How to change color of SVG image using CSS (jQuery SVG image replacement)?

Firstly, use an IMG tag in your HTML to embed an SVG graphic. I used Adobe Illustrator to make the graphic.

<img id="facebook-logo" class="svg social-link" src="/images/logo-facebook.svg"/>

This is just like how you'd embed a normal image. Note that you need to set the IMG to have a class of svg. The 'social-link' class is just for examples sake. The ID is not required, but is useful.

Then use this jQuery code (in a separate file or inline in the HEAD).

    /**
     * Replace all SVG images with inline SVG
     */
        jQuery('img.svg').each(function(){
            var $img = jQuery(this);
            var imgID = $img.attr('id');
            var imgClass = $img.attr('class');
            var imgURL = $img.attr('src');

            jQuery.get(imgURL, function(data) {
                // Get the SVG tag, ignore the rest
                var $svg = jQuery(data).find('svg');

                // Add replaced image's ID to the new SVG
                if(typeof imgID !== 'undefined') {
                    $svg = $svg.attr('id', imgID);
                }
                // Add replaced image's classes to the new SVG
                if(typeof imgClass !== 'undefined') {
                    $svg = $svg.attr('class', imgClass+' replaced-svg');
                }

                // Remove any invalid XML tags as per http://validator.w3.org
                $svg = $svg.removeAttr('xmlns:a');

                // Replace image with new SVG
                $img.replaceWith($svg);

            }, 'xml');

        });

What the above code does is look for all IMG's with the class 'svg' and replace it with the inline SVG from the linked file. The massive advantage is that it allows you to use CSS to change the color of the SVG now, like so:

svg:hover path {
    fill: red;
}

The jQuery code I wrote also ports across the original images ID and classes. So this CSS works too:

#facebook-logo:hover path {
    fill: red;
}

Or:

.social-link:hover path {
    fill: red;
}

You can see an example of it working here: http://labs.funkhausdesign.com/examples/img-svg/img-to-svg.html

We have a more complicated version that includes caching here: https://github.com/funkhaus/style-guide/blob/master/template/js/site.js#L32-L90


Style

svg path {
    fill: #000;
}

Script

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('img[src$=".svg"]').each(function() {
        var $img = jQuery(this);
        var imgURL = $img.attr('src');
        var attributes = $img.prop("attributes");

        $.get(imgURL, function(data) {
            // Get the SVG tag, ignore the rest
            var $svg = jQuery(data).find('svg');

            // Remove any invalid XML tags
            $svg = $svg.removeAttr('xmlns:a');

            // Loop through IMG attributes and apply on SVG
            $.each(attributes, function() {
                $svg.attr(this.name, this.value);
            });

            // Replace IMG with SVG
            $img.replaceWith($svg);
        }, 'xml');
    });
});

You can now use the CSS filter property in most modern browsers (including Edge, but not IE11). It works on SVG images as well as other elements. You can use hue-rotate or invert to modify colors, although they don't let you modify different colors independently. I use the following CSS class to show a "disabled" version of an icon (where the original is an SVG picture with saturated color):

.disabled {
    opacity: 0.4;
    filter: grayscale(100%);
    -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%);
}

This makes it light grey in most browsers. In IE (and probably Opera Mini, which I haven't tested) it is noticeably faded by the opacity property, which still looks pretty good, although it's not grey.

Here's an example with four different CSS classes for the Twemoji bell icon: original (yellow), the above "disabled" class, hue-rotate (green), and invert (blue).

.twa-bell {
  background-image: url("https://twemoji.maxcdn.com/svg/1f514.svg");
  display: inline-block;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: center center;
  height: 3em;
  width: 3em;
  margin: 0 0.15em 0 0.3em;
  vertical-align: -0.3em;
  background-size: 3em 3em;
}
.grey-out {
  opacity: 0.4;
  filter: grayscale(100%);
  -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%);
}
.hue-rotate {
  filter: hue-rotate(90deg);
  -webkit-filter: hue-rotate(90deg);
}
.invert {
  filter: invert(100%);
  -webkit-filter: invert(100%);
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
</head>

<body>
  <span class="twa-bell"></span>
  <span class="twa-bell grey-out"></span>
  <span class="twa-bell hue-rotate"></span>
  <span class="twa-bell invert"></span>
</body>

</html>

Alternatively you could use CSS mask, granted browser support isn't good but you could use a fallback

.frame {
    background: blue;
    -webkit-mask: url(image.svg) center / contain no-repeat;
}