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ODG
What is an ODG file?
Vector drawings from LibreOffice Draw.
What ODG is
ODG is a container: a wrapper that holds streams encoded by something else. It stores shapes and coordinates rather than pixels, so it stays sharp at any size — a logo scaled to a billboard loses nothing. It is used for editing and line art and logos.
The extension is .odg, and the full name is OpenDocument Graphics. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Where ODG came from
OASIS published it in 2005. The specification is ISO/IEC 26300.
Age is worth knowing here for one practical reason: the older a format is, the more programs have had time to learn it.
The specification is public
Anyone can implement it without asking permission or paying a licence, which is why it turns up in so many programs and why files written twenty years ago still open.
It can hold several pages in one file
A ODG file is not limited to one page, which matters when converting to something that is: a target that holds one image produces one file per page, and the numbering it chooses is worth checking before you send it on.
What kind of document it is
ODG holds a drawing: shapes placed on a canvas rather than text in a flow.
That is what decides how it converts: the text reflows, so page numbers are a property of the output rather than of the file.
It keeps the layers
ODG stores the parts of an image separately rather than flattened together, which is what makes it a working file. Almost every format it converts into flattens them, and the flattening is not reversible — keep the layered original.
What opens ODG
LibreOffice Draw reads it, and so do most programs of the same kind.
If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.
Opening it in a browser
No browser reads it.
That is the single most common reason to convert it: not that the format is bad, but that the place you want to show the file cannot read it.
It is a working format
ODG is meant to be opened and changed. Keep the file in this format for as long as the work is going on, and export from it whenever a finished copy is needed.
The facts, in one place
| Extension | .odg |
|---|---|
| Media type | application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics |
| Published by | OASIS |
| First published | 2005 |
| Specification | ISO/IEC 26300 |