Level Up Your UI: Using SVG Icons in React Native

In the world of mobile app development, creating a visually appealing and intuitive user interface
(UI) is crucial. React Native, with its cross-platform capabilities, empowers you to build beautiful
apps. But wouldn’t it be great to have a flexible and scalable way to incorporate icons into your
UI? Enter SVG icons- a powerful solution for adding rich visuals to your React Native apps.

Why Use SVG Icons?

● Scalability: SVG icons are vector-based, meaning they can be resized without losing quality,
ensuring crisp visuals on any screen resolution.
● Flexibility: SVGs are XML code, allowing you to customize colors, shapes, and even add
animations to your icons.
● Lightweight: Compared to raster images (like PNGs), SVGs are typically smaller in size,
contributing to a faster loading app experience.

Demo: Using a Simple SVG Icon in React Native

Let’s create a basic example to illustrate the power of SVG icons in React Native. We’ll use the
popular react-native-svg library to render a star icon.

1.Project Setup

• Makesureyou have a React Native project set up.
• Install the react-native-svg library using npm or yarn:

In terminal
npm install react-native-svg

2.Create an SVG Icon File

● Create a new file named StarIcon.svg in your project’s assets folder.
● Pastethe following SVG code into the file:

XML
<svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none"
 xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
     <path d="M12 2L8.91 6.09L5.79 4.87L3.67 8L2 10.13L6.09 14.13L4.87
 17.21L8 16L11.09 19.09L13.21 17.21L17.3 14.13L21 10.13L16 8L13.67
 4.87L11.09 6.09L12 2Z" fill="currentColor"/>
 </svg>

● Import the SvgUri component from react-native-svg.
● UseSvgUri to render the icon, specifying the path to your SVG file and customizing its size
and color with props.

Here’s an example component demonstrating this:

 
 import React from 'react';
 import { View, SvgUri } from 'react-native-svg';
 const MyComponent = () => {
     return (
        <View style={{ alignItems: 'center', justifyContent: 'center' }}>
           <SvgUri width={40} height={40} fill="gold" uri="StarIcon.svg" />
        </View>
     );
 };
 export default MyComponent;

Beyond the Basics

The power of SVGs goes beyond simple icons. You can create complex shapes, animations,
and even integrate them with other UI components for a richer user experience. Explore the
react-native-svg documentation for more advanced techniques.

Conclusion

By incorporating SVG icons into your React Native projects, you can elevate your app’s UI
design with scalable, lightweight, and customizable graphics. Start experimenting with SVGs
today and unlock a world of creative possibilities for your React Native apps!

Let’s discuss! Share your experiences with SVG icons in React Native and your creative uses
for them in the comments below. We can all learn from each other and explore the full potential
of this powerful technique