Introduction
Font Awesome is a popular icon library widely used to enhance web design with scalable vector icons. These icons are implemented as fonts, which means they can be styled using CSS like text, including changing their color. This tutorial will guide you through different methods for changing the color of Font Awesome icons in your HTML documents.
Understanding Font Awesome Icons
Font Awesome icons are essentially font glyphs. They are treated as characters, allowing them to inherit properties like font-size, color, and more directly from CSS styles applied to text elements. This makes it simple to adjust their appearance using standard CSS techniques.
Basic Usage of Font Awesome Icons
To use a Font Awesome icon in your HTML document, you typically include an <i> tag with appropriate classes:
<a href="/users/edit">
<i class="fa-cog"></i> Edit profile
</a>
In this example, fa-cog is the class provided by Font Awesome for a cog icon. The actual name of the class may vary depending on your version of Font Awesome.
Method 1: Using CSS Class
One straightforward way to change an icon’s color is through dedicated CSS classes. You can target specific icons or apply styles globally across all icons in your project.
Targeting Specific Icons
To change a particular icon’s color, define a custom class and use it alongside the Font Awesome classes:
<a href="/users/edit">
<i class="fa-cog blackiconcolor"></i> Edit profile
</a>
Then style this class in your CSS:
.blackiconcolor {
color: black;
}
Global Styling
If you want to change the color of all Font Awesome icons throughout your project, you can apply styles to the general .fa or .fas classes:
.fa {
color: red; /* This will turn all Font Awesome icons red */
}
Method 2: Inline CSS Styling
For quick and specific style changes, especially when dealing with a single instance of an icon, you can use inline CSS within the HTML tag itself.
Example:
<a href="/users/edit">
<i class="fa-cog" style="color:black;"></i> Edit profile
</a>
This approach is useful for one-off changes but should be used sparingly to maintain clean and manageable code, as inline styles can make maintenance harder in larger projects.
Method 3: Using Predefined Font Awesome Classes
Font Awesome itself provides utility classes such as text-primary, text-success, etc., which automatically apply specific colors. You can extend this approach by creating your own utility classes:
<a href="/users/edit">
<i class="fa-cog text-red"></i> Edit profile
</a>
And define the .text-red class in CSS:
.text-red {
color: red;
}
This method helps keep styling consistent across your project by leveraging predefined or custom utility classes.
Best Practices
- Consistency: Define a set of icon styles globally in one place, like your main stylesheet, to ensure consistency.
- Maintainability: Avoid overusing inline styles. They can clutter HTML and make updates more difficult.
- Responsiveness: Ensure that color changes do not affect the readability or visibility of icons on different devices.
Conclusion
Changing the color of Font Awesome icons is simple thanks to their font-based implementation, allowing for flexible styling with CSS. Whether you choose to use a dedicated class, inline styles, or predefined utility classes, these methods provide powerful options to match your project’s design needs. By following best practices, you can maintain both functionality and aesthetic appeal in your web projects.