Vector or diagram drawing webservice

Question

I have a webapp from which I'd like to insert diagrams and images quickly and easily. I expect there is, somewhere out there, a webservice which will take a URL with a parameter that describes the vector graphics or diagram and returns an image.

No unlike what google charts does for graphing data.

Any resources or ideas on this?

If I had to build it myself, do you have some ideas of how I might accomplish that?

For instance, does PHP/asp/etc have a graphics library that's capable of rendering simple vector graphics?

Answer 1

Check out Raphael. Done by a bloke here in Australia.

Answer 2

No unlike what google charts does for graphing data.

Why not just use the Google Chart API?

http://code.google.com/apis/chart/

Answer 3

Have you considered something like http://www.walterzorn.com/jsgraphics/jsgraphics_e.htm to produce actual vector graphics on the client side, instead of making requests to a server?

Answer 4

One possibility would be to generate SVG in realtime in the browser. This decreases browser compatibility, but that will decrease over time.