Special Edition Using XML, Second Edition

The SVG Rendering Model

Understanding the SVG Rendering model is important so that you can create images that display the parts of an SVG image that you want to be visible.

The SVG rendering model is referred to as the Painter's Model, indicating that it resembles the way in which oil paint is applied and seen on a canvas. The first brush stroke is covered up by subsequent brush strokes. Similarly in SVG an element that occurs early in the document—which overlaps with an element that occurs later in the document—will be covered over by the later element to a degree, depending on the later element's opacity. If the later element is fully opaque, it completely covers the part of the earlier element that it overlaps. If, however, the later element ...