SVGZ — Compressed SVG (gzip)
Open BetaSVGZ is plain SVG compressed with gzip. SVG is text-based XML by nature and compresses extremely well: a multi-megabyte district map becomes a file 60-80% smaller — with no quality loss, since gzip is lossless. Our exporter does this in one step: the map is honestly rendered through QGIS into a full styled SVG, then compressed with gzip level 9. All modern browsers unpack .svgz on the fly, and Inkscape and Illustrator open it directly.
Key Features
About SVGZ Format
SVGZ is not a separate format but the same SVG, packed with gzip. The extension serves as a hint to the browser and to editors that the content is compressed. A vector map is text with thousands of repeating fragments, which is why it compresses particularly well.
It makes sense wherever somebody downloads the file: a map on a page, an archive of layouts, serving from static hosting. The saving runs end to end — less disk space, less traffic, faster loading, and the image does not lose a single dot.
What you get: a full styled map, rendered by the same pipeline as the ordinary SVG and compressed with gzip at maximum level. There is no need to unpack it by hand — browsers, Inkscape and Illustrator read the file directly; if you do end up needing the source, gunzip gives back the ordinary SVG.
What Program Opens SVGZ Files
The following programs and applications can open, edit, and work with SVGZ — Compressed SVG (gzip) (.svgz) files exported from OSM2CDR:
Format specifications
- Open standard
- 2D only
- Lossless (no quality loss)
- No attributes
- Output: 1 file
- A full styled QGIS SVG compressed with gzip level 9 (typically -60-80%); lossless — the original SVG is restored bit-for-bit, unpacked by browsers on the fly.
Who Uses SVGZ Maps
How to Export SVGZ
How to Open After Export
- A browser — open the file with a double click: Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge unpack it themselves.
- Inkscape — opens and saves compressed SVG directly, no separate unpacking step needed.
- The command line — gunzip gives back an ordinary .svg if a program does not understand the compressed variant.
- Serving from a server — set the image/svg+xml content type and the gzip encoding headers, otherwise the browser will show a meaningless set of characters instead of the map.
- A check after deployment — open the file's address in a browser: if the map rendered, the headers are set correctly.
Popular maps in SVGZ
Get SVGZ — Compressed SVG (gzip) map exports
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