Overview
Bootstrap, an open-source toolkit for HTML, CSS, and JS development, has become indispensable for web developers globally due to its myriad features that streamline the web development process. One such feature is Bootstrap Icons—simple SVG icons that enhance your website’s visual appeal and functionality.
This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to use Bootstrap Icons effectively. We will walk you through the steps involved in incorporating these icons into your project - from setting up your environment to customizing the icons according to your needs.
Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting out in the world of web development, this guide will equip you with all the knowledge needed to leverage Bootstrap Icons’ full potential. By following these steps meticulously, you’ll be able to add an extra layer of polish and professionalism to your websites using Bootstrap Icons.
Step 1: Setting Up Your Environment
Before you can start using Bootstrap Icons, it’s crucial to set up your development environment correctly. This involves:
- Navigate to the Bootstrap Icons GitHub page and download the latest version of Bootstrap Icons.
- Extract the downloaded ZIP file contents into your project directory.
- Link the Bootstrap Icons CSS file in your HTML document by adding a
<link>tag in the<head>section as follows:
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="path/to/bootstrap-icons.css">
</head>
Replace "path/to/bootstrap-icons.css" with the actual path where bootstrap-icons.css is stored in your project directory.
Step 2: Using Bootstrap Icons
With your environment set up, you can now start using Bootstrap Icons in your project by adding a specific HTML element.
To use an icon like ‘alarm’, write:
<i class="bi bi-alarm"></i>
Here ‘bi’ stands for “Bootstrap Icon”, and bi-alarm is the class name for alarm icon. You can find all available icons on Bootstrap’s official page.
Remember that these icons inherit their size from their parent elements but can be adjusted using CSS properties like font-size or width.
Step 3: Customizing Bootstrap Icons
While default appearance of Bootstrap Icons is appealing, there might be instances where customization better fits with aesthetics of projects.
Since they are SVGs implemented as font characters, they can be styled using CSS just like any other text content on pages.
For example:
.bi {
color: red;
font-size: 1.5em;
}
This styles all icons red and increases their size slightly; if styling a specific icon differently from others is desired assign it an additional class and target that class with CSS rules.