SVG fill color transparency / alpha?

Is it possible to set a transparency or alpha level on SVG fill colours?

I've tried adding two values to the fill tag (changing it from fill="#044B94" to fill="#044B9466"), but this doesn't work.

You use an addtional attribute; fill-opacity: This attribute takes a decimal number between 0.0 and 1.0, inclusive; where 0.0 is completely transparent.

For example:

<rect ... fill="#044B94" fill-opacity="0.4"/>

Additionally you have the following:

• stroke-opacity attribute for the stroke
• opacity for the entire object

As a not yet fully standardized solution (though in alignment with the color syntax in CSS3) you can use e.g fill="rgba(124,240,10,0.5)". Works fine in Firefox, Opera, Chrome.

Here's an example.

fill="#044B9466"

This is an RGBA color in hex notation inside the SVG, defined with hex values. This is valid, but not all programs can display it properly...

You can find the browser support for this syntax here: https://caniuse.com/#feat=css-rrggbbaa

As of August 2017: RGBA fill colors will display properly on Mozilla Firefox (54), Apple Safari (10.1) and Mac OS X Finder's "Quick View". However Google Chrome did not support this syntax until version 62 (was previously supported from version 54 with the Experimental Platform Features flag enabled).

As of April 2021, Inkscape version 1.0.2 cannot read this format in SVG files, and instead converts any RGBA color to opaque black. The bug report is here: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/1195

Use attribute fill-opacity in your element of SVG.

Default value is 1, minimum is 0, in step use decimal values EX: 0.5 = 50% of alpha. Note: It is necessary to define fill color to apply fill-opacity.

See my example.

References.

To make a fill completely transparent, fill="transparent" seems to work in modern browsers. But it didn't work in Microsoft Word (for Mac), I had to use fill-opacity="0".

To change transparency on an svg code the simplest way is to open it on any text editor and look for the style attributes. It depends on the svg creator the way the styles are displayed. As i am an Inkscape user the usual way it set the style values is through a style tag just as if it were html but using svg native attributes like fill, stroke, stroke-width, opacity and so on. opacity affects the whole svg object, or path or group in which its stated and fill-opacity, stroke-opacity will affect just the fill and the stroke transparency. That said, I have also used and tasted to just use fill and instead of using#fff use instead the rgba standard like this rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) just as in css. This works fine for must modern browsers.

Keep in mind that if you intend to further reedit your svg the best practice, in my experience, is to always keep an untouched version at hand. Inkscape is more flexible with hand changed svgs but Illustrator and CorelDraw may have issues importing and edited svg.

Example

<path style="fill:#ff0000;fill-opacity:1;stroke:#1a1a1a;stroke-width:2px;stroke-opacity:1" d="m 144.44226,461.14425 q 16.3125,-15.05769 37.64423,-15.05769 21.33173,0 36.38942,15.05769 15.0577,15.05769 15.0577,36.38942 0,21.33173 -15.0577,36.38943 -15.05769,16.3125 -36.38942,16.3125 -21.33173,0 -37.64423,-16.3125 -15.05769,-15.0577 -15.05769,-36.38943 0,-21.33173 15.05769,-36.38942 z M 28.99995,35.764435 l 85.32692,0 23.84135,52.701923 386.48078,0 q 10.03846,0 17.5673,7.528847 8.78366,7.528845 8.78366,17.567305 0,7.52885 -2.50962,12.54808 l -94.11058,161.87019 q -13.80288,27.60577 -45.17307,27.60577 l -194.4952,0 -26.35096,40.15385 q -2.50962,6.27404 -2.50962,7.52885 0,6.27404 6.27404,6.27404 l 298.64424,0 0,50.1923 -304.91828,0 q -25.09615,0 -41.40865,-13.80288 -15.05769,-13.80289 -15.05769,-38.89904 0,-15.05769 6.27404,-25.09615 l 38.89903,-63.9952 -92.855766,-189.475962 -52.701924,0 0,-52.701923 z M 401.67784,461.14425 q 15.05769,-15.05769 36.38942,-15.05769 21.33174,0 36.38943,15.05769 16.3125,15.05769 16.3125,36.38942 0,21.33173 -16.3125,36.38943 -15.05769,16.3125 -36.38943,16.3125 -21.33173,0 -36.38942,-16.3125 -15.05769,-15.0577 -15.05769,-36.38943 0,-21.33173 15.05769,-36.38942 z"/>

Example 2

<path style="fill:#ff0000;fill-opacity:.5;stroke:#1a1a1a;stroke-width:2px;stroke-opacity:1" d="m 144.44226,461.14425 q 16.3125,-15.05769 37.64423,-15.05769 21.33173,0 36.38942,15.05769 15.0577,15.05769 15.0577,36.38942 0,21.33173 -15.0577,36.38943 -15.05769,16.3125 -36.38942,16.3125 -21.33173,0 -37.64423,-16.3125 -15.05769,-15.0577 -15.05769,-36.38943 0,-21.33173 15.05769,-36.38942 z M 28.99995,35.764435 l 85.32692,0 23.84135,52.701923 386.48078,0 q 10.03846,0 17.5673,7.528847 8.78366,7.528845 8.78366,17.567305 0,7.52885 -2.50962,12.54808 l -94.11058,161.87019 q -13.80288,27.60577 -45.17307,27.60577 l -194.4952,0 -26.35096,40.15385 q -2.50962,6.27404 -2.50962,7.52885 0,6.27404 6.27404,6.27404 l 298.64424,0 0,50.1923 -304.91828,0 q -25.09615,0 -41.40865,-13.80288 -15.05769,-13.80289 -15.05769,-38.89904 0,-15.05769 6.27404,-25.09615 l 38.89903,-63.9952 -92.855766,-189.475962 -52.701924,0 0,-52.701923 z M 401.67784,461.14425 q 15.05769,-15.05769 36.38942,-15.05769 21.33174,0 36.38943,15.05769 16.3125,15.05769 16.3125,36.38942 0,21.33173 -16.3125,36.38943 -15.05769,16.3125 -36.38943,16.3125 -21.33173,0 -36.38942,-16.3125 -15.05769,-15.0577 -15.05769,-36.38943 0,-21.33173 15.05769,-36.38942 z"/>

Example 3

<path style="fill:rgba(255, 0, 0, .5);stroke:rgba(242, 242, 242, .5);stroke-width:2px" d="m 144.44226,461.14425 q 16.3125,-15.05769 37.64423,-15.05769 21.33173,0 36.38942,15.05769 15.0577,15.05769 15.0577,36.38942 0,21.33173 -15.0577,36.38943 -15.05769,16.3125 -36.38942,16.3125 -21.33173,0 -37.64423,-16.3125 -15.05769,-15.0577 -15.05769,-36.38943 0,-21.33173 15.05769,-36.38942 z M 28.99995,35.764435 l 85.32692,0 23.84135,52.701923 386.48078,0 q 10.03846,0 17.5673,7.528847 8.78366,7.528845 8.78366,17.567305 0,7.52885 -2.50962,12.54808 l -94.11058,161.87019 q -13.80288,27.60577 -45.17307,27.60577 l -194.4952,0 -26.35096,40.15385 q -2.50962,6.27404 -2.50962,7.52885 0,6.27404 6.27404,6.27404 l 298.64424,0 0,50.1923 -304.91828,0 q -25.09615,0 -41.40865,-13.80288 -15.05769,-13.80289 -15.05769,-38.89904 0,-15.05769 6.27404,-25.09615 l 38.89903,-63.9952 -92.855766,-189.475962 -52.701924,0 0,-52.701923 z M 401.67784,461.14425 q 15.05769,-15.05769 36.38942,-15.05769 21.33174,0 36.38943,15.05769 16.3125,15.05769 16.3125,36.38942 0,21.33173 -16.3125,36.38943 -15.05769,16.3125 -36.38943,16.3125 -21.33173,0 -36.38942,-16.3125 -15.05769,-15.0577 -15.05769,-36.38943 0,-21.33173 15.05769,-36.38942 z"/>

Notice that in the last example the fill-opacity and stroke-opacity have been removed as rgba standard covers both color and alpha channel in both cases.

I am sharing a related tip that you might come across when you want the SVG to inherit the container's styles like normal state, hover state and visited state : use fill='currentColor' on the path. This is how the SVG's produced by font awesome icons could take any fore color applied to fonts!