The CSIRO has developed an Internet based viewer for a new form of graphic, known as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).

According to the CSIRO, SVGs remain clear no matter how much zoom is applied to an image, in turn giving better results than the more familiar graphics such as JPEG or GIF. "Vector graphics are structured differently to other images," says Mr Dean Jackson, a software engineer at CSIRO.

"So they do not suffer from the problems encountered with the bit-mapped images currently used on the web. Bit-mapped images, like JPEGs, look good at their original size, but when printed, viewed on different screens or when enlarged, the lines become jagged and the image blurs."

"With vector graphics, no matter how much you zoom in, the image is always clear, and, in many cases, vector images are quicker to download."

CSIRO's SVG viewer also takes advantage of the potential for SVG graphics to be interactive - users can zoom in or pan around the graphics, and the graphics can respond to mouse-clicks and user interaction.

Earlier this year, the international body The World Wide Web Consortium released the first draft of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Since then, viewers for the new format have been developed as stand-alone applications.

The CSIRO SVG Viewer is the first to allow the graphics to be displayed directly in an Internet browser. The next step would be for the Viewer to be incorporated into existing web browsers so that all web users could enjoy the graphics. Already, the Viewer has received attention from major software companies around the world.

"The CSIRO SVG viewer runs within web browsers, so it will allow anyone with Internet access to experience these great graphics," Mr Jackson says.

"We want to make vector graphics accessible to more people because they are very useful," says Mr Jackson, "especially for quickly and easily viewing detailed map-based information."

"For example, using the Viewer, electricity workers could easily access maps showing electricity networks and zoom in to see details clearly, making maintaining power supplies easier and safer," he says. "Or, high quality maps of urban streets and property boundaries could be delivered to planners, property developers and residents, via the Internet and be viewed with their web browser."

"Maps are actually created as vector graphics, so it makes sense to keep them in this format, which users can manipulate and add extra information to, rather than converting them to the bit-mapped images currently used on the Internet," says Mr Jackson.

Other benefits of making SVG graphics accessible via the web include better web access for people with visual impairments. SVG graphics can be greatly enlarged without becoming blurred and, unlike current web images, any text contained in SVG graphics can be recognised as text by browsers and read by screen-readers used by the visually impaired.

The CSIRO SVG Viewer software is available free from the CSIRO web site, along with its Java source code. This means that other software developers can see how the software works. They can change and improve it or freely incorporate it into their own software.

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