path

The path attribute has two different meanings, either it defines a text path along which the characters of a text are rendered, or a motion path along which a referenced element is animated.

Two elements are using this attribute: <animateMotion> and <textPath>

html, body, svg {
  height: 100%;
}

<svg viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <path id="MyPath" fill="none" stroke="silver"
        d="M10,90 Q90,90 90,45 Q90,10 50,10 Q10,10 10,40 Q10,70 45,70 Q70,70 75,50" />

  <text>
    <textPath path="M10,90 Q90,90 90,45 Q90,10 50,10 Q10,10 10,40 Q10,70 45,70 Q70,70 75,50">
      Quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    </textPath>
  </text>
</svg>

animateMotion

For <animateMotion>, path defines the motion path, expressed in the same format and interpreted the same way as the d geometric property for the <path> element. The effect of a motion path animation is a translation along the x- and y-axes of the current user coordinate system by the x and y values computed over time.

<path-data>

This value defines the motion path along which the referenced element is animated. For detailed information about the commands that can be used, see the explanation for the d attribute.

textPath

For <textPath>, path defines the path onto which the glyphs of a <text> element will be rendered. An empty string indicates that there is no path data for the element. This means that the text within the <textPath> element does not render or contribute to the bounding box of the <text> element. If the attribute is not specified, the path specified in href is used instead.

<path-data>

This value defines the text path along which the glyphs of the <text> element are aligned. For detailed information about the commands that can be used, see the explanation for the d attribute.

Specifications