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<symbol>

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 <symbol> SVG element is used to define graphical template objects which can be instantiated by a <use> element.

The use of <symbol> elements for graphics that are used multiple times in the same document adds structure and semantics. Documents that are rich in structure may be rendered graphically, as speech, or as Braille, and thus promote accessibility.

Note: A <symbol> element itself is not meant to be rendered. Only instances of a <symbol> element (i.e., a reference to a <symbol> by a <use> element) are rendered. That means that some browsers could refuse to directly display a <symbol> element even if the CSS display property tells otherwise.

Usage context

Categories Container element, Structural element
Permitted content Any number of the following elements, in any order:
Animation elements
Descriptive elements
Shape elements
Structural elements
Gradient elements
<a>, <clipPath>, <filter>, <foreignObject>, <image>, <marker>, <mask>, <pattern>, <script>, <style>, <switch>, <text>, <view>

Attributes

height

This attribute determines the height of the symbol. Value type: <length> | <percentage>; Default value: auto; Animatable: yes

preserveAspectRatio

This attribute defines how the svg fragment must be deformed if it is embedded in a container with a different aspect ratio. Value type: (none | xMinYMin | xMidYMin | xMaxYMin | xMinYMid | xMidYMid | xMaxYMid | xMinYMax | xMidYMax | xMaxYMax) (meet | slice)?; Default value: xMidYMid meet; Animatable: yes

refX

This attribute determines the x coordinate of the reference point of the symbol. Value type: <length> | <percentage> | left | center | right; Default value: None; Animatable: yes

refY

This attribute determines the y coordinate of the reference point of the symbol. Value type: <length> | <percentage> | top | center | bottom; Default value: None; Animatable: yes

viewBox

This attribute defines the bound of the SVG viewport for the current symbol. Value type: <list-of-numbers>; Default value: none; Animatable: yes

width

This attribute determines the width of the symbol. Value type: <length> | <percentage>; Default value: auto; Animatable: yes

x

This attribute determines the x coordinate of the symbol. Value type: <length> | <percentage>; Default value: 0; Animatable: yes

y

This attribute determines the y coordinate of the symbol. Value type: <length> | <percentage>; Default value: 0; Animatable: yes

DOM Interface

This element implements the SVGSymbolElement interface.

Example

<svg viewBox="0 0 80 20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <!-- Our symbol in its own coordinate system -->
  <symbol id="myDot" width="10" height="10" viewBox="0 0 2 2">
    <circle cx="1" cy="1" r="1" />
  </symbol>

  <!-- A grid to materialize our symbol positioning -->
  <path
    d="M0,10 h80 M10,0 v20 M25,0 v20 M40,0 v20 M55,0 v20 M70,0 v20"
    fill="none"
    stroke="pink" />

  <!-- All instances of our symbol -->
  <use href="#myDot" x="5" y="5" opacity="1.0" />
  <use href="#myDot" x="20" y="5" opacity="0.8" />
  <use href="#myDot" x="35" y="5" opacity="0.6" />
  <use href="#myDot" x="50" y="5" opacity="0.4" />
  <use href="#myDot" x="65" y="5" opacity="0.2" />
</svg>

Specifications

Specification
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2>
# SymbolElement>

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
symbol 1 12 1.5 9 3 18 4 10.1 2 1.0 3 2
preserveAspectRatio 1 79 1.5 15 3 18 4 14 2 1.0 4.4 2
viewBox 1 79 1.5 15 3 18 4 14 2 1.0 4.4 2

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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Reference/Element/symbol