By far the most important element in the SVG specification is the path
element. path
allows you to draw lines and shapes using vectors defined by a series of commands passed in as values to the d
attribute. Remember when I mentioned that one of the biggest roadblocks to SVG adoption was the lack of a friendly API? This path
element is likely to be the biggest sore spot in the entire specification. The values you might see in a d
attribute can be incredibly dense and difficult to read. How difficult to read? Feast your eyes on the S element from the SVG logo:
<path id="S" d="M 5.482,31.319 C2.163,28.001 0.109,23.419 0.109,18.358 C0.109,8.232 8.322,0.024 18.443,0.024 C28.569,0.024 36.782,8.232 36.782,18.358 L26.042,18.358 C26.042,14.164 22.638,10.765 18.443,10.765 C14.249,10.765 10.850,14.164 10.850,18.358 C10.850,20.453 11.701,22.351 13.070,23.721 L13.075,23.721 C14.450,25.101 15.595,25.500 18.443,25.952 L18.443,25.952 C23.509,26.479 28.091,28.006 31.409,31.324 L31.409...