SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a versatile format based on the XML markup language, supporting a variety of static and moving images — drawings, animations, interactive graphics and more. Launched as an open standard at the end of the 1990s, the SVG format is currently compatible with most web browsers and can be edited using any text editor or graphics program. This is great news for developers, as they can use SVG to create various types of graphical applications.
PSD is a popular format for storing multi-layered images created or edited using Photoshop software. The main advantage of using the PSD extension is that images remain easily editable, as their layered structure allows users to add or change various elements and features, including image effects, transparencies, color adjustments and many more.
To increase accessibility and ease of transfer, PSD files are usually converted to more widely used raster formats, such as JPEG or PNG. This type of conversion, though, implies flattening the image, which means no major editing is possible afterwards. And this might pose problems at times.
The hassle of realizing you still need to make corrections to a PSD image that has already been flattened can be easily avoided by converting to SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) in the first place. This extension allows you to preserve the image layers and defines the graphics in XML format. SVG also supports animation and lets you index, search or compress the image.
While most people describe SVG as a vector format containing vectors, animations or interactive graphics and supported by the largest part of web browsers, few know that SVGs can also store raster images. And the best part is that these raster images can handle alpha-channel and JPEG compression, which makes SVG a great alternative for the larger-sized PNG.
SVG is also a better alternative than WebP, JPEG2000 or JPEG-XR when it comes to web programming, as it is supported by Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer 9+ and Firefox — thus covering all major browsers.