ADR-0002 — Everything is a path, except text

Status: Accepted

Context

Handling shapes uniformly (booleans, aligned strokes, node editing) requires a single representation. Native SVG primitives (rect, circle…) and the native stroke cannot align the outline inside or outside.

Decision

• Every shape is rendered as a <path>.
• The stroke is computed as a path (offset), not through the stroke property.
• Exception: text stays a native <text>.

Consequences

• A single geometric model for every operation.
• stroke-alignment being only an unimplemented W3C draft, it is achieved by computation.
• Text does not take part in booleans.

References

REF-SVG-STROKES, REF-SVGWG-957, REF-SVG2-PAINT