what format do people use for vector graphics, these days?

.eps? .svg? Something else?

Affinity Designer works pretty well.

For Mac, Linearity Curve (formerly Vectormator) is pretty good and free.

Oh sorry, I misunderstood. mostly .svg I think.

'k, thx!

my own custom code format and, more recently, some manually written SVG files. I think I might previously have had to use .eps to send something to a printing service.

.eps sounds like what I was using.

I use .svg, and usually create them in Inkscape, though some other things will create them which I then will pull into Inkscape.

SVG for the Web, EPS for print.

Άτροπος : what makes them more suited for one than the other?

I think the answer is that the software the printer companies use is expecting EPS.

ah!

Printers also expect CMYK and you'll get a call if you use RGB images.

how would I know the difference?

your commercial image editing package should have options to tell you whether you are saving in RGB mode (or even viewing the numbers as HSL) or as CMYK.

Arbieroo : Web browsers inherently support SVG, which is Web-focused. Printers (and, in my experience, vector art applications) inherently understand EPS. They achieve almost the same goals with very different internal structures. You can (if you are a dedicated geek) read and understand SVG containers. EPS, you need to be a Wizard from the 1960s (and high).

SVG for the web seems to me to be really good. Like Άτροπος says, EPS (which is Postscript) is vastly complex and powerful.

also a pain in the arse unless you cough up money for specialist software...

back in my day web browsers did not inherently support SVG !

I know! It was only a couple of years back that I discovered that the exciting https://traksy.uk and then that it used SVG to show the train maps.

sef_lopod : back in my day, Web browsers barely understood GIFs, and you had to walk uphill through 3 meters of snow (both ways!) to get one to display JPEGs.

it was all about the textual content (with some BMPs) back then!