django-iconx

CSS-only icon system for Django.

Generates a single CSS file from SVG icon sources. No JavaScript, no icon fonts.

python manage.py iconx add lucide

<i class="icon icon-search"></i>
<span class="icon icon-check text-2xl text-green-500"></span>

Built-in support for Lucide, Heroicons, Tabler, Phosphor, Bootstrap Icons, and Remix. Or bring your own SVGs.

How it works and what the upsides are

Mono icons use mask-image with background-color: currentColor, so the SVG acts as a mask and the icon inherits text color. Multi-color icons use background-image to preserve original SVG colors.

The output is plain CSS classes: no runtime, no bundler plugin, no framework coupling. The approach is not Django-specific; Django is just a good fit because its static file conventions make wiring it up easy. Any stack that serves CSS and renders HTML can use the generated stylesheet directly.

.icon { display: inline-block; width: 1em; height: 1em; }

.icon-search, .icon-check { background-color: currentColor; mask-size: contain; mask-mode: alpha; }
.icon-search { mask-image: url("/static/icons/search.svg"); }

.icon-logo { background-image: url("/static/logos/logo.svg"); }

• currentColor + mask-image: icons inherit text color
• 1em sizing: icons scale with font size / Tailwind text-*
• Direct element styling, no ::before pseudo-element
• Tree-shakeable: PurgeCSS strips unused .icon-* rules

Browser support

CSS mask-image is supported unprefixed in all modern browsers since Dec 2023 (~97% global coverage). Tailwind v4 handles vendor prefixing automatically:

@import "tailwindcss";
@import "./static/iconx/icons.css";

Quick start

uv add django-iconx

INSTALLED_APPS = ["django_iconx", ...]
STATICFILES_DIRS = [BASE_DIR / "static"]

python manage.py iconx add lucide

That downloads Lucide icons and generates the CSS. Include the CSS in your template or Tailwind entry point and use icons via class names. See the full documentation at oliverhaas.github.io/django-iconx for custom SVGs, multiple icon sets, and configuration options.

License

MIT