Use SVG glyph tag in HTML

Question

I have an icons.svg file with this source:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd" >
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<defs>
<font id="MyIcon" horiz-adv-x="1024">
<font-face units-per-em="1024" ascent="960" descent="-64" />
<missing-glyph horiz-adv-x="1024" />
<glyph unicode="&#x20;" horiz-adv-x="512" d="" />
<glyph unicode="&#xe900;" glyph-name="arrow-left" horiz-adv-x="1308" d="..." />
<glyph unicode="&#xe901;" glyph-name="arrow-up" horiz-adv-x="1308" d="..." />
<glyph unicode="&#xe902;" glyph-name="arrow-down" horiz-adv-x="860" d="..." />
</font></defs></svg>

Is there any way to refer this glyph tags from HTML? I think something like this:

<svg role="img" title="arrow-up"><use xlink:href="icons.svg#arrow-up"></use></svg>

Is there any way to use SVG tags in my HTML code?

Answer 1

There is no browser that implements SVG <font> or <glyph>. The best you can do is convert the glyphs to <symbol>s containing a <path>, like in a SVG sprite sheet. (This conversion could be even automated with XSLT.) If you set a viewBox for the symbol with the width matching horiz-adv-x and the height the font's ascent, you can position the icon use reliably inline:

.icon, symbol {
    overflow: visible
}
.icon {
    height: 1em
}

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" display="none">
  <symbol id="arrow-left" viewBox="0 0 1308 960">
    <!-- font paths are upside-down! -->
    <path transform="matrix(1 0 0 -1 0 960)" d="..." />
  </symbol>
  <symbol id="arrow-up" viewBox="0 0 1308 960">
    <!-- borrowed a font-awesome icon to show an example, width is too small -->
    <path transform="matrix(1 0 0 -1 0 960)" d="m 1006.87,353.125 q 0,-31.875 -23.12,-56.25 l -46.875,-46.875 q -23.75,-23.75 -56.875,-23.75 -33.75,0 -56.25,23.75 l -183.75,183.125 v -440 q 0,-32.5 -23.438,-52.8125 -23.437,-20.3125 -56.562,-20.3125 h -80 q -33.125,0 -56.563,20.3125 -23.437,20.3125 -23.437,52.8125 v 440 l -183.75,-183.125 q -22.5,-23.75 -56.25,-23.75 -33.75,0 -56.25,23.75 l -46.875,46.875 q -23.75,23.75 -23.75,56.25 0,33.125 23.75,56.875 l 406.875,406.875 q 21.875,23.125 56.25,23.125 33.75,0 56.875,-23.125 l 406.875,-406.875 q 23.12,-24.375 23.12,-56.875 z" />
  </symbol>
  <symbol id="arrow-down" viewBox="0 0 860 960">
    <path transform="matrix(1 0 0 -1 0 960)" d="..." />
  </symbol>
</svg>

<p style="font-size:32px">text <svg viewBox="0 0 1308 960" class="icon"><use xlink:href="#arrow-up"/></svg> text</p>

The downside is that you don't get the automatic advance that glyphs would give you. The best you can do is to set a constant height and a viewBox for each referencing <svg> that matches that of the symbol you are using.

If you don't use the icons in a inline context where the advance is important, you could maybe set all symbol viewBox widths to a unified value (i. e. viewBox="0 0 1024 960") and then leave off the viewBox from the icon svg, seting instead a constant width/height ratio (i.e. width:1.067em; height:1em). Some icons will then overflow that box in the horizontal direction.