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I read while Googling that SVG was "dead". Although I disagree, could anyone tell me more/future vector based format to represent 2d/3d graphics? What about VML? What format should I use to represent 2D and 3D graphics on Web?
I playing around with graphics on web and I would like to know if I'm working with an obsolete technology.
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Transparency. PNGs and SVGs support transparency — so they're both excellent choices for online logos and graphics. It's worth noting that PNGs are one of the best choices for a raster-based transparent file. If you're working with pixels and transparency, PNGs are a better option than SVGs.
Deprecated: This feature is no longer recommended. Though some browsers might still support it, it may have already been removed from the relevant web standards, may be in the process of being dropped, or may only be kept for compatibility purposes.
SVGs are far smaller in size than PNGs and aren't likely to slow down your computer or website. (However, very detailed designs may slow down an SVG.) Because they're a vector file format, you can scale SVGs up or down without any loss in quality.
SVG is the preferred format for images like user interface controls, logos, icon and vector-based illustrations. With SVG you can make three types of graphic objects: — Vectorial geometric elements like paths with their straight, curves and area between them.
Microsoft is supporting SVG in IE9, and gave a detailed explanation of why they were doing it on the IE blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/03/18/svg-in-ie9-roadmap.aspx
SVG's main advantage is that it becomes part of the DOM, so you can use CSS to style it and javascript to modify it. Canvas, by contrast, must redraw every frame completely. This makes canvas suited to spectrum analyzers, video processing, fast-paced games, and other non-gradual animations. SVG is better suited for gradual animations.
As far as 3D is concerned, the future is WebGL, a thin shim over OpenGL ES, but it's far off. Microsoft has not committed to supporting it, and that means it's not going to be in IE9. Maybe IE10, maybe not.
If you do use SVG, I recommend using svgweb to abstract away the browser differences (falls back to a flash applet on outdated browsers).
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This post is rather late... but I think it is worth re-addressing, since your question has popped up again with all the html5 talk.
SVG is a vector drawing format that also supports animation, timing, and Javascript DOM support. In other words, it is a standalone format for static and dynamic vector graphics; you might say it is a web-focused (or screen-focused) alternative to EPS/PDF. The html5 canvas tag is not a format but a way to draw (static images) to the screen with Javascript — that is all; there is no competition between it and SVG, as they have entirely different purposes.
Most other vector "formats" involve plugins (Flash) or hardware support (webGL). Ironically, the VML format you mentioned is now deprecated in favor of SVG.
To answer your question: SVG is now the standard vector format for the web. Hopefully, in the near future, we will see it being used for video/animation as well.
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