How to change color of SVG image using CSS (jQuery

Question

This is a self Q&A of a handy piece of code I came up with.

Currently, there isn't an easy way to embed an SVG image and then have access to the SVG elements via CSS. There are various methods of using JS SVG frameworks, but they are overly complicated if all you are doing is making a simple icon with a rollover state.

So here is what I came up with, which I think is by far the easiest way to use SVG files on a website. It takes its concept from the early text-to-image replacement methods, but as far as I am aware has never been done for SVGs.

This is the question:

How do I embed an SVG and change its color in CSS without using a JS-SVG framework?

Answer 1

Here's a version for knockout.js based on the accepted answer:

Important: It does actually require jQuery too for the replacing, but I thought it may be useful to some.

ko.bindingHandlers.svgConvert =
    {
        'init': function ()
        {
            return { 'controlsDescendantBindings': true };
        },

        'update': function (element, valueAccessor, allBindings, viewModel, bindingContext)
        {
            var $img = $(element);
            var imgID = $img.attr('id');
            var imgClass = $img.attr('class');
            var imgURL = $img.attr('src');

            $.get(imgURL, function (data)
            {
                // Get the SVG tag, ignore the rest
                var $svg = $(data).find('svg');

                // Add replaced image's ID to the new SVG
                if (typeof imgID !== 'undefined')
                {
                    $svg = $svg.attr('id', imgID);
                }
                // Add replaced image's classes to the new SVG
                if (typeof imgClass !== 'undefined')
                {
                    $svg = $svg.attr('class', imgClass + ' replaced-svg');
                }

                // Remove any invalid XML tags as per http://validator.w3.org
                $svg = $svg.removeAttr('xmlns:a');

                // Replace image with new SVG
                $img.replaceWith($svg);

            }, 'xml');

        }
    };

Then just apply data-bind="svgConvert: true" to your img tag.

This solution completely replaces the img tag with a SVG and any additional bindings would not be respected.

Answer 2

I realize you're wanting to accomplish this with CSS, but just a reminder in case it's a small, simple image - you can always pop it open in Notepad++ and change the path/whateverelement's fill:

<path style="fill:#010002;" d="M394.854,205.444c9.218-15.461,19.102-30.181,14.258-49.527
    ...
    C412.843,226.163,402.511,211.451,394.854,205.444z"/>

It could save a ton of ugly script. Sorry if it's off-base, but sometimes the simple solutions can be overlooked.

...even swapping multiple svg images might be smaller in size than some of the code snippets for this question.

Answer 3

If we have a greater number of such svg images we can also take the help of font-files.
Sites like https://glyphter.com/ can get us a font file from our svgs.

---

E.g.

@font-face {
    font-family: 'iconFont';
    src: url('iconFont.eot');
}
#target{
    color: white;
    font-size:96px;
    font-family:iconFont;
}

Answer 4

Alternatively you could use CSS mask, granted browser support isn't good but you could use a fallback

.frame {
    background: blue;
    -webkit-mask: url(image.svg) center / contain no-repeat;
}

Answer 5

You can use data-image for that. using data-image(data-URI) you can access SVG like inline.

Here is rollover effect using pure CSS and SVG.

I know it messy but you can do this way.

 .action-btn {
    background-size: 20px 20px;
    background-position: center center;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    border-width: 1px;
    border-style: solid;
    border-radius: 30px;
    height: 40px;
    width: 60px;
    display: inline-block;
 }

.delete {
     background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=UTF-8,%3csvg version='1.1' id='Capa_1' fill='#FB404B' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' xmlns:xlink='http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink' x='0px' y='0px' width='482.428px' height='482.429px' viewBox='0 0 482.428 482.429' style='enable-background:new 0 0 482.428 482.429;' xml:space='preserve'%3e%3cg%3e%3cg%3e%3cpath d='M381.163,57.799h-75.094C302.323,25.316,274.686,0,241.214,0c-33.471,0-61.104,25.315-64.85,57.799h-75.098 c-30.39,0-55.111,24.728-55.111,55.117v2.828c0,23.223,14.46,43.1,34.83,51.199v260.369c0,30.39,24.724,55.117,55.112,55.117 h210.236c30.389,0,55.111-24.729,55.111-55.117V166.944c20.369-8.1,34.83-27.977,34.83-51.199v-2.828 C436.274,82.527,411.551,57.799,381.163,57.799z M241.214,26.139c19.037,0,34.927,13.645,38.443,31.66h-76.879 C206.293,39.783,222.184,26.139,241.214,26.139z M375.305,427.312c0,15.978-13,28.979-28.973,28.979H136.096 c-15.973,0-28.973-13.002-28.973-28.979V170.861h268.182V427.312z M410.135,115.744c0,15.978-13,28.979-28.973,28.979H101.266 c-15.973,0-28.973-13.001-28.973-28.979v-2.828c0-15.978,13-28.979,28.973-28.979h279.897c15.973,0,28.973,13.001,28.973,28.979 V115.744z'/%3e%3cpath d='M171.144,422.863c7.218,0,13.069-5.853,13.069-13.068V262.641c0-7.216-5.852-13.07-13.069-13.07 c-7.217,0-13.069,5.854-13.069,13.07v147.154C158.074,417.012,163.926,422.863,171.144,422.863z'/%3e%3cpath d='M241.214,422.863c7.218,0,13.07-5.853,13.07-13.068V262.641c0-7.216-5.854-13.07-13.07-13.07 c-7.217,0-13.069,5.854-13.069,13.07v147.154C228.145,417.012,233.996,422.863,241.214,422.863z'/%3e%3cpath d='M311.284,422.863c7.217,0,13.068-5.853,13.068-13.068V262.641c0-7.216-5.852-13.07-13.068-13.07 c-7.219,0-13.07,5.854-13.07,13.07v147.154C298.213,417.012,304.067,422.863,311.284,422.863z'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e ");
     border-color:#FB404B;
     
 }
 
 .delete:hover {
     background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=UTF-8,%3csvg version='1.1' id='Capa_1' fill='#fff' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' xmlns:xlink='http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink' x='0px' y='0px' width='482.428px' height='482.429px' viewBox='0 0 482.428 482.429' style='enable-background:new 0 0 482.428 482.429;' xml:space='preserve'%3e%3cg%3e%3cg%3e%3cpath d='M381.163,57.799h-75.094C302.323,25.316,274.686,0,241.214,0c-33.471,0-61.104,25.315-64.85,57.799h-75.098 c-30.39,0-55.111,24.728-55.111,55.117v2.828c0,23.223,14.46,43.1,34.83,51.199v260.369c0,30.39,24.724,55.117,55.112,55.117 h210.236c30.389,0,55.111-24.729,55.111-55.117V166.944c20.369-8.1,34.83-27.977,34.83-51.199v-2.828 C436.274,82.527,411.551,57.799,381.163,57.799z M241.214,26.139c19.037,0,34.927,13.645,38.443,31.66h-76.879 C206.293,39.783,222.184,26.139,241.214,26.139z M375.305,427.312c0,15.978-13,28.979-28.973,28.979H136.096 c-15.973,0-28.973-13.002-28.973-28.979V170.861h268.182V427.312z M410.135,115.744c0,15.978-13,28.979-28.973,28.979H101.266 c-15.973,0-28.973-13.001-28.973-28.979v-2.828c0-15.978,13-28.979,28.973-28.979h279.897c15.973,0,28.973,13.001,28.973,28.979 V115.744z'/%3e%3cpath d='M171.144,422.863c7.218,0,13.069-5.853,13.069-13.068V262.641c0-7.216-5.852-13.07-13.069-13.07 c-7.217,0-13.069,5.854-13.069,13.07v147.154C158.074,417.012,163.926,422.863,171.144,422.863z'/%3e%3cpath d='M241.214,422.863c7.218,0,13.07-5.853,13.07-13.068V262.641c0-7.216-5.854-13.07-13.07-13.07 c-7.217,0-13.069,5.854-13.069,13.07v147.154C228.145,417.012,233.996,422.863,241.214,422.863z'/%3e%3cpath d='M311.284,422.863c7.217,0,13.068-5.853,13.068-13.068V262.641c0-7.216-5.852-13.07-13.068-13.07 c-7.219,0-13.07,5.854-13.07,13.07v147.154C298.213,417.012,304.067,422.863,311.284,422.863z'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e ");        
     background-color: #FB404B;
    }

<a class="action-btn delete">&nbsp;</a>

You can convert your svg to data url here

1. https://codepen.io/elliz/full/ygvgay
2. https://websemantics.uk/tools/svg-to-background-image-conversion/

Answer 6

If you can include files (PHP include or include via your CMS of choice) in your page, you can add the SVG code and include it into your page. This works the same as pasting the SVG source into the page, but makes the page markup cleaner.

The benefit is that you can target parts of your SVG via CSS for hover -- no javascript required.

http://codepen.io/chriscoyier/pen/evcBu

You just have to use a CSS rule like this:

#pathidorclass:hover { fill: #303 !important; }

Note that the !important bit is necessary to override the fill color.