<desc>

The <desc> element provides an accessible, long-text description of any SVG container element or graphics element.

Text in a <desc> element is not rendered as part of the graphic. If the element can be described by visible text, it is possible to reference that text with the aria-describedby attribute. If aria-describedby is used, it will take precedence over <desc>.

The hidden text of a <desc> element can also be concatenated with the visible text of other elements using multiple IDs in an aria-describedby value. In that case, the <desc> element must provide an ID for reference.

Example

<svg viewBox="0 0 10 10" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <circle cx="5" cy="5" r="4">
    <desc>
      I'm a circle and that description is here to
      demonstrate how I can be described, but is it
      really necessary to describe a simple circle
      like me?
    </desc>
  </circle>
</svg>

Attributes

This element only includes global attributes

Global attributes

Core Attributes

Most notably: id

Styling Attributes
class, style
Event Attributes

Global event attributes, Document element event attributes

Usage notes

Categories Descriptive element
Permitted content Any elements or character data

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
desc
1
12
Yes
9
8
3.1
3
18
4
Yes
2
1.0

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Element/desc