The one common image format that isn't made of pixels — text-based drawing instructions that stay sharp at any size.
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) describes an image as a set of shapes, paths, and coordinates written in XML text rather than a grid of colored pixels, which is the fundamental difference between it and every other format on this list. Because a circle in an SVG file is stored as math — a center point and a radius — rather than as pixels, it can be displayed at the size of an icon or blown up to a billboard without ever looking blurry or blocky, something no photo format can do. That property makes SVG the standard choice for logos, icons, and illustrations across the web, where a single file needs to look sharp on everything from a phone screen to a 4K monitor. The tradeoff is that SVG is built for line art and flat graphics, not photographs — a photo saved as SVG would either look nothing like a photo or balloon to an enormous file size trying to approximate one. Most uses of an SVG file eventually need it rasterized into PNG or JPEG for a platform that expects pixels, or embedded into a PDF for print or document use.
iPhone, iPad, and Mac open SVG files in Safari, Preview, and most vector-aware apps. Every modern web browser renders SVG directly, since it was built for the web. Some older software, most raster-only photo editors, and any tool that expects a normal pixel image cannot open an SVG at all.
Plenty of apps, older browsers, and document tools still expect a pixel-based image rather than SVG's text-based vector format. Converting on-device rasterizes the file into PNG or JPEG, or embeds it in a PDF, without needing a desktop design tool to do it.
Filemorph can convert SVG to PNG on-device — a pixel-based version any photo tool or upload form can use, rendered at whatever resolution is needed.
Filemorph converts .svg files entirely on-device on iPhone, iPad and Mac — no upload, no account, and it works in Airplane Mode.
Relevant operations in Filemorph:
An SVG file stores shapes as mathematical coordinates rather than a fixed grid of pixels, so scaling it up or down just recalculates the shapes at the new size instead of stretching existing pixels, which is what causes blur in a photo format.
Not meaningfully. SVG is built for line art, logos, and flat graphics described as shapes — it has no efficient way to represent a photograph's continuous detail, so photos stay in JPEG, PNG, HEIC, or similar pixel-based formats instead.
Yes. Filemorph rasterizes SVG files to PNG, JPEG, or PDF entirely on-device, so a client's logo file never has to be uploaded to a conversion website, and the process works offline.