SVG in OpenType

SVGinOT

Design & Typography

A method of embedding SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) documents directly in OpenType font files for scalable color emoji.

SVG in OpenType (also called SVGinOT) embeds complete SVG documents as glyph data within a font file. Each emoji glyph is an SVG with full support for gradients, transparency, filters, and animations.

Firefox and Adobe products support SVGinOT natively. The format offers the full expressiveness of SVG — the most capable vector format — but has limited support compared to COLR and CBDT.

The Unicode Consortium has noted that the industry is converging on COLRv1 as the preferred vector color font format, though SVGinOT remains in use.

Related Terms

CBDT/CBLC (CBDT) CBDT/CBLC (CBDT)
Color Bitmap Data Table and Color Bitmap Location Table — OpenType tables for embedding bitmap color emoji in fonts. COLR/CPAL (COLR) COLR/CPAL (COLR)
OpenType color font tables that define emoji as layered vector shapes with a color palette, used by Windows and Chrome. OpenType OpenType
A font format developed by Microsoft and Adobe that supports color emoji rendering through multiple color table technologies. Vector Emoji Vector Emoji
Emoji rendered using scalable vector graphics (SVG or COLR) that remain crisp at any display size.

Related Tools

🔀 Platform Compare Platform Compare
Compare how emojis render across Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, and more. See visual differences side by side.

Related Stories

How Emoji Fonts Work: COLR, CBDT, sbix, and SVG Font Tables
A technical deep-dive into emoji font formats: COLR/CPAL vector layering, CBDT/CBLC bitmap embedding, sbix Apple bitmaps, and SVG-in-OpenType.