Favicon That Works for Light and Dark Mode

Table of Contents

• Prefers Color Scheme
• Using JavaScript
• Using the Media Attribute
• Using a SVG Favicon
• Conclusion

Prefers Color Scheme

The majority of modern operating systems let the user choose between a light and dark mode preference (besides Linux as far as I know 😢).

We can take advantage of this by using the prefers-color-scheme media query to change the favicon based on the user’s preference.

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  /* ... */
}

If we look at caniuse, the prefers-color-scheme media query is supported across 91% of browsers.

Using JavaScript

You can use JavaScript to change the favicon based on the user’s preference using the matchMedia API that can listen for changes and return true or false if the media query matches.

// select the favicon 👉
const faviconEl = document.querySelector('link[rel="icon"]')

// watch for changes 🕵️
const mediaQuery = window.matchMedia('(prefers-color-scheme: dark)')
mediaQuery.addEventListener('change', themeChange)

// listener 👂
function themeChange(event) {
  if (event.matches) {
    faviconEl.setAttribute('href', 'favicon-dark.png')
  } else {
    faviconEl.setAttribute('href', 'favicon-light.png')
  }
}

Using the Media Attribute

Inside the external resource link element you can specify a media attribute that accepts a media type such as print and screen, or a media query.

<link
  href="favicon-light.png"
  rel="icon"
  media="(prefers-color-scheme: light)"
/>
<link
  href="favicon-dark.png"
  rel="icon"
  media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)"
/>

The media attribute is supported across 97% of browsers.

Using a SVG Favicon

I prefer using a SVG favicon since it’s easy to change and you don’t have to think about the dimensions and size. Unfortunately, SVG favicons are only supported across 74% of browsers. We have to provide a fallback version for Internet Explorer and Safari.

<link rel="icon" href="favicon.svg" type="image/svg+xml">
<link rel="icon" href="favicon.png" type="image/png">

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) are amazing because they’re a self-contained Document Object Model (DOM) that lets you do anything inside it such as using a style tag for CSS to take advantage of what we learned so far.

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 134 134">
  <style>
    path {
      fill: black;
    }
    @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
      path {
        fill: white;
      }
    }
  </style>
  <path
    d="M44.193 81.846c-10.615.683-20.248 4.726-25.714 19.13-.622 1.643-2.117 2.64-3.86 2.64-2.94 0-12.029-7.32-14.619-9.088.003 21.788 10.038 40.939 33.87 40.939 20.07 0 33.866-11.581 33.866-31.8 0-.823-.172-1.61-.257-2.416zM121.153 0c-4.011 0-7.771 1.775-10.64 4.352-54.083 48.313-59.71 49.448-59.71 63.67 0 3.625.86 7.08 2.31 10.24l16.885 14.07c1.908.476 3.874.801 5.924.801 16.433 0 25.958-12.03 55.87-67.855 1.952-3.796 3.677-7.898 3.677-12.168C135.47 5.461 128.59 0 121.153 0z"
  />
</svg>

If you want Prettier to format your SVG nicely, temporarily rename it to use the *.html extension or tell your editor to treat it as a HTML file. You can also use SVGOMG, which reduces the amount of markup created inside SVGs when you export them, to optimize your SVG beforehand.

Conclusion

The only downside to this method is the browser theme set by the user, since they could be using light mode with a dark theme.

Thanks for reading! 🏄‍♀️