Until now, there were only two graphic formats you could use on the web and still reach most of your audience. GIF, for simple digital graphics, and JPEG, for complex art, like photographs. The problem was, both GIF and JPEG are both bitmap graphic formats, also known as "raster graphics," made with programs such as Adobe Photoshop and PaintShop Pro. Bitmap graphics are stored as a set of different color values for each pixel in the graphic. Therefore, the less pixels or the less colors, the smaller the file size. So, an image sized at 300x300 will take almost twice the storage space (and download time) of a 300x150 graphic of the same picture. Often, the only way to reduce your download time is to scale those smaller pictures to a bigger size in the web page. The result is ugly jagged edges, because you really are just enlarging those tiny pixels to a different size.

Another graphics format, currently not used on the web, are vector graphics, usually made with programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, or CorelDraw. Instead of storing a seperate value for each pixel, vector graphics simply store the angles of the graphic's curves and lines. When the image is loaded at any size, the graphics program calculates the instructions in the vector image file, and draws it out as curves and lines, scaled to the image's size. Since vector graphics just store the mathematical instructions of how to draw the shapes that make up the image, a vector graphic can be scaled to any size without a loss in quality. (Click here for a visual demonstration)

While these two formats are very different, both are useful for many things. Photographs and complex graphics not easily defined with only curves and lines are ideal for bitmaps, while text, simple shapes, and line drawings can all be shown easiest as vector graphics. TrueType, the current font standard, uses vectors to define each letter, so the type can be scaled to different sizes quickly and easily. PostScript is the most commonly used vector standard, and was created by Adobe a few years ago. It is used by virtually anyone who works in vector graphics, and you have probably used it in printing without even knowing it. For the last year, the only vector format available at all for the web was Macromedia's Flash. Flash was a program/plugin combo. Publishers could make vector graphics and animations for the web with the Flash program and put them online, but users needed to first download a small plugin to view them. Flash graphics were popular because they loaded fast, looked good at any size, and he animations were extremely fast, because they were based on good old mathematical vectors, not clunky pixels. It was looking like Flash was on its way to becoming the new web vector standard - the only problem was the compatibility issue: people still had to download a plugin before viewing Flash graphics. Macromedia's answer to this problem was in a recent announcement. They unexpectedly published the Flash file format specifications, making the file format an open standard rather than a proprietary one. Their hope was that independent developers would develop new Flash tools, increasing market share and breaking the plug-in barrier.

Meanwhile, Adobe has been working on its own competing web vector standard, based on the same imaging model as PDF and PostScript, the most widespread vector format in the print industry. What they came up with is PGML, or Precision Graphics Markup Language. This format was submitted to the W3C to be included in the next version of HTML, and therefore required to be built in to all new browsers. A little later, Microsoft submitted its own VML (Vector Markup Language) standard for inclusion also. In response to these submissions, the W3C has formed The Scalable Vector Graphics Working Group to work with developers and companies to produce a vendor-neutral vector-based markup language for Web Graphics that will be built into the newest version of HTML. (And, of course, newer browsers)

This new standard will undoubtedly use XML, the new text-based format for HTML pages. It lets developers describe, deliver and exchange structured data between a range of applications to clients for local display and manipulation. It also can transfer structured data between servers themselves, and allows the identification, exchange and processing of this data in a universal standard, using custom formats for particular applications if needed.

XML resembles and complements HTML, and is used within the actual HTML page. XML describes data, such as city name, temperature and barometric pressure, and HTML defines tags that describe how the data should be displayed, such as with a bulleted list or a table. XML, however, allows developers to define an unlimited set of tags, letting authors create their own new tags to customize their data in a more efficient way.

In this Microsoft example, XML is used to describe a weather report:

<weather-report>

   <date>March 25, 1998</date>

   <time>08:00</time>

   <area>

      <city>Seattle</city>

      <state>WA</state>

      <region>West Coast</region>

      <country>USA</country>

   </area>

   <measurements>

      <skies>partly cloudy</skies>

      <temperature>46</temperature>

      <wind>

         <direction>SW</direction>

         <windspeed>6</windspeed>

      </wind>

      <h-index>51</h-index>

      <humidity>87</humidity>

      <visibility>10</visibility>

      <uv-index>1</uv-index>

   </measurements>

</weather-report>

In this new standard, XML tags like <rectangle> and <circle> will be used to define the shapes and angles that make up the vector image, and then draw them in the web page. Both Microsoft and Adobe use different syntax models in making the graphic objects, but their features are essentially the same. They both use predefined shapes like rectangles, ellipses, and circles, while allowing you to define your own curves and lines in the image. The main difference between the two is that PGML uses its own coordinate system, while VML simply works within Cascading Style Sheets.

But while these two industry giants duke it out, Macromedia is taking the back door - Instead of applying to the W3C and have to wait for approval, It's making deals directly with the browser manufacturers to get the Flash plugin bundled with all dowloaded browsers. Currently, Flash will now be bundled with all versions of Netscape Navigator and CD versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

So who will win the vector-graphics wars? Right now it's too close to call, especially when you're talking about an equal 3-way fight. You've got Adobe, the 500 lb. gorilla of graphics, versus Microsoft, the 500 lb. gorilla of software, and Macromedia, who has the most powerful weapon: market share. In the meantime, wait before you buy that shiny new web vector graphics program - you may be betting on the wrong horse in this race.