What is SMIL?

SMIL (pronounced “smile”) stands for “Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language” and defines scheduling (“synchronized”), video, audio, images, text (“multimedia”), multi-zone screen layout (“integration”) in an XML-based text file format (“language”). It is an open specification (royalty-free to use) created by the World-Wide Web Consortium, the same organization responsible for defining the HTML language, an open standard for the Internet. Products that utilize SMIL are available from leading companies such as Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, and Real Networks.