New Graphics Format for Cell Phone Screens

The internet "governing body" the W3C has formally issued a new graphics standard, Mobile SVG. The new format is vector graphic based, so that unlike normal graphics that cannot scale easily to larger screens - vector graphics loose none of their detail regardless of the screen size. This should make it a lot easier for designers to work with handsets of varying screen sizes.

The W3C has made two profiles or subsets of full SVG; SVG Tiny, aimed at multimedia capable cellphones such as the recently announced 3G units, and SVG Basic for handheld and palmtop computers.

"Cellphones allow Internet and Web access for millions of people who don't have access to desktop machines, temporarily or otherwise," said Dean Jackson, W3C Fellow from CSIRO. "With 3GPP already incorporating Mobile SVG, we are already starting to see more rich and useful content in third generation cellphones."

Commercial services using SVG Mobile are now being deployed, including location based services using geographical metadata embedded in the SVG. The SVG Working Group is pleased by both the number of SVG 1.1 and SVG Mobile implementations and their quality of rendering and interoperability. Fifteen implementations were tested in November 2002, including SVG Tiny implementations from BitFlash, CSIRO, KDDI, Nokia, ZOOMON and SVG Basic implementations from BitFlash, CSIRO, and Intesis; others were also under development but were not tested at that time.

As a result of these compatibility trials, SVG implementations are available now from multiple vendors for integration into cellphones or deployment on PDAs in addition to the increasing number of implementations for desktop and laptop computers. Conformance to one of the two profiles, rather than each manufacturer choosing their own subset, ensures widespread interoperability of content across mobile devices from different manufacturers. This interoperability has three advantages for content creators: lower development costs, wider availability, and a trust in being able to display their content in any compliant implementation. As Mobile SVG is a true subset of SVG 1.1, all conformant desktop players will correctly display all Mobile SVG content, ensuring the Mobile and desktop worlds continue to share a common, standards-based Web.

Janne Juhola, Senior Technology Manager, Multimedia at Nokia supported the announcement, saying "Nokia has demonstrated its commitment to W3C open standards by taking the responsibility of the editorship for the new specification, and has strongly driven the adoption in 3GPP standards of the Mobile SVG profile for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Packet Switched Streaming (PSS). Nokia believes that the availability of a open and mobile-friendly standard for the creation of vector graphics content will play a central role in creating a dynamic and rich market for applications that fully exploit the capabilities of these exciting technologies."

Posted to the site on 16th January 2003