Each container element or graphics element in an SVG drawing can supply a description string using the <desc> element where the description is text-only.
When the current SVG document fragment is rendered as SVG on visual media, <desc> elements are not rendered as part of the graphics. Alternate presentations are possible, both visual and aural, which display the <desc> element but do not display <path> elements or other graphics elements. The <desc> element generally improves accessibility of SVG documents.
Usage context
| Categories | Descriptive element |
|---|---|
| Permitted content | Any elements or character data |
Attributes
Global attributes
Specific attributes
None
DOM Interface
This element implements the SVGDescElement interface.
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
The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Update compatibility data on GitHub
| Desktop | Mobile | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari | Android webview | Chrome for Android | Edge Mobile | Firefox for Android | Opera for Android | iOS Safari | Samsung Internet | |
| Basic support | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support Yes | Firefox Full support Yes | IE Full support 9 | Opera Full support 8 | Safari Full support 3.1 | WebView Android Full support 3 | Chrome Android Full support 18 | Edge Mobile Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support 3.1 | Samsung Internet Android ? |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- Compatibility unknown
- Compatibility unknown