What is the .SVG file extension?
The .SVG file extension is used by Scalable Vector Graphic files, which is used widely for representing graphics information. It is an open source standard which is defined and maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium, popularly known as the W3C.
The standard is based on text-based Extended Markup Language (XML) and attempts at defining open standards that can be used to cross leverage across graphic design utilities designed by numerous popular vendors like Adobe and Corel.
The Scalable Vector Graphics standards cover hyperlinking, Vector Shape representation, raster objects, textual content, grouping of objects and layering, transformations and many such features which are used in almost all graphic tools. Being an essentially text based format, SVG file extensions can be easily compressed further. ?GZIP, a popular open source archiving utility, even defines a special .SVGZ extension for compressed SVG file formats.
Opening .SVG file formats
Almost all leading graphic design suites are equipped to handle .SVG file extensions. For Microsoft Windows and Mac OSX, the popular Adobe as well as Corel suite can readily open and help manage .SVG files. For open source platforms like Linux, we have applications such as GIMP which can help view and edit .SVG extension files.
There may be times when you are unable to open the file even when there are programs installed on your machine that can manage the file. This may happen due to registry errors, incorrect program associations, corrupt files or even bad sectors on your hard disk. In such cases you may get an error asking you to find a program which can open the file or even errors that state that the file is corrupt and cannot be opened.
Thankfully for such cases, there are third party file correction and opening tools that can come in handy. These tools help in scanning the file for irregularities and to associate them with the correct programs. A repair program can even create a readable version of the file for repairing and recovering information from the original file.