SVGs for Nation Flag?

by **Avexrias** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 8:02 pm

Wacky question, but will there be support in the future for either .svg based flags, or embedded HTML5 SVG markup for our nation flags? Pretty much every browser supports SVG at this point, and might make things look a bit smoother.

I think you can use SVGs for the factbook, but only raster for flags. Main limitation I am seeing are all of the manual resizes of the image done server side for applying it to different places (forums, news pages, and such.)

by **[violet]** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:33 pm

SVG would be wonderful, as it particularly suits flag-like images, but we've never been able to do it because of Internet Explorer. Even today IE/Edge have poor SVG support, being unable to scale them properly, which is essential for us.

by **Avexrias** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:39 pm

No idea if the standard CSS resizing stuff can be done to them, but I could vaguely imagine adjusting the "viewport" dimensions depending on where and how it is used. This would definitely require recoding things though, and the original SVG image would likely need to either be a set original size/ratio or would need to be preprocessed on a individual basis.

I would find it very odd that Edge doesn't support SVG properly. Isn't that an HTML5 staple?

Explain xkcd · by **Leppikania** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:46 pm

In the meantime, though, while those browsers become outdated, you can use SVG-to-PNG converters, many of which are online, such as this one.

by **Avexrias** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 9:09 pm

Actually just screenshotted this flag from a SVG I coded by hand via Chrome's native rendering. Pasted it in Paint, and just saved as an SVG. No issues with conversion.J ust would be sort of cool to see "crisper" or more defined flags if you roomed in on the page.

Perhaps this will be viable in the future when proper support is mostly unanimous...

by **[violet]** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:25 pm

Avexrias wrote:I would find it very odd that Edge doesn't support SVG properly. Isn't that an HTML5 staple?

Yes, it is. But there you go. Edge still has the IE bug where it can't scale SVG images within a fluid box, which we do often on this site.

by **Linux and the X** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:29 pm

Perhaps SVG files are small enough that they can be stored along with an auto-converted PNG version that can be fed to IE?

by **[violet]** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:37 pm

At this point in my life, I am done with crafting arcane workarounds for Microsoft browsers. If Edge gets compliant and old IEs die off, I will happily add SVG support.

by **The Alexanderians** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:39 pm

[violet] wrote:SVG would be wonderful, as it particularly suits flag-like images, but we've never been able to do it because of Internet Explorer. Even today IE/Edge have poor SVG support, being unable to scale them properly, which is essential for us.

Why is an outdated browser "essential"?

by **[violet]** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:40 pm

The Alexanderians wrote:Why is an outdated browser "essential"?

I was actually saying that being able to scale images is essential. But supporting IE and Edge is also important, because people use them.

by **Zacherie** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:40 pm

The Alexanderians wrote:
[violet] wrote:SVG would be wonderful, as it particularly suits flag-like images, but we've never been able to do it because of Internet Explorer. Even today IE/Edge have poor SVG support, being unable to scale them properly, which is essential for us.

Why is an outdated browser "essential"?

Alienating any part of your userbase is generally a very poor idea.

by **The Alexanderians** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:46 pm

[violet] wrote:
The Alexanderians wrote:Why is an outdated browser "essential"?

I was actually saying that being able to scale images is essential. But supporting IE and Edge is also important, because people use them.

Most people have moved on to Chrome, Firefow, and Safari. Why not just have a disclaimer saying something like "IE still works for the most part but some of our services re best enjoyed with these browsers [lists them here]". A lot of services suggest using one browser over another, in fact it's the whole reason I got Chrome it worked best for what I was trying to accomplish at the time.

by **Avexrias** » Wed Apr 06, 2016 7:56 am

Yeah, only reason I brought this up was because I actually thought that SVG support was universal at this point. I knew IE always lagged behind a bit, but as this is 2016, it made little sense to me that things still worked like they did on IE6...

If this alienated people running anything older than 1-2 generations of IE and left recent IE and Edge versions alone, I'd say add it in. But as Microsoft's recent browsers cannot even do this HTML5 mandated task properly, we're still stuck. It gets put in, and everyone running a MS browser will be hosed. Edge/IE probably still make up a sizable portion of general web visits as well.

Isn't it ironic we always have to code around Internet Explorer, but yet Chrome and Firefox are mostly (but not exactly) consistent?

by **[violet]** » Wed Apr 06, 2016 8:11 pm

I would have said "excruciating" rather than "ironic," but yeah.

But at least it's better than it used to be. I no longer routinely allocate extra time to find workarounds for IE bugs. And IE/Edge usage is down around 5%.

by **Avexrias** » Wed Apr 06, 2016 9:51 pm

[violet] wrote:I would have said "excruciating" rather than "ironic," but yeah.

But at least it's better than it used to be. I no longer routinely allocate extra time to find workarounds for IE bugs. And IE/Edge usage is down around 5%.

I actually never cared to optimize for IE, but I have smaller websites with no where near as much traffic. Look fine in Firefox and Chrome? Good to go :roll:

Thanks for taking the time to respond to this topic with a good explanation though. I usually just get told off when I inquire

by **Alterrum** » Thu Mar 15, 2018 7:11 pm

Resurrecting an old thread here, but could it be reconsidered, especially as the newest versions of both IE and Edge have proper SVG support, and according to caniuse.com, 98.2% of global internet users run SVG-compliant browsers?

by **Alterrum** » Wed Mar 21, 2018 7:19 pm

by **Mingulay Isle** » Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:36 pm

While I'd love any sort of support for vector graphics I have to point out that SVGs can be used maliciously; a concern if we're allowing users to upload their own.

by **Alterrum** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 10:29 am

Mingulay Isle wrote:While I'd love any sort of support for vector graphics I have to point out that SVGs can be used maliciously; a concern if we're allowing users to upload their own.

This goes over my head, but is it not possible to mitigate those dangers? I've noticed SVGs on Wikipedia, which presumably allows its users to upload them.

by **Mingulay Isle** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 11:45 am

Alterrum wrote:
Mingulay Isle wrote:While I'd love any sort of support for vector graphics I have to point out that SVGs can be used maliciously; a concern if we're allowing users to upload their own.

This goes over my head, but is it not possible to mitigate those dangers? I've noticed SVGs on Wikipedia, which presumably allows its users to upload them.

As I understand it the risk comes from the fact that SVGs can make use of javascript, so preventing users uploading files with embedded javascript might be a solution.
I don't know the whole story, only that finding a secure way to allow SVG uploads was a stumbling block for a site I'm involved in.

SVGs for Nation Flag?

SVGs for Nation Flag?

Who is online