<a>

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since January 2020.

The <a> SVG element creates a hyperlink to other web pages, files, locations in the same page, email addresses, or any other URL. It is very similar to HTML's <a> element.

SVG's <a> element is a container, which means you can create a link around text (like in HTML) but also around any shape.

Example

html
<svg viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <!-- A link around a shape -->
  <a href="/docs/Web/SVG/Element/circle">
    <circle cx="50" cy="40" r="35" />
  </a>

  <!-- A link around a text -->
  <a href="/docs/Web/SVG/Element/text">
    <text x="50" y="90" text-anchor="middle">&lt;circle&gt;</text>
  </a>
</svg>
css
/* As SVG does not provide a default visual style for links,
   it's considered best practice to add some */

@namespace svg url(http://www.w3.org/2000/svg);
/* Necessary to select only SVG <a> elements, and not also HTML's.
   See warning below */

svg|a:link,
svg|a:visited {
  cursor: pointer;
}

svg|a text,
text svg|a {
  fill: blue; /* Even for text, SVG uses fill over color */
  text-decoration: underline;
}

svg|a:hover,
svg|a:active {
  outline: dotted 1px blue;
}

Warning: Since this element shares its tag name with HTML's <a> element, selecting a with CSS or querySelector may apply to the wrong kind of element. Try the @namespace rule to distinguish the two.

Attributes

download

Instructs browsers to download a URL instead of navigating to it, so the user will be prompted to save it as a local file. Value type: <string> ; Default value: none; Animatable: no

href

The URL or URL fragment the hyperlink points to. Value type: <URL> ; Default value: none; Animatable: yes

hreflang

The human language of the URL or URL fragment that the hyperlink points to. Value type: <string> ; Default value: none; Animatable: no

ping

A space-separated list of URLs to which, when the hyperlink is followed, POST requests with the body PING will be sent by the browser (in the background). Typically used for tracking. For a more widely-supported feature addressing the same use cases, see Navigator.sendBeacon(). Value type: <list-of-URLs> ; Default value: none; Animatable: no

referrerpolicy

Which referrer to send when fetching the URL. Value type: no-referrer|no-referrer-when-downgrade|same-origin|origin|strict-origin|origin-when-cross-origin|strict-origin-when-cross-origin|unsafe-url ; Default value: none; Animatable: no

rel

The relationship of the target object to the link object. Value type: <list-of-Link-Types> ; Default value: none; Animatable: no

target

Where to display the linked URL. Value type: _self|_parent|_top|_blank|<XML-Name> ; Default value: _self; Animatable: yes

type

A MIME type for the linked URL. Value type: <string> ; Default value: none; Animatable: no

xlink:href

The URL or URL fragment that the hyperlink points to. May be required for backwards compatibility for older browsers. Value type: <URL> ; Default value: none; Animatable: yes

Usage context

CategoriesContainer element
Permitted contentAny number of the following elements, in any order:
Animation elements
Descriptive elements
Shape elements
Structural elements
Gradient elements
<a>, <clipPath>, <cursor>, <filter>, <font>, <font-face>, <foreignObject>, <image>, <marker>, <mask>, <pattern>, <script>, <style>, <switch>, <text>, <view>

Specifications

Specification
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2
# AElement

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also