Vector Markup Language (VML) is an XML-based exchange, editing, and delivery format for high-quality vector graphics on the Web. VML is supported by the most of the Microsoft's products without any plugin , for example, Internet Explorer 5+ and Microsoft Office. Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint can be used to create VML graphics. VML has been proposed to the W3C as a standard for vector graphics on the Web. VML facilitates faster graphic downloads and an improved user experience. It allows the deliverance of high-quality, fully integrated, scalable vector graphics to the Web, in an open text-basedformat. Rather than referencing graphics as external files, VML graphics are delivered inline with the HTML page, allowing them to interact with user interaction.
The cector graphics created using VML can be embedded in Web pages in place of the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG). Vector graphics take up less space in memory and so display much faster over slow network connections than traditional GIF and JPEG bitmap images. VML can support a varied range of vector graphics making it very versatile. Vector Markup LanguageThe Vector Markup Language (VML) supports vector graphic information in the same way that HTML supports textual information and has been available since 1998. Within VML the content is comprised of paths described using connected lines and curves. The markup gives semantic and presentation information for the paths. VML is a subset of XML and is written using XML syntax just as HTML is written using theStandard Generalised Markup Language (SGML) syntax.
Vector graphics rendering is best suited to images in which shapes can be defined by mathematical functions (for example, straight lines, simple curves, waves, circles, ellipses, squares, rectangles, and triangles). In some situations, vector graphics are inferior to bitmap graphics. An example is a photograph of a complex nature scene including trees, clouds, and other objects with fractal features. While it is possible to render such an image in vector format, the vector file may contain several times as many bytes as the equivalent
bitmap file.
