Do I need to keep the xml header in an svg file when embedding it in the web page

Question

I have an SVG image that I want to embed on a web page (inside a html file)

I created the image with Adobe Illustrator and it contains the following headers:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd">
<svg version="1.1" id="Layer_1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" x="0px" y="0px"
     viewBox="0 0 462.219 381.915" enable-background="new 0 0 462.219 381.915" xml:space="preserve">
...

Do I need the xml and DOCTYPE declarations? Or just embedding the contents of the <svg> tag is fine?

Possible duplicate of [SVG in HTML5 – when is XML declaration \`\` needed?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38169475/svg-in-html5-when-is-xml-declaration-xml-version-1-0-encoding-utf-8) — SeinopSys, Jul 29 '16 at 13:44

Paul LeBeau · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-11T13:55:50.840

11

The XML header lines should be removed when you are embedding an SVG in an HTML page or another SVG.

UPDATE

Just to clarify:

Well-formed XML documents contain only one prolog. So they should be removed if you are embedding one SVG inside another. See: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-xml-20081126/#dt-wellformed

When embedding an SVG inside an HTML file, you could keep the prolog lines. The HTML parser in the browser will ignore them. But given they serve no purpose, it is my advice that you "should" remove them to make your document smaller - and more readable. :)

edited Dec 11 '14 at 13:55

answered Dec 11 '14 at 02:50

Paul LeBeau

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But what if the encoding of the HTML page is different from the encoding of the SVG file? – bart Nov 30 '15 at 05:08
You contents of the embedded SVG file should have the same encoding as the HTML file it is a part of. – Paul LeBeau Nov 30 '15 at 07:40

Do I need to keep the xml header in an svg file when embedding it in the web page

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