How can I display a 'Reload' symbol in HTML without loading an image via HTTP?

I would like to display a 'refresh' symbol in an HTML/JavaScript app I'm creating, but I do not want to make any HTTP requests to load an image. How can I do this reliably across all major browsers?

The closest Unicode value I could find is: ↺ (↺), but the arrow is pointing the wrong way.

Is there another Unicode value that works?

Is there a Webdings font that works? (They don't usually work in Opera and Firefox.)

Is there a way to create an image in JavaScript using a base64 image source provided by a String from that JS?

EDIT:

The reason for this is NOT overhead. The app being created must be self-contained in a single javascript file, without any other dependencies. It is a development utility that can be added to any project, without the need for a network.

If you find the character ↻ (↻), i.e. U+21BB CLOCKWISE OPEN CIRCLE ARROW, acceptable for your needs (its arrow might not be placed the same way as in common reload icons), then you can use it rather safely:

.reload {
  font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode
}

<span class=reload>&#x21bb;</span>

The Lucida Sans Unicode font contains the symbol, and it is available in virtually any Windows system you can find these days. According to MS info, it was included even in Windows 98 (and Windows 95 plus).

Systems other than Windows can reasonably be expected to have the symbol in some font and to have browsers that know how to pick it up from some of them. And fonts containing it have rather similar shapes for it. (But if the symbol needs to match stylistically the text of your document, you need to study the situation in more detail and try to make sure that all fonts in your font list, or “font stack”, contain it.)

Unicode Character

There are at least two Unicode characters that might serve as Refresh or Reload icons:

• CLOCKWISE GAPPED CIRCLE ARROW
  U+27F3
  ⟳
• CLOCKWISE OPEN CIRCLE ARROW
  U+21BB
  ↻

The first does not appear in iOS 7 or 8 or 9 in either Safari or Chrome. So given that, and given the answer by Paul D. White, I recommend using the second one, CLOCKWISE OPEN CIRCLE ARROW.

Tip: If you are a Mac user, obtain the free-of-cost app UnicodeChecker. You can search for characters by name, and you can see a list of fonts (on your particular Mac) containing a glyph for that character.

Icon Font

Some fonts have been created with scalable vector-based icons in place of regular character glyphs.

• Font Awesome, see: fa-repeat
• Vaadin Font Icons

If the browser supports loading image data from a Base64 string, you can use img and set its src to the following format:

data:[<mediatype>][;base64],<data>

Example:

var img = document.getElementById("yourImage");
img.src = "data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhEAAOALMAAOazToeHh0tLS/7LZv/0jvb29t/f3//Ub//ge8WSLf/rhf/3kdbW1mxsbP//mf///yH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAQAA4AAARe8L1Ekyky67QZ1hLnjM5UUde0ECwLJoExKcppV0aCcGCmTIHEIUEqjgaORCMxIC6e0CcguWw6aFjsVMkkIr7g77ZKPJjPZqIyd7sJAgVGoEGv2xsBxqNgYPj/gAwXEQA7";

<img id="yourImage" />

The clockwise equivalent to your Unicode character is ↻, ↻ (although, as David C. Bishop notes in the comments, Chromebooks use #27f2, ⟳).

Using a text character is an option, but Windows XP might not display the character (depending on the character you use, and the font you display it in). @Jukka K. Korpela notes that this character is included in the Lucida Sans Unicode font, so it should work fine even in Windows XP.

As far as Wingdings fonts go, to avoid an HTTP request you’d need to be confident that the font in question in going to be installed on end user’s computers. I don’t think there’s a common cross-platform Wingdings font (I could be entirely wrong though).

You can indeed create an image from a string that contains the base64-encoded representation of the image using JavaScript. You could do so like this:

var image = new Image();
image.src = 'data:image/gif;base64,' + BASE64_ENCODED_STRING; // Replace gif with whatever image format it actually is

The data-uri might not work great in Internet Explorer 8 and earlier though, which Windows XP users may be stuck on. (And you don’t actually need JavaScript for this: you can just put an <img> tag in your page with that src attribute.)

Unicode 6 Character

'CLOCKWISE DOWNWARDS AND UPWARDS OPEN CIRCLE ARROWS' (U+1F503) 

Sadly font support for the glyph is not the best, so "all major browsers" might be a stretch... :-/

.refresh {
  display: inline-block;
  transform: rotate(90deg);
}

<span>↻</span>
<hr>
<span class="refresh">↻</span>

You mention "all major browsers", so let’s assume that:

1. not everyone have javascript
2. not everyone can embed fonts (blackberry etc)
3. not everyone supports all UNCODE representations (windows XP)
4. not everyone supports inline data uri’s (IE7-)

So what’s left? I would suggest a HTML1-compliant IMG element, that will also be cached after first load:

<img src="/refresh.gif" alt="refresh">

It will work in every single browser I know of, except LYNX and other pure text-based browsers. But they will show "refresh" instead, so that’s fine.

If you really want to avoid that extra 2bytes request for "modern" browsers, you can use conditional comments for IE7-:

<!--[if lte IE 7]>
<img src="refresh.gif" alt="refresh">
<![endif]-->

And something like this for the rest:

<img src="data:image/gif;base64,..." alt="refresh">

If you’re up to something new for the newest, you can use CSS box shadows (demo):

.refresh{
	border-radius: 0;
	display: inline-block;
	width: 1px;
	height: 1px;
	box-shadow: 0px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 2px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 7px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 9px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 11px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 13px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 14px rgba(0,0,0,0),0px 15px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 2px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 7px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 9px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 11px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 13px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 14px rgba(0,0,0,0),1px 15px rgba(0,0,0,0),2px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0),2px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0),2px 2px rgba(0,0,0,0),2px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0),2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0),2px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.06),2px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0.55),2px 7px rgba(0,0,0,0.79),2px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.86),2px 9px rgba(0,0,0,0.86),2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.65),2px 11px 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}

I think this icon will be helpful to you.



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