How to change color of SVG image using CSS (jQuery SVG image replacement)?

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?

Firstly, use an IMG tag in your HTML to embed an SVG graphic. I used Adobe Illustrator to make the graphic.

<img id="facebook-logo" class="svg social-link" src="/images/logo-facebook.svg"/>

This is just like how you'd embed a normal image. Note that you need to set the IMG to have a class of svg. The 'social-link' class is just for examples sake. The ID is not required, but is useful.

Then use this jQuery code (in a separate file or inline in the HEAD).

    /**
     * Replace all SVG images with inline SVG
     */
        jQuery('img.svg').each(function(){
            var $img = jQuery(this);
            var imgID = $img.attr('id');
            var imgClass = $img.attr('class');
            var imgURL = $img.attr('src');
    
            jQuery.get(imgURL, function(data) {
                // Get the SVG tag, ignore the rest
                var $svg = jQuery(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');
    
        });

What the above code does is look for all IMG's with the class 'svg' and replace it with the inline SVG from the linked file. The massive advantage is that it allows you to use CSS to change the color of the SVG now, like so:

svg:hover path {
    fill: red;
}

The jQuery code I wrote also ports across the original images ID and classes. So this CSS works too:

#facebook-logo:hover path {
    fill: red;
}

Or:

.social-link:hover path {
    fill: red;
}

You can see an example of it working here: http://labs.funkhausdesign.com/examples/img-svg/img-to-svg.html

We have a more complicated version that includes caching here: https://github.com/funkhaus/style-guide/blob/master/template/js/site.js#L32-L90

Style

svg path {
	fill: #000;
}

Script

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('img[src$=".svg"]').each(function() {
		var $img = jQuery(this);
		var imgURL = $img.attr('src');
		var attributes = $img.prop("attributes");
		
		$.get(imgURL, function(data) {
			// Get the SVG tag, ignore the rest
			var $svg = jQuery(data).find('svg');
			
			// Remove any invalid XML tags
			$svg = $svg.removeAttr('xmlns:a');
			
			// Loop through IMG attributes and apply on SVG
			$.each(attributes, function() {
			    $svg.attr(this.name, this.value);
			});
			
			// Replace IMG with SVG
			$img.replaceWith($svg);
		}, 'xml');
	});
});

You can now use the CSS filter property in most modern browsers (including Edge, but not IE11). It works on SVG images as well as other elements. You can use hue-rotate or invert to modify colors, although they don't let you modify different colors independently. I use the following CSS class to show a "disabled" version of an icon (where the original is an SVG picture with saturated color):

.disabled {
    opacity: 0.4;
    filter: grayscale(100%);
    -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%);
}

This makes it light grey in most browsers. In IE (and probably Opera Mini, which I haven't tested) it is noticeably faded by the opacity property, which still looks pretty good, although it's not grey.

Here's an example with four different CSS classes for the Twemoji bell icon: original (yellow), the above "disabled" class, hue-rotate (green), and invert (blue).

.twa-bell {
  background-image: url("https://twemoji.maxcdn.com/svg/1f514.svg");
  display: inline-block;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: center center;
  height: 3em;
  width: 3em;
  margin: 0 0.15em 0 0.3em;
  vertical-align: -0.3em;
  background-size: 3em 3em;
}
.grey-out {
  opacity: 0.4;
  filter: grayscale(100%);
  -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%);
}
.hue-rotate {
  filter: hue-rotate(90deg);
  -webkit-filter: hue-rotate(90deg);
}
.invert {
  filter: invert(100%);
  -webkit-filter: invert(100%);
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
</head>

<body>
  <span class="twa-bell"></span>
  <span class="twa-bell grey-out"></span>
  <span class="twa-bell hue-rotate"></span>
  <span class="twa-bell invert"></span>
</body>

</html>

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;
}

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.

TL/DR: GO here-> https://codepen.io/sosuke/pen/Pjoqqp

Explanation:

I'm assuming you have html something like this:

<img src="/img/source.svg" class="myClass">

Definitely go the filter route, ie. your svg is most likely black or white. You can apply a filter to get it to be whatever color you want, for example, I have a black svg that I want mint green. I first invert it to be white (which is technically all RGB colors on full) then play with the hue saturation etc. To get it right:

filter: invert(86%) sepia(21%) saturate(761%) hue-rotate(92deg) brightness(99%) contrast(107%);

Even better is that you could just use a tool to convert the hex you want into a filter for you: https://codepen.io/sosuke/pen/Pjoqqp

@Drew Baker gave a great solution to solve the problem. The code works properly. However, those who uses AngularJs may find lots of dependency on jQuery. Consequently, I thought it is a good idea to paste for AngularJS users, a code following @Drew Baker's solution.

AngularJs way of the same code

1. Html: use the bellow tag in you html file:

<svg-image src="/icons/my.svg" class="any-class-you-wish"></svg-image>

2. Directive: this will be the directive that you will need to recognise the tag:

'use strict';
angular.module('myApp')
  .directive('svgImage', ['$http', function($http) {
    return {
      restrict: 'E',
      link: function(scope, element) {
        var imgURL = element.attr('src');
        // if you want to use ng-include, then
        // instead of the above line write the bellow:
        // var imgURL = element.attr('ng-include');
        var request = $http.get(
          imgURL,
          {'Content-Type': 'application/xml'}
        );

        scope.manipulateImgNode = function(data, elem){
          var $svg = angular.element(data)[4];
          var imgClass = elem.attr('class');
          if(typeof(imgClass) !== 'undefined') {
            var classes = imgClass.split(' ');
            for(var i = 0; i < classes.length; ++i){
              $svg.classList.add(classes[i]);
            }
          }
          $svg.removeAttribute('xmlns:a');
          return $svg;
        };

        request.success(function(data){
          element.replaceWith(scope.manipulateImgNode(data, element));
        });
      }
    };
  }]);

3. CSS:

.any-class-you-wish{
    border: 1px solid red;
    height: 300px;
    width:  120px
}

4. Unit-test with karma-jasmine:

'use strict';

describe('Directive: svgImage', function() {

  var $rootScope, $compile, element, scope, $httpBackend, apiUrl, data;

  beforeEach(function() {
    module('myApp');

    inject(function($injector) {
      $rootScope = $injector.get('$rootScope');
      $compile = $injector.get('$compile');
      $httpBackend = $injector.get('$httpBackend');
      apiUrl = $injector.get('apiUrl');
    });

    scope = $rootScope.$new();
    element = angular.element('<svg-image src="/icons/icon-man.svg" class="svg"></svg-image>');
    element = $compile(element)(scope);

    spyOn(scope, 'manipulateImgNode').andCallThrough();
    $httpBackend.whenGET(apiUrl + 'me').respond(200, {});

    data = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>' +
      '<!-- Generator: Adobe Illustrator 17.0.0, SVG Export Plug-In . SVG Version: 6.00 Build 0)  -->' +
      '<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd">' +
      '<!-- Obj -->' +
      '<!-- Obj -->' +
      '<svg version="1.1" id="Capa_1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" x="0px" y="0px"' +
      'width="64px" height="64px" viewBox="0 0 64 64" enable-background="new 0 0 64 64" xml:space="preserve">' +
        '<g>' +
          '<path fill="#F4A902" d=""/>' +
          '<path fill="#F4A902" d=""/>' +
        '</g>' +
      '</svg>';
    $httpBackend.expectGET('/icons/icon-man.svg').respond(200, data);
  });

  afterEach(function() {
    $httpBackend.verifyNoOutstandingExpectation();
    $httpBackend.verifyNoOutstandingRequest();
  });

  it('should call manipulateImgNode atleast once', function () {
    $httpBackend.flush();
    expect(scope.manipulateImgNode.callCount).toBe(1);
  });

  it('should return correct result', function () {
    $httpBackend.flush();
    var result = scope.manipulateImgNode(data, element);
    expect(result).toBeDefined();
  });

  it('should define classes', function () {
    $httpBackend.flush();
    var result = scope.manipulateImgNode(data, element);
    var classList = ["svg"];
    expect(result.classList[0]).toBe(classList[0]);
  });
});

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.

I wrote a directive to solve this issue with AngularJS. It is available here - ngReusableSvg.

It replaces the SVG element after it's been rendered, and places it inside a div element, making its CSS easily changeable. This helps using the same SVG file in different places using different sizes/colors.

The usage is simple:

<object oa-reusable-svg
        data="my_icon.svg"
        type="image/svg+xml"
        class="svg-class"
        height="30"  // given to prevent UI glitches at switch time
        width="30">
</object>

After that, you can easily have:

.svg-class svg {
    fill: red; // whichever color you want
}

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.

There is an open source library called SVGInject that uses the onload attribute to trigger the injection. You can find the GitHub project at https://github.com/iconfu/svg-inject

Here is a minimal example using SVGInject:

<html>
  <head>
    <script src="svg-inject.min.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <img src="image.svg" onload="SVGInject(this)" />
  </body>
</html>

After the image is loaded the onload="SVGInject(this) will trigger the injection and the <img> element will be replaced by the contents of the SVG file provided in the src attribute.

It solves several issues with SVG injection:

1. SVGs can be hidden until injection has finished. This is important if a style is already applied during load time, which would otherwise cause a brief "unstyled content flash".

2. The <img> elements inject themselved automatically. If you add SVGs dynamically, you don't have to worry about calling the injection function again.

3. A random string is added to each ID in the SVG to avoid having the same ID multiple times in the document if an SVG is injected more than once.

SVGInject is plain Javascript and works with all browsers that support SVG.

Disclaimer: I am the co-author of SVGInject

Here's a no framework code, only pure js :

document.querySelectorAll('img.svg').forEach(function(element) {
			var imgID = element.getAttribute('id')
			var imgClass = element.getAttribute('class')
			var imgURL = element.getAttribute('src')

			xhr = new XMLHttpRequest()
			xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
				if(xhr.readyState == 4 && xhr.status == 200) {
					var svg = xhr.responseXML.getElementsByTagName('svg')[0];

					if(imgID != null) {
					     svg.setAttribute('id', imgID);
				    }

				    if(imgClass != null) {
		                 svg.setAttribute('class', imgClass + ' replaced-svg');
		            }

			        svg.removeAttribute('xmlns:a')

			        if(!svg.hasAttribute('viewBox') && svg.hasAttribute('height') && svg.hasAttribute('width')) {
			        	svg.setAttribute('viewBox', '0 0 ' + svg.getAttribute('height') + ' ' + svg.getAttribute('width'))
			        }
			        element.parentElement.replaceChild(svg, element)
				}
			}
			xhr.open('GET', imgURL, true)
			xhr.send(null)
		})

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;
}

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/

Since SVG is basically code, you need just contents. I used PHP to obtain content, but you can use whatever you want.

<?php
$content	= file_get_contents($pathToSVG);
?>

Then, I've printed content "as is" inside a div container

<div class="fill-class"><?php echo $content;?></div>

To finnaly set rule to container's SVG childs on CSS

.fill-class > svg { 
	fill: orange;
}

I got this results with a material icon SVG:

1. Mozilla Firefox 59.0.2 (64-bit) Linux

2. Google Chrome66.0.3359.181 (Build oficial) (64 bits) Linux

3. Opera 53.0.2907.37 Linux

The selected solution is fine if you want jQuery to process all svg elements in your DOM and your DOM is of reasonable size. But if your DOM is large and you decide to load parts of your DOM dynamically, it really makes no sense to have to rescan the entire DOM just to update svg elements. Instead, use a jQuery plugin to do this:

/**
 * A jQuery plugin that loads an svg file and replaces the jQuery object with its contents.
 *
 * The path to the svg file is specified in the src attribute (which normally does not exist for an svg element).
 *
 * The width, height and class attributes in the loaded svg will be replaced by those that exist in the jQuery object's
 * underlying html. Note: All other attributes in the original element are lost including the style attribute. Place
 * any styles in a style class instead.
 */
(function ($) {
    $.fn.svgLoader = function () {
        var src = $(this).attr("src");
        var width = this.attr("width");
        var height = this.attr("height");
        var cls = this.attr("class");
        var ctx = $(this);

        // Get the svg file and replace the <svg> element.
        $.ajax({
            url: src,
            cache: false
        }).done(function (html) {
            let svg = $(html);
            svg.attr("width", width);
            svg.attr("height", height);
            svg.attr("class", cls);
            var newHtml = $('<a></a>').append(svg.clone()).html();
            ctx.replaceWith(newHtml);
        });

        return this;
    };

}(jQuery));

In your html, specify an svg element as follows:

<svg src="images/someSvgFile.svg" height="45" width="45" class="mySVGClass"/>

And apply the plugin:

$(".mySVGClass").svgLoader();

for :hover event animations we can left the styles inside svg file, like a

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<defs>
  <style>
  rect {
    fill:rgb(165,225,75);
    stroke:none;
    transition: 550ms ease-in-out;
    transform-origin:125px 125px;
  }
  rect:hover {
    fill:rgb(75,165,225);
    transform:rotate(360deg);
  }
  </style>
</defs>
  <rect x='50' y='50' width='150' height='150'/>
</svg>

check this on svgshare

.carousel-control-prev-icon {
    background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='rgb(3,122,247)' width='8' height='8' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3e%3cpath d='M5.25 0l-4 4 4 4 1.5-1.5L4.25 4l2.5-2.5L5.25 0z'/%3e%3c/svg%3e");
}

• chnage color : fill='rgb(3,122,247)'