I hope people think of SVG as a vector format that is good for drawing things. There is plenty more to know, but here’s one more: SVG is good for composition. You draw things at very specific coordinates in SVG and, while they can scale, they tend to stay put. And while SVG is a vector format, you can place raster images onto it. That’s my favorite part of Cassie’s “Swipey image grids” post. The swipey part is cool, but the composition is even cooler.
<svg viewBox="0 0 100 100">
<rect x="30" y="0" width="70" height="50" fill="blue"/>
<rect x="60" y="60" width="40" height="40" fill="green"/>
<rect x="0" y="30" width="50" height="70" fill="pink"/>
<image x="30" y="0" width="70" height="50" href="https://place-puppy.com/300x300"/>
<image x="60" y="60" width="40" height="40" href="https://place-puppy.com/700x300"/>
<image x="0" y="30" width="50" height="70" href="https://place-puppy.com/800x500"/>
</svg>You’ll need to check this out in Chrome, Edge or Firefox:
Don’t miss Cassie’s interactive examples explaining preserveAspectRatio. That’s a thing I normally think of on the <svg> itself, but is used to great effect on the <image> elements themselves here. It’s like a more powerful object-fit and object-position.
