Duce, David A.Hopgood, F.R.A.Rita Borgo and Cagatay Turkay2015-09-162015-09-162015978-3-905674-94-1https://doi.org/10.2312/cgvc.20151238Activities to define international standards for computer graphics, in particular through ISO/IEC, started in the 1970s. The advent of the World Wide Web has brought new requirements and opportunities for standardization and now a variety of bodies including ISO/IEC and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) promulgate standards in this space. This paper takes a historical look at one of the early ISO/IEC standards for 2D graphics, the Graphical Kernel System (GKS) and compares key concepts and approaches in this standard (as revised in 1994) with concepts and approaches in the W3C Recommendation for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). The paper reflects on successes as well as lost opportunities.I.3.6 [Computer Graphics]Methodology and TechniquesStandards10.2312/cgvc.2015123827-34