Skip to main content
Shakewell

Markup and Content

CGM

The vector graphics standard technical illustration standardized on decades before SVG, still carrying hotspot data in aerospace libraries.

Definition

What CGM Means

CGM stands for

Computer Graphics Metafile

CGM stores illustrations as vectors rather than pixels, so they scale without degrading. WebCGM added the interactive layer that made it indispensable to IETMs: regions of an illustration can be hotspots that navigate somewhere.

That hotspot data is the reason flattening a CGM library to raster for convenience is destructive. It discards the interactivity a program is usually contracted to deliver.

Also written: cgm file, .cgm file, computer graphics metafile, WebCGM

What is a CGM file?

Get In Touch

Beyond the Definition

Knowing what a term means is the easy half. If you need to know what it obligates on your program, that is the conversation we are built for.