The <desc>
element provides an accessible, long-text description of any SVG container element or graphics element.
Text in a <desc>
element is not rendered as part of the graphic. If the element can be described by visible text, it is possible to reference that text with the aria-describedby
attribute. If aria-describedby
is used, it will take precedence over <desc>
.
The hidden text of a <desc>
element can also be concatenated with the visible text of other elements using multiple IDs in an aria-describedby
value. In that case, the <desc>
element must provide an ID for reference.
<svg viewBox="0 0 10 10" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<circle cx="5" cy="5" r="4">
<desc>
I'm a circle and that description is here to
demonstrate how I can be described, but is it
really necessary to describe a simple circle
like me?
</desc>
</circle>
</svg>
Attributes
This element only includes global attributes
Global attributes
- Core Attributes
- Most notably:
id
- Styling Attributes
class
,style
- Event Attributes
- Global event attributes, Document element event attributes
Usage notes
Categories | Descriptive element |
---|---|
Permitted content | Any elements or character data |
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2 The definition of '<desc>' in that specification. |
Candidate Recommendation | |
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) The definition of '<desc>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Initial definition |
Browser compatibility
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