Every app, be it mobile or web, is designed for multiple types of devices nowadays. Every component on your app has to look good on a tiny phone as well as on a massive desktop. Even tiny components like icons need to work everywhere without breaking apart in a larger display.

If your site has icons, you’d need to create separate PNG files for every screen size for each of them, which can be very time consuming on top of being daunting.

SVG solves this problem. A single SVG file is sufficient for all screen sizes because it is perfectly scaled everywhere. This article talks about all about the universal format, its benefits, and the best icon libraries that offer icons in SVG.

Let’s get to it!

What is SVG?

SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics. It's basically a way to make graphics using math instead of pixels. Here's the difference - regular images like PNG or JPEG are made up of tiny colored dots, but SVG files contain instructions that tell your browser how to draw shapes and lines.

Think of it like this: a PNG is like a photo you can't change, but an SVG is like a recipe your browser follows to draw the image fresh every time.

With SVG, you can —

Edit SVG like code: Open any SVG file in a text editor and see simple markup instructions. Change colors by editing one line of code.

Stay lightweight: A typical interface icon is 500 bytes to 2KB as SVG. The same icon as PNG at different resolutions (16px, 24px, 32px, 48px) needs multiple files totaling 8-25KB.

Scale without losing quality: One file renders crisp whether it's 16px in a navigation bar or 64px in a mobile interface. No need to create and manage multiple asset sizes.

Companies like Apple and Google use SVG for their interface icons. Design systems like Material Design, Ant Design, and Carbon Design System built their entire icon libraries around SVG because of its flexibility and performance. Figma exports to SVG by default for icons. Adobe Illustrator creates SVG natively. Even design tools like Sketch prioritize SVG output for web projects.

Why SVG Took Over UI Design

SVG is one of the most adopted image formats on the web. Over 62% of websites now use SVG, making it a dominant choice for modern web development. Several key factors drove SVG's rise from a niche format to the backbone of modern interface design. To mention a few–

The scalability
SVG, like the name suggests, is perfectly scalable. SVG maintains crisp, clean edges at any size. Whether your icon appears on a smartwatch screen or a billboard, it will look as clean. This mathematical precision lets you create your icons once and deploy everywhere.

Increased site speed
Faster loading sites rank higher in search results and convert better. And SVG files are typically 50-70% smaller than equivalent PNGs. A set of 20 interface icons that might total 150KB as PNGs often weighs just 15-30KB as optimized SVGs. The smaller the file sizes are, the faster your site loads, reducing customer churn.

Flexible design
A complete control over colors, animations, and styling through CSS gives you the power to customize graphics just like any other web element. You can change your brand colors across elements with SVG by updating a single CSS instead of redesigning all your files. Adding hover effects or dark mode variants is a breeze too.

The flexibility means faster feature development, easier A/B testing of visual elements, and reduced dependency on design resources for minor tweaks.

Accessibility and SEO benefits
SVG graphics can include proper semantic markup, descriptions, and titles that assistive technologies can read. Screen reader users represent a good market segment, and accessible sites often rank better in search results. Plus, SVG text content is searchable and indexable, potentially driving additional organic traffic to your site.

Future-proof graphics
SVG graphics look perfect on any current or future display technology, from retina screens to 8K monitors. SVG icons and logos will look crisp, even on displays with future technology, giving you an edge over those who haven’t adapted it yet.

How to Get the Best Out of SVG's

There are some best practices to follow while using SVG icons, here are our suggestions -

Export clean files: When exporting from Figma, make sure to uncheck 'include id' - saves you headaches later. Then run your files through SVGO to strip out extra junk. Your 2KB file will probably shrink to 400 bytes, which your users will appreciate.

Set viewBox properly: Always put your real icon dimensions in the viewBox. This is what makes your icons resize properly when you change them with CSS - skip this and things get weird.

Style with CSS instead of inline: Don't hardcode colors right in your SVG files. Use CSS classes for styling instead. Trust me, when you need dark mode or have to change brand colors, you'll be happy you did this upfront.

Make icons accessible: Add title and description tags for icons that actually mean something. For purely decorative stuff, slap aria-hidden on there so screen readers ignore them.

Build reusable components: Stop copying SVG code all over your codebase. Build proper components you can actually reuse. Makes updates way easier and keeps your code from becoming a mess.

Top 3 SVG Icon Libraries

Here are our top picks for the top icon libraries that provide SVG icons -

Hugeicons

Hugeicons is a complete solution for all your icon needs. It gives you 4,300+ free SVG icons, with 40,000+ more included in their paid version. They’ve built the icons with clean SVG code that actually works well across projects.

They keep adding new icons regularly. You can customize the icon colors and styling with CSS to match your brand. The icon library offers icons that are divided into 59 different categories with 9 style options so you can find icons for most of your projects in any given niche.

What you actually get:

• 4,000+ icons available free, 40,000+ total across 59 categories
• Multiple styles: stroke, solid, duotone, bulk, and two-tone options
• Rounded or sharp corner variants for each icon
• Figma plugin with drag-and-drop functionality
• React components and NPM packages ready to install
• Organized SVG files sorted by category
• IconJar compatibility for Mac users
• Full commercial license included
• Option for lifetime access with updates

Bootstrap Icons

Bootstrap icons is the official icon library from the Bootstrap team that offers 2,000+ clean SVG icons. Built specifically to match Bootstrap's design language, so if you're already using the framework, these icons will fit perfectly.

Free, lightweight, and maintained by the same team that builds Bootstrap components. No subscription, or licensing is needed.

What you get:

• 2,000+ clean, consistent icons
• Perfect visual match for Bootstrap projects
• Completely free with no restrictions
• Lightweight SVG files optimized for web
• Regular updates from the Bootstrap team
• Easy integration with existing Bootstrap workflows

Iconic Icons

Iconic icons have gone with the quality over quantity approach with their 1,500+ meticulously crafted icons. Each icon is pixel-perfect and optimized for crisp rendering at any size.

Built for teams who prefer a curated selection over endless browsing. The smaller collection means faster decision-making and easier consistency across your project.

What you get:

• 1,500+ carefully designed icons
• Pixel-perfect optimization for sharp display
• Consistent design language throughout
• Clean SVG code that's easy to customize
• Focus on essential UI and common symbols This was our list of top SVG icon libraries so you can explore them and choose the one that suits the best for your icon needs.

Conclusion

SVG became the web standard because it works perfectly on any device size, thanks to its use of mathematical instructions instead of pixels. One SVG file replaces multiple PNG versions while being significantly smaller and infinitely scalable without quality loss.

Major tech companies, design tools, and frameworks have implemented SVG to their workflow for its speed, CSS flexibility, accessibility, and future-proof compatibility across all current and emerging display technologies.