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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Common problemsTesting for problemsThe following SVG checkers may help you to detect SVG problems before you upload: flowRoot does not appear![]() If black box appear, read c:User:JoKalliauer/RepairFlowRoot how to solve this issue, but do not remove those objects since they might contain text. The workarounds that one can employ are either not to use flowed text (by using the text tool without creating a text field), or convert the text to normal text (by Text-editor or sed-comand, or with Inkscape-GUI or with a Inkscape-batch), but to stroke the text using "object to path", since path-text is not recomended and increases file-size. font-family issuesRendering anomalies of small fonts in thumbnail views Fallback fonts Due 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. bad letter-alignment on small font-size![]() Librsvg calculates the letter-distances inaccurantly for font-sizes of 20px and below. For a text like <svg viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<text x="20" y="30" font-size="5px">exampletext</text>
</svg>
you can replace it with: <svg viewBox="0 0 1000 1000" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<text x="200" y="300" font-size="50px">exampletext</text>
</svg>
or with <svg viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<g transform="scale(0.1)"><text x="200" y="300" font-size="50px">exampletext</text></g>
</svg>
Missing embedded JPEG imagesWhen a raster graphic is embedded in an SVG it is encoded into base64 data. That data is then assigned a MIME type in the <image> element. In the case of an embedded JPEG, the MIME type is "image/jpeg". Older versions of Inkscape (and possibly other editors) assigned the MIME type "image/jpg". While Inkscape and most web browsers will display such an SVG image just fine, the MediaWiki software that rasterizes the SVG file will have trouble with it. Not recognizing the MIME type "image/jpg" there will simply be an empty space where the image is supposed to be. The fix is to open the SVG file in a text editor, find the <image> element, locate "image/jpg", change it to "image/jpeg" and re-save. At right is an example of this problem. The Commons SVG Checker looks for this problem; see Commons:Commons:Commons SVG Checker/KnownBugs#Checks for details. Though Web browsers cope with image tags without width and height specified, librsvg ignores such images. arc flags![]() If circle-segmentes are distorted it is often due to reduced spaces between arc-to-flags, see phab:T217990 for details. Further issuesFurther issues can be found at c:Librsvg_bugs or at Commons:Commons:Commons SVG Checker/KnownBugs, and examples can be found at c:Category:Pictures_demonstrating_a_librsvg_bug. However most issues (for files <1MB) can be fixed using https://svgworkaroundbot.toolforge.org/ (enable "run svgcleaner" and enable "run scour" before clicking convert), for a more detailed list check c:User:SVGWorkaroundBot. Rendering filesMediaWiki (the software from which Wikipedia is run) uses the librsvg-library to rasterize all of its svg files. The version of the rsvg program that is installed on wiki does not always correctly raster the Inkscape or OpenOffice.org SVG files, and does not recognize some formats in text-editor SVG files. The file manager GNOME Files or c:Commons:Commons_SVG_Checker relies on librsvg, so it can be used to check the quality before a SVG is uploaded. Rendering Inkscape filesThere 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:
Rendering OpenOffice.org SVG filesOpenOffice.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)
This SVG export procedure has been tested using OO 2.3.0 and OO 3.2.1 with a simple .odg candidate. Rendering text-editor SVG filesSVG files created from scratch in a text editor may make use of any valid SVG syntax, so long as your browser supports the given version of the SVG specification. On Wikipedia however, SVGs are interpreted by the librsvg-library to create PNG previews at different image sizes. 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. <mask> parameter maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse"The librsvg-library does not interpret the value of parameter stroke-dasharrayThe librsvg-library does not accept a Use xlink:href=, not href= alone, in |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/20210601_Spreadsheet_automatically_generates_XML_code_for_SVG_graphics_-_flow_chart.svg/290px-20210601_Spreadsheet_automatically_generates_XML_code_for_SVG_graphics_-_flow_chart.svg.png)
(five examples compared)
I'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)
- Warming stripes — Accepts a single dataset and converts to SVG code portraying Ed Hawkins' warming stripes graphics. User chooses vertical or horizontal stripes; normal or reverse data ordering; or from a variety of geometric shapes (updated 17 May 2023). . . . . Click here to see examples of warming stripes embedded in different shapes.
- Warming stripes bar chart — Accepts a single dataset and creates a conventional bar chart whose individual bars/columns are coloured according to Dr. Hawkins' warming stripes colour scheme. Alternate option: choose one colour for ascending bars and another colour for descending bars. (updated 28 August 2023)
- Line charts — Accepts up to six datasets. (updated 30 August 2023)
- Vertical bar charts (column charts) — Accepts up to six datasets. Toggle between clustered and stacked charts; user can adjust "Yfloor"—the Y level (usually=0) from which columns rise or fall; user chooses to keep or ignore negative input values. (updated 27 August 2023)
- Horizontal bar charts — Accepts up to six datasets. Toggle between clustered and stacked charts; user can adjust "Yfloor"—the value (usually=0) from which bars extend; user chooses to keep or ignore negative input values. (updated 27 August 2023)
- Scatter plots — Accepts up to five datasets. (updated 28 August 2023)
- Pie charts — Accepts a single dataset of up to 36 items. (updated 17 May 2023)
- Variable-width bar charts — Accepts up to six datasets; is like "Vertical bar charts", above, but user can choose different widths for different bars. (updated 27 August 2023)
Assistance
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
1: April 2008 – July 2008 |
This page has archives. Sections older than 30 days may be automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III when more than 4 sections are present. |
Why is text moving to weird places
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Sriwijaya_Air_Flight_182_flight_path.svg/220px-Sriwijaya_Air_Flight_182_flight_path.svg.png)
In File:Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 flight path.svg, I used Deja Vu Serif and embedded text, however in the LibrSVG preview, it looks really weird. Any idea why? — Berrely • Talk∕Contribs 20:24, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
- I've gone ahead and reuploaded it with outlines but I'm still interested in the cause. I do remember being some rendering issues with tspans. — Berrely • Talk∕Contribs 20:27, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
- Uploading the original version to commons:commons:commons SVG Checker gives the hint:
“ | ERROR in <tspan> with id=tspan3766: Text element found with list of coordinates. It will not be rendered properly by Wikimedia's SVG renderer. See https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T35245 for details. | ” |
- The list of coordinates lets Inkscape position each character individually, but the thumbnail renderer Rsvg doesn't support it. Instead, provide just a single coordinate for each tspan and let the engine kern it to its liking. Hope that helps, cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 23:24, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
- Ah alright, thanks. I was going to use SVGtranslate but sadly it seems I won't now. — Berrely • Talk∕Contribs 09:17, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
- The list of coordinates lets Inkscape position each character individually, but the thumbnail renderer Rsvg doesn't support it. Instead, provide just a single coordinate for each tspan and let the engine kern it to its liking. Hope that helps, cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 23:24, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
Weird rendering of pattern
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Instant_insanity_nets.svg/220px-Instant_insanity_nets.svg.png)
Hi Rsvg experts,
The hatching for the red and green squares in the figure 3 in this thumbnail look strange, even though I'm doing the same thing as with other figures. Commons SVG Checker doesn't find any issues.
Would someone be able to explain why it is so, please?
Thanks,
cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 12:56, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
- @Cmglee: I added two times
stroke-dasharray="none"
, which solved the problem. This bug is unknown to me. I could neither reproduce it locally with c-librsvg2.40.21 nor with rust-librsvg2.52.6 — Johannes Kalliauer - contrib. 02:57, 14 March 2022 (UTC)- Thank you very much, @JoKalliauer:. It seems the stroke-dasharray leaked from the element being filled into the pattern, unlike other attributes such as stroke, and unlike in other renderers.
- Can you please help me raise a Phabricator ticket? Thanks, cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 09:32, 14 March 2022 (UTC)
creation of an svg file for syrian foreign relations
I am here, requesting for an svg file creation of "File:Diplomatic relations of Syria.svg". It would of nice if somebody contributed. Thanks! Utkarsh555 11:13, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Hi Utkarsh555,
- Try asking on Wikipedia:Graphics_Lab/Map_workshop. This page is more for issues with the Wikimedia thumbnail renderer.
- Cheers, — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cmglee (talk • contribs) 10:38, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
creation of an svg file for bururndi foreign relations
I come with the requrest for the creation of File:Diplomatic relations of Burundi.svg. Utkarsh555 10:11, 5 March 2022 (UTC)
- @Utkarsh555: Please see the reply in the section immediately above. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 10:13, 5 March 2022 (UTC)
- @Redrose64 ok got it. i have put a request at this page.
- Thanks! Utkarsh555 10:15, 5 March 2022 (UTC)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Kartik_SVG_Manipur_2022_Elections.svg/220px-Kartik_SVG_Manipur_2022_Elections.svg.png)
@Kartik chauhandehra: fixed, please do not scale fonts, change the font-size instead and use common fonts — Johannes Kalliauer - contrib. 11:07, 14 March 2022 (UTC)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Kartik_SVG_Manipur_2022_Elections_2.svg/220px-Kartik_SVG_Manipur_2022_Elections_2.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Kartik_SVG_Manipur_2022_Elections_21.svg/220px-Kartik_SVG_Manipur_2022_Elections_21.svg.png)
[[File:Uttarakhand Election Results 2012 (Kartik Chauhandehra)(2).svg|thumb|File:Uttarakhand Election Results 2012 (Kartik Chauhandehra)(2).svg
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Manipur_2012_Election_SVG_Kartik_Chauhandehra.svg/220px-Manipur_2012_Election_SVG_Kartik_Chauhandehra.svg.png)
Blackened out PNG preview, but SVG looks normal
Hi there. I'm having some trouble with an SVG file of New Jersey's flag in the Eurovision heart logo. The coat of arms is completely covered in black in the PNG preview, but when I click on it to see the SVG file, it appears fine.
The program I used to create this SVG image was Inkscape. Could someone be able to help me figure out what's wrong? Thanks.