freesewing/markdown/dev/guides/prerequisites/coordinate-system/en.md

---
title: The coordinate system
order: 30
---

The coordinate system in FreeSewing -- and in SVG -- follows the same rules as text on a page.
You start at the top-left, and as you go to the right, the X-coordinate will increase.
As you go down the Y-coordinate will increase.

<Example part="docs_coords" caption="The SVG coordinate system" /> 

The image above illustrates both the X-axis and Y-axis.
On the X-axis, `20` is further to the right than `10`.
On the Y-axis, `50` is lower than `20`.

<Note>

The Y-axis is inverted in many drawing programs, with the origin
`(0,0)` being the lower left corner, rather than the upper left corner.

This is a common point of confusion so keep in mind that the Y-axis may
not behave as you would have intuitively expected.

</Note>