SVG is the best format for icons on a website, there is no doubt about that. It allows you to have sharp icons no matter the screen pixel density, you

How I Made an Icon System Out of CSS Custom Properties

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Style Pass

2022-09-26 19:00:24

SVG is the best format for icons on a website, there is no doubt about that. It allows you to have sharp icons no matter the screen pixel density, you can change the styles of the SVG on hover and you can even animate the icons with CSS or JavaScript.

There are many ways to include an SVG on a page and each technique has its own advantages and disadvantages. For the last couple of years, I have been using a Sass function to import directly my icons in my CSS and avoid having to mess up my HTML markup.

I have a Sass list with all the source codes of my icons. Each icon is then encoded into a data URI with a Sass function and stored in a custom property on the root of the page.

The SVG source code is compiled with the Sass function that encodes them in data URI and then stores the icons in CSS custom properties. You can then use any icon anywhere in your CSS like as if it was an external image.

I mostly use this technique for icons rather than logos or illustrations. An encoded SVG is always going to be heavier than its original file, so I still load my complex SVG with an external file either with an <img> tag or in my CSS with url(path/to/file.svg).