Simple SVG Placeholder

A very simple placeholder image generator with zero dependencies. Returns a data URI (or raw SVG source) as a string for use in templates.

Getting Started

The package is available to install via npm:

npm i --save @cloudfour/simple-svg-placeholder

Once installed, you may import the function as an ES or CommonJS module:

// Module
import simpleSvgPlaceholder from '@cloudfour/simple-svg-placeholder';

// CommonJS
const simpleSvgPlaceholder = require('@cloudfour/simple-svg-placeholder');

Then call the function to generate placeholder SVGs:

const placeholder = simpleSvgPlaceholder(/* options */);
// => 'data:image/svg+xml;...'

Examples

Default

simpleSvgPlaceholder();

Dimensions

simpleSvgPlaceholder({
  width: 180,
  height: 135,
});

Text

simpleSvgPlaceholder({
  text: 'Hello world!',
});

Colors

simpleSvgPlaceholder({
  bgColor: '#0F1C3F',
  textColor: '#7FDBFF',
});

Font

simpleSvgPlaceholder({
  fontFamily: 'Georgia, serif',
  fontWeight: 'normal',
});

Option Reference

width {Number}

Defaults to 300, the default width of SVG elements in most browsers.

height {Number}

Defaults to 150, the default height of SVG elements in most browsers.

text {String}

The text to display. Defaults to the image dimensions.

This is treated as literal text, not markup: characters that are significant in XML (&, <, >, ") are escaped for you, so 'Tom & Jerry' renders as written rather than producing an SVG the browser refuses to parse.

fontFamily {String}

The font to use for the text. For data URIs, this needs to be a system-installed font. Defaults to 'sans-serif'.

fontWeight {String}

Defaults to 'bold'.

fontSize {Number}

Defaults to 20% of the shortest image dimension, rounded down.

dy {Number}

Adjustment applied to the dy attribute of the text element so it will appear vertically centered. Defaults to 35% of the fontSize.

bgColor {String}

The background color of the image. Defaults to #ddd.

textColor {String}

The color of the text. For transparency, use an rgba or hsla color value. Defaults to rgba(0,0,0,0.5).

dataUri {Boolean}

If true, the function will return an encoded string for use as an img element's src value. If false, the function will return the unencoded SVG source, suitable for inlining into a document. Defaults to true.

charset {String}

Defaults to UTF-8, but if your source HTML document's character set is different, you may want to update this to match.