How Can I Style External SVGs with CSS?

External SVG Styling: A Comprehensive Guide

In web development, manipulating external SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files with CSS can be a challenge. This article tackles that challenge, answering a question on how to manipulate fill, stroke, and other SVG attributes through CSS.

The provided HTML and CSS code shows a basic attempt to manipulate an external SVG's opacity, which succeeds. However, modifying SVG-specific attributes remains problematic.

The underlying issue lies in SVG sandboxing. External SVG files are isolated from the rest of the document, preventing direct CSS styling.

Unsuitable Solutions

• Inline CSS in SVG: While possible, this solution requires rewriting CSS for every SVG used, making it impractical.

Optimal Solution: Icon System

The ideal approach is to use an icon system, such as SVG font-face or sprites. These systems provide a method to load SVGs as icons, allowing for efficient styling through CSS.

Why Opacity Works

Unlike other SVG attributes, opacity modifies the SVG object itself rather than its contents. This is why the provided opacity CSS works.

Additional Considerations

Regardless of the loading method (inline, by reference, etc.), accessing the SVG's sandboxed content remains impossible. Therefore, converting SVGs to a font or using sprites is essential for implementing effects like hover or transitions on SVG-specific attributes.

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