<image>

The <image> SVG element includes images inside SVG documents. It can display raster image files or other SVG files.

The only image formats SVG software must support are JPEG, PNG, and other SVG files. Animated GIF behavior is undefined.

SVG files displayed with <image> are treated as an image: external resources aren't loaded, :visited styles aren't applied, and they cannot be interactive. To include dynamic SVG elements, try <use> with an external URL. To include SVG files and run scripts inside them, try <object> inside of <foreignObject>.

Note: The HTML spec defines <image> as a synonym for <img> while parsing HTML. This specific element and its behavior only apply inside SVG documents or inline SVG.

Usage context

Categories Graphics element, Graphics referencing element
Permitted content Any number of the following elements, in any order:
Animation elements
Descriptive elements

Attributes

Global attributes

Specific attributes

  • x: Positions the image horizontally from the origin.
  • y: Positions the image vertically from the origin.
  • width: The width the image renders at. Unlike HTML's <img>, this attribute is required.
  • height: The height the image renders at. Unlike HTML's <img>, this attribute is required.
  • href and xlink:href: Points at a URL for the image file.
  • preserveAspectRatio: Controls how the image is scaled.
  • crossorigin: Defines the value of the credentials flag for CORS requests.

DOM Interface

<image> implements the SVGImageElement interface.

Example

Basic rendering of a PNG image in SVG:

SVG

<svg width="200" height="200"
  xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <image href="mdn_logo_only_color.png" height="200" width="200"/>
</svg>

Result

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
image
1
12
1.5
9
8
3.1
3
18
4
Yes
2
1.0
height
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preserveAspectRatio
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width
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x
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xlink_href
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y
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© 2005–2021 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Element/image