Noticing the appeal of Flash and other vector graphics tools, many people have begun to embrace a more open format called Scalable Vector Graphics, or SVG. SVG is a language to describe two-dimensional vector graphics -- and how they interact with text and standard raster graphics -- in XML. It handles pretty much everything that Flash does, such as gradients, grouping, transformation animation, masking, clipping paths, filter effects, and alpha channel transparency. The World Wide Web Consortium -- the folks who keep track of all the Web standards -- maintains a nice set of specs on SVG.