Embed SVG in SVG?

Question

Use the image element and reference your SVG file. For fun, save the following as recursion.svg:

<svg width="100%" height="100%" viewBox="-100 -100 200 200" version="1.1"
     xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <circle cx="-50" cy="-50" r="30" style="fill:red" />
  <image x="10" y="20" width="80" height="80" href="recursion.svg" />
</svg>

Or you can actually embed child svg in parent svg like this:

<svg>
    <g>
        <svg>
            ...
        </svg>
    </g>
</svg>

demo:
http://hitokun-s.github.io/old/demo/path-between-two-svg.html

It is worth mentioning that when you embed SVGs into another SVG with:

<image x="10" y="20" width="80" height="80" xlink:href="image.svg" />

then the embedded SVG takes a rectangular shape with given dimensions.

That is to say, if your embedded SVG is a circle or some shape other than a square, then it becomes a square with transparency. Therefore, mouse events get trapped into that embeded square and do not reach the parent SVG. Watch out for that.

A better approach is using a pattern. To fill a shape, either a circle, a square or even a path.

<defs>
 <pattern id="pat" x="0" y="0" width="500" height="500" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse">
   <image x="0" y="0" width="500" height="500" xlink:href="images/mysvg.svg"></image>
 </pattern>
</defs>

Then use the pattern like this:

<circle cx="0" cy="0" r="250" fill="url(#pat)"></circle>

Now your mouse events do not get stuck into transparent image squares!

I found that using the <image> tag gave a low-quality render of the embedded file. However the following technique worked (to embed an SVG file inside an SVG file - not necessarily for rendering on an HTML page):

• Edit the SVG file in a text editor.

• Find the end of the metadata:

  </metadata>
    <g
     id="layer1"
     inkscape:groupmode="layer"
     inkscape:label="Layer 1">
  

• Insert this line after that group tag:

  <use xlink:href="OTHERFILE.svg#layer1" y="0" x="0" />
  

• In this case we are including OTHERFILE.svg into the file, and all of layer1 (the first and default layer).

• Save this and then open the file in Inkscape.

This technique is useful for having a standard background or logo on every page. By putting it first in the file it will be rendered first (and thus at the bottom). You could also lock it by adding this attribute:

sodipodi:insensitive="true" 

In other words:

<use xlink:href="OTHERFILE.svg#layer1" sodipodi:insensitive="true" y="0" x="0" />