W3cubDocs

/SVG

<feMorphology>

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

The <feMorphology> SVG filter primitive is used to erode or dilate the input image. Its usefulness lies especially in fattening or thinning effects.

Like other filter primitives, it handles color components in the linearRGB color space by default. You can use color-interpolation-filters to use sRGB instead.

Usage context

Categories Filter primitive element
Permitted content Any number of the following elements, in any order:
<animate>, <discard>, <set>

Attributes

DOM Interface

This element implements the SVGFEMorphologyElement interface.

Examples

>

Filtering SVG content

SVG

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="300" height="180">
  <filter id="erode">
    <feMorphology operator="erode" radius="1" />
  </filter>
  <filter id="dilate">
    <feMorphology operator="dilate" radius="2" />
  </filter>
  <text y="1em">Normal text</text>
  <text id="thin" y="2em">Thinned text</text>
  <text id="thick" y="3em">Fattened text</text>
</svg>

CSS

text {
  font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-size: 3em;
}

#thin {
  filter: url("#erode");
}

#thick {
  filter: url("#dilate");
}

Filtering HTML content

SVG

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="0" height="0">
  <filter id="erode">
    <feMorphology operator="erode" radius="1" />
  </filter>
  <filter id="dilate">
    <feMorphology operator="dilate" radius="2" />
  </filter>
</svg>

<p>Normal text</p>
<p id="thin">Thinned text</p>
<p id="thick">Fattened text</p>

CSS

p {
  margin: 0;
  font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-size: 3em;
}

#thin {
  filter: url("#erode");
}

#thick {
  filter: url("#dilate");
}

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Opera Safari Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet WebView Android WebView on iOS
feMorphology 5 12 3 9 6 18 4 10.1 6 1.0 4.4 6
in 5 12 3 9 6 18 4 10.1 6 1.0 4.4 6
operator 5 12 3 9 6 18 4 10.1 6 1.0 4.4 6
radius 5 12 3 9 6 18 4 10.1 6 1.0 4.4 6

See also

© 2005–2025 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Reference/Element/feMorphology