SVG for Everybody
SVG for Everybody adds SVG External Content support to all browsers.
To use it now, include the script in your document.
To support Internet Explorer 6-8, include the legacy script instead.
As of v2.0.0, you must manually call svg4everybody()
. If you are using an AMD/CommonJS dependency loader then you may call it within the callback closure.
IE 6-8 require you to put the script in the <head>
in order to shiv <svg>
and <use>
elements. For best results in IE, set X-UA-Compatible to ie=edge
. This can be done with a response header from the server or the following HTML in the <head>
.
Usage
Create an SVG image.
map.svg:
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This spritemap displays fine in Chrome, Safari 7.1+, Firefox, Edge 13+, Opera. SVG for Everybody polyfills the experience in Safari 6, IE 6+, and Edge 12.
IE 6-8 requires a trailing slash /
when using a self-closing <use/>
element.
Browsers not supporting SVG fallback to images.
By default, fallback images point to a PNG file in the same location as the SVG, only with the #
hash replaced by a .
dot and then appended with a .png
extension. If you want to change this behavior, you can define your own fallback.
;
All <use>
elements that are descendants of an <svg>
are checked for external content. If you want to change this behavior, you can define your own validator.
;
You can override whether the script polyfills External Content at all (polyfill
), or whether SVG should even be used over fallback images (nosvg
).
;
Use of the nosvg
option will requires you to use the legacy version of SVG for Everybody.
Implementation status
Modern browsers support external content in SVGs, except Edge. No frets; we can shim it.
OS | Browser | SVG | External Content | Shimmed |
---|---|---|---|---|
* | Chrome 21+ | ✔ | ✔ | — |
* | Chrome 14-20 | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
* | Firefox 4+ | ✔ | ✔ | — |
* | Opera 23+ | ✔ | ✔ | — |
* | Opera Mini 8+ | ✔ | ✔ | — |
And | And. Browser 40+ | ✔ | ✔ | — |
And | And. Browser 4.1+ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
iOS | iOS 8.1+ | ✔ | ✔ | — |
iOS | iOS 6-7 | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
OSX | Saf 7.1+ | ✔ | ✔ | — |
OSX | Saf 6 | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
Win | Edge 13+ | ✔ | ✔ | — |
Win | Edge 12 | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
Win | IE 9 - 11 | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
Win | IE 6 - 8 | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ |
As you can see, all major browsers support external content.
We had been waiting on Edge, previously, but David Storey, Edge’s project manager assured us that native support for external content in SVGs was high on their checklist. We would track progress and vote for attention to this issue. Then, just as I predicted...
I have complete faith in the Microsoft Edge team and absolutely expect support to arrive within the next few months.
— Jon Neal (August, 2015)
All of our dreams came true.
Readability and accessibility
SVGs are compelling to use for many reasons, and one of them is their ease of accessibility.
Within your spritemap, have each sprite use a <title>
element to identify itself.
CodePen
When this sprite is used, its title will be read aloud in JAWS and NVDA. Then, within your document, each sprite may use a title
attribute to identify itself.
That title will be read aloud in VoiceOver and NVDA. At present, the title
attribute is the only way to properly read aloud an SVG in VoiceOver. I’ll let you know if this changes.
All together, use the title
attribute in your document and the title
element in your SVG.
ARIA roles may also be used to provide even more information to assistive technology.
When a sprite is merely decoration, use role="presentation"
.
Find me on Twitter
Otherwise, use role="img"
and remember to add a description.
Futher reading
- Tips for creating accessible SVG
- Using ARIA to enhance SVG accessibility
- SVG symbol a good choice for icons
- Implementing inline SVG Icons
Optimized SVGs
SVG files, especially exported from vector tools, often contain tons of unnecessary data such as editor metadata, comments, hidden elements, and other stuff that can be safely removed without affecting SVG rendering result.
Use a tool like SVGO to optimize SVG spritemaps.
$ [sudo] npm install -g svgo$ svgo spritemap.svg