diff --git a/svg/charts/css.py b/svg/charts/css.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f11d923
--- /dev/null
+++ b/svg/charts/css.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import cssutils
+
+SVG = 'SVG 1.1' # http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/styling.html
+
+macros = cssutils.profile._MACROS.copy()
+macros.update({
+	'paint': 'none|currentColor|{color}',
+	# spec actually says length, but our length macro requires units, so use positivenum
+	'dasharray': '{positivenum}(\s*,\s*{positivenum})*',
+	})
+properties = {
+	'stroke': '{paint}',
+	'fill': '{paint}',
+	'text-anchor': 'start|middle|end|inherit',
+	'stroke-width': '{length}|inherit',
+	'fill-opacity': '{num}|inherit',
+	'stroke-dasharray': 'none|{dasharray}|inherit',
+	}
+
+cssutils.profile.addProfile(SVG, properties, macros)
+
+cssutils.profile.defaultProfiles = [SVG, cssutils.profile.CSS_LEVEL_2]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/svg/charts/graph.py b/svg/charts/graph.py
index 2088f81..1fe5612 100644
--- a/svg/charts/graph.py
+++ b/svg/charts/graph.py
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ import pkg_resources
 
 from lxml import etree
 
+from svg.charts import css # causes the profile to be loaded
+
 try:
 	import zlib
 except ImportError: