Vector image with fixed line width

Question

I would like to create/export a vector image with fixed line widths, independent of the zoom level. I've already found the possibility to use vector-effect="non-scaling-stroke" in an SVG image, which makes the line width independent of my transformations. But that is not what I want. I need to create an image file that I can send to someone else, while he/she can open it in web/pdf/image browser, zoom in, while keeping the line width fixed.

Example: I have this image:

What I want after enlarging it 10 times in browser/pdf viewer:

What I got instead:

I'm struggling with this for quite long, so I wonder, is it even possible? I understand that with raster images, this is impossible in principle, but isn't there a way to achieve this with vector images?

Answer 1

PDF specification has no such capability. PDF is a print preparation/archival/wysiwyg format. Its simply not meant for this usecase.

Like others have said svg files in a browser have this property. But thats not a universal works in all svg rendererers kind of thing. Browsers are especially flexible, so you could even make it thinner when you zoom in if you wanted to.

Answer 2

I finally resolved this. Using the information from comments and @joojaa answer, I concluded that PDF is not an option. I focussed on SVG, and I was able to achieve the result using the embedded CSS block with stroke-width property. However, this is not enough to achieve the wanted behavior in the browser.

The key is to set the stroke width in viewport units. Example:

<svg xmlns...">
    <style>
        path { stroke-width: 0.1vw; }
    </style>
    ...

This solution works for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. It does not work for IE (it ignores the embedded style), but I guess it is a question for a different community.