SVG can be set as a background image just like PNG, JPG, or whatever other graphics format. That covers most use cases anyway, but still, a limitation nonetheless. This means you’re pretty firmly in single-color territory. Likewise, the fill of individual elements cannot be controlled within the SVG like you could with inline SVG.As soon as you have something like in the, you’ve lost outside CSS control. This allows the fill set from the parent SVG to cascade into the Shadow DOM created by. The internal SVG elements (like the ) can have no fill themselves.You can still set the fill color from outside CSS rather easily this way, but there are caveats. Use SVG Hovers by Chris Coyier ( CodePen. There is such thing as an SVG sprite, which is a group of SVGs turned into elements such that any given icon can be referenced easily with a element. Using inline SVG allows you to set the fill, which cascades to all the elements within the SVG, or you can fill each element separately if needed.

You’re largely limited to a single color with icon fonts in a way that SVG isn’t, but still, it is appealingly easy to change that single color with color. If you’re used to working with icon fonts, one thing you might enjoy about them is how easy it is to change the color. Inline SVG is my favorite way to use SVG anyway, in part because of how easy it is to access and style the SVG. Depending on which way, the tactic for recoloring that SVG in different states or conditions - :hover, :active, :focus, class name change, etc. There are a lot of different ways to use SVG.

Inkscape background color