With 80% of the population connected to Internet, UAE has opened its doors to global brands. Several brands and businesses have taken themselves online with the launch of websites and service stores. Majority of the internet users come through the mobile channel and prefer websites that load fast and are dynamic in nature. Interactive websites with crisp graphics have become the need of the hour. Having said this, graphic designers across the globe have been upgrading their designs to match the changing requirements.
For fast loading and crisp graphics, any web design company in Dubai will use SVG file type for designs, icons, and more. Beautiful graphics are easily made in this file type and can be scaled later without any quality loss. This type supports retina displays, and hence has become a major hit among web designers.
For animating and adding the dynamic nature to graphics in SVG, some efforts are needed by a person who does web design in Dubai. Fortunately, here are a few open source free libraries for animating SVG files that add life into your creations without getting dirty with code.
1. SVG.js
A completely free and totally open source library for use on any web project, the SVG.js has gained popularity lately. This library is only 16kB in size when gzipped, which is why it is used to make crisp websites that are interactive and light on the browser. The installation of this library is pretty simple as you will only need support for npm. This way, you can make websites that are totally appealing and dynamic easily. Plus, there is plenty of documentation for the rescue, in case you get lost in code. And the numerous demos and HTML codes available will make it easy for you to implement the scripts in website.
2. Snap.svg
Another library that has gained immense popularity is the Snap.svg. The popularity comes for the fact that it is a JavaScript library with zero dependencies. And another advantage is that it is backed by a large community of websites running on Slack. Though the project is currently out as version v0.5.1, there is a lot of space for innovation. What’s more important is that it can easily load files exported from Illustrator, InkScape, or any other platform that churns out hard-coded SVGs.
3. Bonsai.js
For development that is not commercial in nature, we would highly recommend the Bonsai library. This library has been around the web design world for years and is recognized as one of the well-maintained projects. The library allows you to build some pretty cool designs with SVGs and other canvas elements. From designing little icons on landing pages to creating complex graphs, the feasibility and scalability offered by this library is completely commendable. An added benefit is the full control over paths in SVGs such that animations can be easily implemented using keyframes in Bonsai.
4. Paper.js
There are very few SVG libraries existing that can term themselves as the Swiss Knife of all libraries. Be it compatibility, scalability, or performance, the Paper.js is one SVG library that does not fail to impress the designers. By default, Paper.js is created to work seamlessly with HTML5 canvas elements, owing to its DOM model. Which means you can easily manipulate the views. Right from editing the Bezier curves inside the code to the basic scripting, everything is made easy in this library. As a result, several graphic designers use it for more than custom animation. Over the years, it has become a great choice for all those wish to integrate SVGs into the website.
5. Raphaël
A classic JS library for graphics manipulation and SVG scripting, Raphaël is available for free under the MIT License. You can download it from GitHub. The code runs plainly on JavaScript, but you may prefer TypeScript for faster coding. Each graphic page has a dedicated DOM section to manipulate the elements. A good library for beginners who wish to integrate SVGs in HTML5 canvas.
