SVG Print is aimed at software which generates formatted, paginated material for printing. The process of generating that content (eg from XSL, or from CSS, or from a wordprocessor or charting package, or whatever other means, is at a level above SVG Print and orthogonal to it. Where SVG Print fits in is the case where the printer itself (or some print processor) understands SVG as a page description language.

Print creation software that is talking to an SVG-aware printer can easily use standard SVG features to do multiple pages per physical page (impression); to print crop marks, registration marks, quality control swatches and job control information as well as the original content.

SVG Print defines conformance classes for SVG Print documents, for SVG Printing Devices, and for an SVG Print Preview device.

The SVG Print 1.2 language adds two main features to SVG - one is a set of elements for dividing content into pages and for defining master page content (eg 'draft' printed in grey under each page) and the other is improved color specification information.

Previous specifications from W3C (SVG 1.1, CSS, XSL) allowed ICC-based color specification but made it optional and thus, not testable. Given the crucial industry importance of color management, SVG Print makes ICC-based color management mandatory and thus, testable and reliable. In addition to the sRGB and ICC-based color specifications from SVG 1.1 (eg, for calibrated CMYK) SVG Print 1.2 adds names colors, 'device' (ie, uncalibrated) colors, and allows color interpolation to occur in the CIE LAB color space. The latter feature means that colors may be freely used which are outside the gamut of sRGB.