false | true"
false
(The default value.) Indicates that resources external to the current document are optional. Document rendering can proceed even if external resources are unavailable to the current element and its descendants.
true
Indicates that resources external to the current document are required. If an external resource is not available, progressive rendering is suspended, the document's SVGLoad event is not fired and the animation timeline does not begin until that resource and all other required resources become available, have been parsed and are ready to be rendered. If a timeout event occurs on a required resource, then the document goes into an error state (see Error processing). The document remains in an error state until all required resources become available.

This attribute applies to all types of resource references, including style sheets, color profiles (see Color profile descriptions) and fonts specified by an IRI reference using a 'font-face' element or a CSS @font-face specification. In particular, if an element sets externalResourcesRequired="true", then all style sheets must be available since any style sheet might affect the rendering of that element.

Attribute 'externalResourcesRequired' is not inheritable (from a sense of attribute value inheritance), but if set on a container element, its value will apply to all elements within the container.

Because setting externalResourcesRequired="true" on a container element will have the effect of disabling progressive display of the contents of that container, if that container includes elements that reference external resources, tools that generate SVG content are cautioned against simply setting externalResourcesRequired="true" on the outermost svg element on a universal basis. Instead, it is better to specify externalResourcesRequired="true" on those particular graphics elements or container elements which specifically need the availability of external resources in order to render properly.

For 'externalResourcesRequired': Animatable: no.

Common attributes

Attributes common to all elements: 'id' and 'xml:base'

The 'id' and 'xml:base' attributes are available on all SVG elements:

Attribute definitions:

id = "name"
Standard XML attribute for assigning a unique name to an element. Refer to the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Recommendation [XML10].
Animatable: no.
xml:base = "<iri>"
Specifies a base IRI other than the base IRI of the document or external entity. Refer to the XML Base specification [XML-BASE].
Animatable: no.

The 'xml:lang' and 'xml:space' attributes

Elements that might contain character data content have attributes 'xml:lang' and 'xml:space'.

Attribute definitions:

xml:lang = "languageID"
Standard XML attribute to specify the language (e.g., English) used in the contents and attribute values of particular elements. Refer to the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Recommendation [XML10].
Animatable: no.
xml:space = "{default | preserve}"
Standard XML attribute to specify whether white space is preserved in character data. The only possible values are 'default' and 'preserve'. Refer to the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Recommendation [XML10] and to the discussion white space handling in SVG.
Animatable: no.

DOM interfaces

Interface SVGDocument

Interface SVGSVGElement

Interface SVGGElement

Interface SVGDefsElement

Interface SVGDescElement

Interface SVGTitleElement

Interface SVGSymbolElement

Interface SVGUseElement

Interface SVGElementInstance

Interface SVGElementInstanceList

Interface SVGImageElement

Interface SVGSwitchElement

Interface GetSVGDocument