Add custom icons to font awesome

I love the Font Awesome icon font and want to use it for most of the icons on my site but there are a few custom svg icons that I'd need in addition to what's offered.

I noticed that the .svg version of Font Awesome is composed mostly of these <glyph /> elements:

...
<glyph unicode="&#xf0b2;" horiz-adv-x="1536" d="M0 80v477q0 51 24.5 61.5t59.5 -24.5l162 -162l340 338l-338 338l-164 -164q-35 -35 -59.5 -25.5t-24.5 60.5v477q0 31 23 57q27 23 57 23h477q51 0 61.5 -24.5t-24.5 -59.5l-160 -158l338 -338l332 334l-162 162q-35 35 -24.5 59.5t61.5 24.5h477q33 0 55 -23 q25 -25 25 -57v-477q0 -51 -24.5 -61.5t-59.5 24.5l-162 162l-334 -334l338 -336l158 160q35 35 59.5 24.5t24.5 -61.5v-477q0 -35 -25 -55q-23 -25 -55 -25h-477q-51 0 -61.5 24.5t24.5 59.5l166 166l-336 336l-340 -340l162 -162q35 -35 24.5 -59.5t-61.5 -24.5h-477 q-31 0 -55 25q-25 20 -25 55z" />
<glyph unicode="&#xf0c0;" horiz-adv-x="1880" d="M0 852v152q0 18 1 47.5t10 56.5t29.5 46.5t57.5 19.5q-45 29 -71.5 75.5t-26.5 104.5q0 43 16.5 82t46 68.5t68.5 46t82 16.5q45 0 84 -16.5t67.5 -46t46 -68.5t17.5 -82q0 -57 -27.5 -104t-72.5 -76q37 0 57.5 -19.5t29.5 -46.5t11 -56.5t2 -47.5v-152 q-14 -8 -23.5 -18.5t-27.5 -10.5h-328q-16 0 -26.5 10.5t-22.5 18.5zM158 57v387q0 78 45 138.5t98 109.5q10 10 25.5 21.5t33.5 15.5q18 6 41 7t45 5q61 10 130 19.5t135 19.5q-90 57 -144.5 151.5t-54.5 207.5q0 88 34 166.5t92 136t136 91.5t166 34t166 -34t136 -91.5 t92 -136t34 -166.5q0 -113 -54 -207t-145 -152q66 -10 134.5 -19t130.5 -20q23 -4 45 -5t41 -7q18 -4 33.5 -15.5t27.5 -21.5q66 -59 103.5 -116.5t37.5 -131.5v-387q-12 -6 -20 -13t-18.5 -14t-23.5 -14.5t-36 -15.5h-1368q-35 0 -54.5 22.5t-43.5 34.5zM1452 852v152 q0 18 2 47.5t11.5 56.5t30 46.5t56.5 19.5q-45 29 -72.5 75.5t-27.5 104.5q0 43 16.5 82t46 68.5t68.5 46t84 16.5q43 0 82 -16.5t68.5 -46t46 -68.5t16.5 -82q0 -57 -26.5 -104t-71.5 -76q37 0 56.5 -19.5t28.5 -46.5t11 -56.5t2 -47.5v-152q-12 -8 -22.5 -18.5 t-26.5 -10.5h-328q-18 0 -27.5 10.5t-23.5 18.5z" />
<glyph unicode="&#xf0c1;" horiz-adv-x="1597" d="M0 1137q0 88 34 166.5t92 137t136 92.5t168 34q86 0 166 -33t139 -92q8 -8 21.5 -20.5t26 -25t21.5 -25.5t9 -25q0 -18 -12 -31q-6 -8 -25 -12q-47 -10 -88 -22.5t-86 -31.5q-4 -4 -16 -4t-25.5 10.5t-31 21.5t-42 21.5t-57.5 10.5q-35 0 -66.5 -13.5t-54 -37t-36 -54 t-13.5 -67.5q0 -41 17.5 -75t43 -63.5t56.5 -56.5t57 -53l180 -178q23 -25 54.5 -37t66.5 -12q43 0 73 16t46 16q12 0 39 -21.5t55.5 -49t50 -55t21.5 -42.5q0 -29 -36 -51t-83 -38.5t-94 -26t-72 -9.5q-86 0 -164.5 33t-140.5 92l-303 305q-61 59 -94 139.5t-33 166.5z M578 1010q0 29 35.5 51t82.5 38.5t94 26t72 9.5q86 0 166 -33t139 -92l303 -305q61 -59 94 -139.5t33 -166.5q0 -90 -33.5 -167.5t-92 -136t-137.5 -92.5t-167 -34q-86 0 -165.5 34t-139.5 93q-8 8 -21.5 19.5t-25.5 25t-21.5 26.5t-9.5 26q0 18 13 28q6 8 24 12 q47 10 88 22.5t86 33.5q12 4 17 4q12 0 25.5 -10.5t30.5 -21.5t41 -21.5t58 -10.5q72 0 121 49.5t49 120.5q0 41 -17 76t-44 63.5t-56.5 55.5t-56.5 53l-178 180q-53 49 -123 50q-43 0 -72.5 -17.5t-46.5 -17.5q-12 0 -38.5 21.5t-55 49t-50 56t-21.5 41.5z" />
...

Would it be effective to take my svg icon code, paste it in as a new glyph element and assign an unused unicode char?

Solution 1:

Give Icomoon a try. You can upload your own SVGs, add them to the library, then create a custom font combining FontAwesome with your own icons.

Solution 2:

In Font Awesome 5, you can create custom icons with your own SVG data. Here's a demo GitHub repo that you can play with. And here's a CodePen that shows how something similar might be done in <script> blocks.

In either case, it simply involves using library.add() to add an object like this:

export const faSomeObjectName = {
  // Use a prefix like 'fac' that doesn't conflict with a prefix in the standard Font Awesome styles
  // (So avoid fab, fal, fas, far, fa)
  prefix: string,
  iconName: string, // Any name you like
  icon: [
    number, // width
    number, // height
    string[], // ligatures
    string, // unicode (if relevant)
    string // svg path data
  ]
}

Note that the element labelled by the comment "svg path data" in the code sample is what will be assigned as the value of the d attribute on a <path> element that is a child of the <svg>. Like this (leaving out some details for clarity):

<svg>
  <path d=SVG_PATH_DATA></path>
</svg>

(Adapted from my similar answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/50338775/4642871)

Solution 3:

I suggest keeping your icons separate from FontAwesome and create and maintain your own custom library. Personally, I think it is much easier to maintain keeping FontAwesome separate if you are going to be creating your own icon library. You can then have FontAwesome loaded into your site from a CDN and never have to worry about keeping it up-to-date.

When creating your own custom icons, create each icon via Adobe Illustrator or similar software. Once your icons are created, save each individually in SVG format on your computer.

Next, head on over to IcoMoon: http://icomoon.io , which has the best font generating software (in my opinion), and it's free. IcoMoon will allow you to import your individual svg-saved fonts into a font library, then generate your custom icon glyph library in eot, ttf, woff, and svg. One format IcoMoon does not generate is woff2.

After generating your icon pack at IcoMoon, head over to FontSquirrel: http://fontsquirrel.com and use their font generator. Use your ttf file generated at IcoMoon. In the newly generated icon pack created, you'll now have your icon pack in woff2 format.

Make sure the files for eot, ttf, svg, woff, and woff2 are all the same name. You are generating an icon pack from two different websites/software, and they do name their generated output differently.

You'll have CSS generated for your icon pack at both locations. But the CSS generated at IcoMoon will not include the woff2 format in your @font-face {} declaration. Make sure to add that when you're adding your CSS to your project:

@font-face {
    font-family: 'customiconpackname';
    src: url('../fonts/customiconpack.eot?lchn8y');
    src: url('../fonts/customiconpack.eot?lchn8y#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'),
         url('../fonts/customiconpack.ttf?lchn8y') format('truetype'),
         url('../fonts/customiconpack.woff2?lchn8y') format('woff'),
         url('../fonts/customiconpack.woff?lchn8y') format('woff'),
         url('../fonts/customiconpack.svg?lchn8y#customiconpack') format('svg');
    font-weight: normal;
    font-style: normal;
}

Keep in mind that you can get the glyph unicode values of each icon in your icon pack using the IcoMoon software. These values can be helpful in assigning your icons via CSS, as in (assuming we're using the font-family declared in the example @font-face {...} above):

selector:after {
    font-family: 'customiconpackname';
    content: '\e953';
    }

You can also get the glyph unicode value e953 if you open the font-pack-generated svg file in a text editor. E.g.:

<glyph unicode="&#xe953;" glyph-name="eye" ... />

Solution 4:

Depends on what you have. If your svg icon is just a path, then it's easy enough to add that glyph by just copying the 'd' attribute to a new <glyph> element. However, the path needs to be scaled to the font's coordinate system (the EM-square, which typically is [0,0,2048,2048] - the standard for Truetype fonts) and aligned with the baseline you want.

Not all browsers support svg fonts however, so you're going to have to convert it to other formats too if you want it to work everywhere.

Fontforge can import svg files (select a glyph slot, File > Import and then select your svg image), and you can then convert to all the relevant font formats (svg, truetype, woff etc).