Displaying custom fonts in SVG for iOS Chrome and Safari

Question

I'm using an svg with custom fonts from google, but i'm hosting it myself. Here's the SVG file with the following code:

<svg version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="430" height="590">

  <defs>
    <style type="text/css"><![CDATA[
      @font-face {
        font-family: 'Fjalla';
        src: url('http://build-podcast.com/fonts/fjalla.eot');
        src: url('http://build-podcast.com/fonts/fjalla.eot?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'),
          url('http://build-podcast.com/fonts/fjalla.woff') format('woff'),
          url('http://build-podcast.com/fonts/fjalla.ttf') format('truetype'),
          url('http://build-podcast.com/fonts/fjalla.svg#fjalla') format('svg');
        font-weight: normal;
        font-style: normal;
      }
      text { font-family: Fjalla, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; fill: #4b5568; }
      ]]>
    </style>
  </defs>

  <g id="logo">
    <text x="135" y="60" font-size="210" transform="rotate(45)">/</text>
    <text x="115" y="363" font-size="210" transform="rotate(-45)">\</text>
    <text x="15" y="341" font-size="200">build</text>
    <text x="15" y="475" font-size="127">podcast</text>
    <text x="21" y="540" font-size="36">screencasts on tech tools</text>
  </g>

</svg>

I'm using the img tag to display it on the main website

<img src="logo.svg">

It is displaying fine on desktop browsers and even on mobile browsers like Android Chrome. But it is not displaying at all in iOS 7 Chrome or Android. Any clue to how I can amend the SVG file code for the part on the custom fonts? Thanks!

Answer 1

I got fed up with trying to make the fonts to properly work in my SVG across all devices/browsers, so with my work around it helped that I have access to the original .ai file (.eps is fine).

My steps included:
- Open the original vector file in Adobe Illustrator.
- Select your text layers. Hold shift when selecting more than one. I find it easier do select multi layers through the Layers panel, which you can find in Menu under Window.
- Then, go to menu option Type and select Create Outlines.

This way we do not have to rely on calling fonts because your text is now just a vector shape. Now all that is left is to save your SVG:
- Select all your vectors.
- Go to menu option Object and select Artboards > Fit to Selected Art.
- Now go to File and select Export Selection....
- A Export for Screens dialog should pop up. On left side above .your Asset(s), click on the Artboards tab above
- On the right side, choose where you want to save.
- IMPORTANT STEP: select your format as *SVG.
- Lastly, click Export Artboard at bottom right.

That's all there is too it, and everything will appear exactly as it should across all devices and browsers!

Answer 2

We recently had the same problem having custom fonts displaying in SVG images. Before implementing this fix, the text would not show up in iOS on certain devices. After A LOT of debugging and trying different ways to solve it, we ended up with a CSS Font Fallback solution. This was the only way for us to solve the same problem as you describe.

Here is how we implemented it:

First we extracted the shapes of the characters using Adobe Illustrator like this:

<font horiz-adv-x="2048">
<font-face font-family="RobotoCondensed-Light" units-per-em="2048" underline-position="-150" underline-thickness="100"/>
<missing-glyph horiz-adv-x="434"/>
<glyph unicode=" " horiz-adv-x="434"/>
<glyph unicode="&quot;" horiz-adv-x="549" d="M217,1341l-36,-261l-68,0l2,254l0,226l102,0M442,1341l-36,-261l-68,0l2,258l0,222l102,0z"/>
<glyph unicode="," horiz-adv-x="346" d="M246,19l-100,-277l-77,0l56,280l0,168l121,0z"/>
<glyph unicode="-" horiz-adv-x="497" d="M445,568l-399,0l0,104l399,0z"/>
<glyph unicode="." horiz-adv-x="440" d="M276,0l-130,0l0,166l130,0z"/>
<glyph unicode="0" horiz-adv-x="978" d="M867,564C867,376 834,232 767,131C700,30 607,-21 490,-21C372,-21 279,30 212,131C144,232 110,377 110,564l0,326C110,1077 144,1221 211,1324C278,1426 370,1477 488,1477C606,1477 699,1426 766,1324C833,1222 867,1077 867,890M747,911C747,1059 725,1173 681,1252C636,1331 572,1371 488,1371C405,1371 341,1331 297,1252C253,1172 231,1058 231,911l0,-366C231,398 253,285 298,204C343,123 407,83 490,83C573,83 637,123 681,204C725,284 747,398 747,545z"/>
<!-- ...... Complete characterset ...... -->
</font>

Then we defined the font using CSS:

<defs>
<style type="text/css">
    <![CDATA[
    @font-face {
    font-family: 'RobotoCondensed-Light-Fallback';
    font-style: normal;
    font-weight: 300;
    src: url(data:application/x-font-woff;charset=utf-8;base64,d09GRg............7yEuAS1Fmtsgn2C3mGC7pcSzGaItVzpDHKXKRoB2nd8b5m1ni67q0DVvtWpxe61sF59tcm+qiK+1YY21P2oWNdkPaA1Nv0meNl0KL0HwqtAmtRKFDaA9/APTVpT1K/YclSp7tiAGxtzbsEoOZYV9u9g8VM0kokz6M/klEI+HecECMVpoFhuIDsL5bmwAAAVSQKFMAAA==) format('woff');
    }
    ]]>
</style>
</defs>

The magic happened once we named the font "RobotoCondensed-Light-Fallback" and then:

<text style="font-family:RobotoCondensed-Light,RobotoCondensed-Light-Fallback,Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: 300" font-size="36">Text</text>

What happens is that iOS uses <font-face> while all other browsers use the fallback font.

Hope this helps!

For your info, we used this definition in the SVG.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd">
<svg version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" x="0px" y="0px" width="270px" height="303px" viewBox="0 0 270 303" enable-background="new 0 0 270 303" preserveAspectRatio="xMidYMid meet" xml:space="preserve">