1. 4.12.5 The canvas element
        1. 4.12.5.1 The 2D rendering context
          1. 4.12.5.1.1 Implementation notes
          2. 4.12.5.1.2 The canvas state
          3. 4.12.5.1.3 Line styles
          4. 4.12.5.1.4 Text styles
          5. 4.12.5.1.5 Building paths
          6. 4.12.5.1.6 Path2D objects
          7. 4.12.5.1.7 Transformations
          8. 4.12.5.1.8 Image sources for 2D rendering contexts
          9. 4.12.5.1.9 Fill and stroke styles
          10. 4.12.5.1.10 Drawing rectangles to the bitmap
          11. 4.12.5.1.11 Drawing text to the bitmap
          12. 4.12.5.1.12 Drawing paths to the canvas
          13. 4.12.5.1.13 Drawing focus rings and scrolling paths into view
          14. 4.12.5.1.14 Drawing images
          15. 4.12.5.1.15 Pixel manipulation
          16. 4.12.5.1.16 Compositing
          17. 4.12.5.1.17 Image smoothing
          18. 4.12.5.1.18 Shadows
          19. 4.12.5.1.19 Filters
          20. 4.12.5.1.20 Working with externally-defined SVG filters
          21. 4.12.5.1.21 Drawing model
          22. 4.12.5.1.22 Best practices
          23. 4.12.5.1.23 Examples
        2. 4.12.5.2 The ImageBitmap rendering context
          1. 4.12.5.2.1 Introduction
          2. 4.12.5.2.2 The ImageBitmapRenderingContext interface
        3. 4.12.5.3 The OffscreenCanvas interface
          1. 4.12.5.3.1 The offscreen 2D rendering context
        4. 4.12.5.4 Color spaces and color correction
        5. 4.12.5.5 Serializing bitmaps to a file
        6. 4.12.5.6 Security with canvas elements

4.12.5 The canvas element

Support: canvasChrome for Android 62+Chrome 4+UC Browser for Android 11.4+iOS Safari 3.2+Firefox 3.6+IE 9+Samsung Internet 4+Opera Mini (limited) all+Safari 4+Edge 12+Android Browser 3+Opera 9+

Source: caniuse.com

Categories:
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Embedded content.
Palpable content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where embedded content is expected.
Content model:
Transparent, but with no interactive content descendants except for a elements, img elements with usemap attributes, button elements, input elements whose type attribute are in the Checkbox or Radio Button states, input elements that are buttons, select elements with a multiple attribute or a display size greater than 1, and elements that would not be interactive content except for having the tabindex attribute specified.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
width
height
DOM interface:
typedef (CanvasRenderingContext2D or WebGLRenderingContext) RenderingContext;

[Exposed=Window,
 HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLCanvasElement : HTMLElement {
  [CEReactions] attribute unsigned long width;
  [CEReactions] attribute unsigned long height;

  RenderingContext? getContext(DOMString contextId, any... arguments);

  USVString toDataURL(optional DOMString type, optional any quality);
  void toBlob(BlobCallback _callback, optional DOMString type, optional any quality);
  OffscreenCanvas transferControlToOffscreen();
};

callback BlobCallback = void (Blob? blob);

The canvas element provides scripts with a resolution-dependent bitmap canvas, which can be used for rendering graphs, game graphics, art, or other visual images on the fly.

Authors should not use the canvas element in a document when a more suitable element is available. For example, it is inappropriate to use a canvas element to render a page heading: if the desired presentation of the heading is graphically intense, it should be marked up using appropriate elements (typically h1) and then styled using CSS and supporting technologies such as shadow trees.

When authors use the canvas element, they must also provide content that, when presented to the user, conveys essentially the same function or purpose as the canvas's bitmap. This content may be placed as content of the canvas element. The contents of the canvas element, if any, are the element's fallback content.


In interactive visual media, if scripting is enabled for the canvas element, and if support for canvas elements has been enabled, then the canvas element represents embedded content consisting of a dynamically created image, the element's bitmap.

In non-interactive, static, visual media, if the canvas element has been previously associated with a rendering context (e.g. if the page was viewed in an interactive visual medium and is now being printed, or if some script that ran during the page layout process painted on the element), then the canvas element represents embedded content with the element's current bitmap and size. Otherwise, the element represents its fallback content instead.

In non-visual media, and in visual media if scripting is disabled for the canvas element or if support for canvas elements has been disabled, the canvas element represents its fallback content instead.

When a canvas element represents embedded content, the user can still focus descendants of the canvas element (in the fallback content). When an element is focused, it is the target of keyboard interaction events (even though the element itself is not visible). This allows authors to make an interactive canvas keyboard-accessible: authors should have a one-to-one mapping of interactive regions to focusable areas in the fallback content. (Focus has no effect on mouse interaction events.) [UIEVENTS]

An element whose nearest canvas element ancestor is being rendered and represents embedded content is an element that is being used as relevant canvas fallback content.


The canvas element has two attributes to control the size of the element's bitmap: width and height. These attributes, when specified, must have values that are valid non-negative integers. The rules for parsing non-negative integers must be used to obtain their numeric values. If an attribute is missing, or if parsing its value returns an error, then the default value must be used instead. The width attribute defaults to 300, and the height attribute defaults to 150.

When setting the value of the width or height attribute, if the context mode of the canvas element is set to placeholder, the user agent must throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException and leave the attribute's value unchanged.

The intrinsic dimensions of the canvas element when it represents embedded content are equal to the dimensions of the element's bitmap.

The user agent must use a square pixel density consisting of one pixel of image data per coordinate space unit for the bitmaps of a canvas and its rendering contexts.

A canvas element can be sized arbitrarily by a style sheet, its bitmap is then subject to the 'object-fit' CSS property.


The bitmaps of canvas elements, the bitmaps of ImageBitmap objects, as well as some of the bitmaps of rendering contexts, such as those described in the sections on the CanvasRenderingContext2D and ImageBitmapRenderingContext objects below, have an origin-clean flag, which can be set to true or false. Initially, when the canvas element or ImageBitmap object is created, its bitmap's origin-clean flag must be set to true.

A canvas element can have a rendering context bound to it. Initially, it does not have a bound rendering context. To keep track of whether it has a rendering context or not, and what kind of rendering context it is, a canvas also has a canvas context mode, which is initially none but can be changed to either placeholder, 2d, bitmaprenderer, or webgl by algorithms defined in this specification.

When its canvas context mode is none, a canvas element has no rendering context, and its bitmap must be transparent black with an intrinsic width equal to the numeric value of the element's width attribute and an intrinsic height equal to the numeric value of the element's height attribute, those values being interpreted in CSS pixels, and being updated as the attributes are set, changed, or removed.

When its canvas context mode is placeholder, a canvas element has no rendering context. It serves as a placeholder for an OffscreenCanvas object, and the content of the canvas element is updated by calling the commit() method of the OffscreenCanvas object's rendering context.

When a canvas element represents embedded content, it provides a paint source whose width is the element's intrinsic width, whose height is the element's intrinsic height, and whose appearance is the element's bitmap.

Whenever the width and height content attributes are set, removed, changed, or redundantly set to the value they already have, then the user agent must perform the action from the row of the following table that corresponds to the canvas element's context mode.

Context Mode

Action

2d

Follow the steps to set bitmap dimensions to the numeric values of the width and height content attributes.

webgl

Follow the behavior defined in the WebGL specification. [WEBGL]

bitmaprenderer

If the context's bitmap mode is set to blank, run the steps to set an ImageBitmapRenderingContext's output bitmap, passing the canvas element's rendering context.

placeholder

Do nothing.

none

Do nothing.

The width and height IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name, with the same defaults.


context = canvas . getContext(contextId [, ... ] )

Returns an object that exposes an API for drawing on the canvas. The first argument specifies the desired API, either "2d", "bitmaprenderer" or "webgl". Subsequent arguments are handled by that API.

This specification defines the "2d" and "bitmaprenderer" contexts below. There is also a specification that defines a "webgl" context. [WEBGL]

Returns null if the given context ID is not supported, or if the canvas has already been initialized with another context type (e.g. trying to get a "2d" context after getting a "webgl" context).

The getContext(contextId, arguments...) method of the canvas element, when invoked, must run the steps in the cell of the following table whose column header describes the canvas element's canvas context mode and whose row header describes the method's first argument.

none 2d bitmaprenderer webgl placeholder
"2d" Follow the 2D context creation algorithm defined in the section below, passing it the canvas element and the method's arguments..., to obtain a CanvasRenderingContext2D object; if this does not throw an exception, then set the canvas element's context mode to 2d, and return the CanvasRenderingContext2D object. Return the same object as was returned the last time the method was invoked with this same first argument. Return null. Return null. Throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.
"bitmaprenderer" Follow the ImageBitmapRenderingContext creation algorithm defined in the section below, passing it the canvas element and the method's arguments..., to obtain an ImageBitmapRenderingContext object; then set the canvas element's context mode to bitmaprenderer, and return the ImageBitmapRenderingContext object. Return null. Return the same object as was returned the last time the method was invoked with this same first argument. Return null. Throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.
"webgl", if the user agent supports the WebGL feature in its current configuration Follow the instructions given in the WebGL specification's Context Creation section to obtain either a WebGLRenderingContext or null; if the returned value is null, then return null; otherwise, set the canvas element's context mode to webgl, and return the WebGLRenderingContext object [WEBGL] Return null. Return null. Return the same object as was returned the last time the method was invoked with this same first argument. Throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.
An unsupported value* Return null. Return null. Return null. Return null. Throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

* For example, the "webgl" value in the case of a user agent having exhausted the graphics hardware's abilities and having no software fallback implementation.


url = canvas . toDataURL( [ type [, quality ] ] )

Returns a data: URL for the image in the canvas.

The first argument, if provided, controls the type of the image to be returned (e.g. PNG or JPEG). The default is "image/png"; that type is also used if the given type isn't supported. The second argument applies if the type is an image format that supports variable quality (such as "image/jpeg"), and is a number in the range 0.0 to 1.0 inclusive indicating the desired quality level for the resulting image.

When trying to use types other than "image/png", authors can check if the image was really returned in the requested format by checking to see if the returned string starts with one of the exact strings "data:image/png," or "data:image/png;". If it does, the image is PNG, and thus the requested type was not supported. (The one exception to this is if the canvas has either no height or no width, in which case the result might simply be "data:,".)

canvas . toBlob(callback [, type [, quality ] ] )

Creates a Blob object representing a file containing the image in the canvas, and invokes a callback with a handle to that object.

The second argument, if provided, controls the type of the image to be returned (e.g. PNG or JPEG). The default is "image/png"; that type is also used if the given type isn't supported. The third argument applies if the type is an image format that supports variable quality (such as "image/jpeg"), and is a number in the range 0.0 to 1.0 inclusive indicating the desired quality level for the resulting image.

canvas . transferControlToOffscreen()

Returns a newly created OffscreenCanvas object that uses the canvas element as a placeholder. Once the canvas element has become a placeholder for an OffscreenCanvas object, its intrinsic size can no longer be changed, and it cannot have a rendering context. The content of the placeholder canvas is updated by calling the commit() method of the OffscreenCanvas object's rendering context.

The toDataURL(type, quality) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If this canvas element's bitmap's origin-clean flag is set to false, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.

  2. If this canvas element's bitmap has no pixels (i.e. either its horizontal dimension or its vertical dimension is zero) then return the string "data:,". (This is the shortest data: URL; it represents the empty string in a text/plain resource.)

  3. Let file be a serialization of this canvas element's bitmap as a file, passing type and quality if they were given.

  4. If file is null then return "data:,".

  5. Return a data: URL representing file. [RFC2397]

The toBlob(callback, type, quality) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If this canvas element's bitmap's origin-clean flag is set to false, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.

  2. If this canvas element's bitmap has no pixels (i.e. either its horizontal dimension or its vertical dimension is zero) then let result be null.

    Otherwise, let result be a Blob object representing a serialization of this canvas element's bitmap as a file, passing type and quality if they were given. [FILEAPI]

  3. Return, but continue running these steps in parallel.

  4. Queue a task to invoke the BlobCallback callback with result as its argument. The task source for this task is the canvas blob serialization task source.

The transferControlToOffscreen() method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If this canvas element's context mode is not set to none, throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException and abort these steps.

  2. Let offscreenCanvas be a new OffscreenCanvas object with its width and height equal to the values of the width and height content attributes of this canvas element.

  3. Set the placeholder canvas element of offscreenCanvas to be a weak reference to this canvas element.

  4. Set this canvas element's context mode to placeholder.

  5. Return offscreenCanvas.

4.12.5.1 The 2D rendering context

Spec bugs: 18220

typedef (HTMLImageElement or
         SVGImageElement) HTMLOrSVGImageElement;

typedef (HTMLOrSVGImageElement or
         HTMLVideoElement or
         HTMLCanvasElement or
         ImageBitmap or
         OffscreenCanvas) CanvasImageSource;

enum CanvasFillRule { "nonzero", "evenodd" };

dictionary CanvasRenderingContext2DSettings {
  boolean alpha = true;
};

enum ImageSmoothingQuality { "low", "medium", "high" };

[Exposed=Window]
interface CanvasRenderingContext2D {
  // back-reference to the canvas
  readonly attribute HTMLCanvasElement canvas;
};
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasState;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasTransform;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasCompositing;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasImageSmoothing;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasFillStrokeStyles;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasShadowStyles;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasFilters;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasRect;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasDrawPath;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasUserInterface;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasText;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasDrawImage;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasImageData;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasPathDrawingStyles;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasTextDrawingStyles;
CanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasPath;

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasState {
  // state
  void save(); // push state on state stack
  void restore(); // pop state stack and restore state
};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasTransform {
  // transformations (default transform is the identity matrix)
  void scale(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y);
  void rotate(unrestricted double angle);
  void translate(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y);
  void transform(unrestricted double a, unrestricted double b, unrestricted double c, unrestricted double d, unrestricted double e, unrestricted double f);

  [NewObject] DOMMatrix getTransform();
  void setTransform(unrestricted double a, unrestricted double b, unrestricted double c, unrestricted double d, unrestricted double e, unrestricted double f);
  void setTransform(optional DOMMatrix2DInit transform);
  void resetTransform();

};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasCompositing {
  // compositing
  attribute unrestricted double globalAlpha; // (default 1.0)
  attribute DOMString globalCompositeOperation; // (default source-over)
};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasImageSmoothing {
  // image smoothing
  attribute boolean imageSmoothingEnabled; // (default true)
  attribute ImageSmoothingQuality imageSmoothingQuality; // (default low)

};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasFillStrokeStyles {
  // colors and styles (see also the CanvasPathDrawingStyles and CanvasTextDrawingStyles interfaces)
  attribute (DOMString or CanvasGradient or CanvasPattern) strokeStyle; // (default black)
  attribute (DOMString or CanvasGradient or CanvasPattern) fillStyle; // (default black)
  CanvasGradient createLinearGradient(double x0, double y0, double x1, double y1);
  CanvasGradient createRadialGradient(double x0, double y0, double r0, double x1, double y1, double r1);
  CanvasPattern? createPattern(CanvasImageSource image, [TreatNullAs=EmptyString] DOMString repetition);

};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasShadowStyles {
  // shadows
  attribute unrestricted double shadowOffsetX; // (default 0)
  attribute unrestricted double shadowOffsetY; // (default 0)
  attribute unrestricted double shadowBlur; // (default 0)
  attribute DOMString shadowColor; // (default transparent black)
};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasFilters {
  // filters
  attribute DOMString filter; // (default "none")
};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasRect {
  // rects
  void clearRect(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, unrestricted double w, unrestricted double h);
  void fillRect(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, unrestricted double w, unrestricted double h);
  void strokeRect(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, unrestricted double w, unrestricted double h);
};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasDrawPath {
  // path API (see also CanvasPath)
  void beginPath();
  void fill(optional CanvasFillRule fillRule = "nonzero");
  void fill(Path2D path, optional CanvasFillRule fillRule = "nonzero");
  void stroke();
  void stroke(Path2D path);
  void clip(optional CanvasFillRule fillRule = "nonzero");
  void clip(Path2D path, optional CanvasFillRule fillRule = "nonzero");
  void resetClip();
  boolean isPointInPath(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, optional CanvasFillRule fillRule = "nonzero");
  boolean isPointInPath(Path2D path, unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, optional CanvasFillRule fillRule = "nonzero");
  boolean isPointInStroke(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y);
  boolean isPointInStroke(Path2D path, unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y);
};

[Exposed=Window,
 NoInterfaceObject]
interface CanvasUserInterface {
  void drawFocusIfNeeded(Element element);
  void drawFocusIfNeeded(Path2D path, Element element);
  void scrollPathIntoView();
  void scrollPathIntoView(Path2D path);
};

[Exposed=Window,
 NoInterfaceObject]
interface CanvasText {
  // text (see also the CanvasPathDrawingStyles and CanvasTextDrawingStyles interfaces)
  void fillText(DOMString text, unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, optional unrestricted double maxWidth);
  void strokeText(DOMString text, unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, optional unrestricted double maxWidth);
  TextMetrics measureText(DOMString text);
};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasDrawImage {
  // drawing images
  void drawImage(CanvasImageSource image, unrestricted double dx, unrestricted double dy);
  void drawImage(CanvasImageSource image, unrestricted double dx, unrestricted double dy, unrestricted double dw, unrestricted double dh);
  void drawImage(CanvasImageSource image, unrestricted double sx, unrestricted double sy, unrestricted double sw, unrestricted double sh, unrestricted double dx, unrestricted double dy, unrestricted double dw, unrestricted double dh);
};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasImageData {
  // pixel manipulation
  ImageData createImageData(long sw, long sh);
  ImageData createImageData(ImageData imagedata);
  ImageData getImageData(long sx, long sy, long sw, long sh);
  void putImageData(ImageData imagedata, long dx, long dy);
  void putImageData(ImageData imagedata, long dx, long dy, long dirtyX, long dirtyY, long dirtyWidth, long dirtyHeight);
};

enum CanvasLineCap { "butt", "round", "square" };
enum CanvasLineJoin { "round", "bevel", "miter" };
enum CanvasTextAlign { "start", "end", "left", "right", "center" };
enum CanvasTextBaseline { "top", "hanging", "middle", "alphabetic", "ideographic", "bottom" };
enum CanvasDirection { "ltr", "rtl", "inherit" };

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasPathDrawingStyles {
  // line caps/joins
  attribute unrestricted double lineWidth; // (default 1)
  attribute CanvasLineCap lineCap; // (default "butt")
  attribute CanvasLineJoin lineJoin; // (default "miter")
  attribute unrestricted double miterLimit; // (default 10)

  // dashed lines
  void setLineDash(sequence<unrestricted double> segments); // default empty
  sequence<unrestricted double> getLineDash();
  attribute unrestricted double lineDashOffset;
};

[Exposed=Window,
 NoInterfaceObject]
interface CanvasTextDrawingStyles {
  // text
  attribute DOMString font; // (default 10px sans-serif)
  attribute CanvasTextAlign textAlign; // (default: "start")
  attribute CanvasTextBaseline textBaseline; // (default: "alphabetic")
  attribute CanvasDirection direction; // (default: "inherit")
};

[NoInterfaceObject, Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasPath {
  // shared path API methods
  void closePath();
  void moveTo(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y);
  void lineTo(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y);
  void quadraticCurveTo(unrestricted double cpx, unrestricted double cpy, unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y);
  void bezierCurveTo(unrestricted double cp1x, unrestricted double cp1y, unrestricted double cp2x, unrestricted double cp2y, unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y);
  void arcTo(unrestricted double x1, unrestricted double y1, unrestricted double x2, unrestricted double y2, unrestricted double radius); 
  void arcTo(unrestricted double x1, unrestricted double y1, unrestricted double x2, unrestricted double y2, unrestricted double radiusX, unrestricted double radiusY, unrestricted double rotation); 
  void rect(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, unrestricted double w, unrestricted double h);
  void arc(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, unrestricted double radius, unrestricted double startAngle, unrestricted double endAngle, optional boolean anticlockwise = false); 
  void ellipse(unrestricted double x, unrestricted double y, unrestricted double radiusX, unrestricted double radiusY, unrestricted double rotation, unrestricted double startAngle, unrestricted double endAngle, optional boolean anticlockwise = false); 
};

[Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasGradient {
  // opaque object
  void addColorStop(double offset, DOMString color);
};

[Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface CanvasPattern {
  // opaque object
  void setTransform(optional DOMMatrix2DInit transform);
};

[Exposed=Window]
interface TextMetrics {
  // x-direction
  readonly attribute double width; // advance width
  readonly attribute double actualBoundingBoxLeft;
  readonly attribute double actualBoundingBoxRight;

  // y-direction
  readonly attribute double fontBoundingBoxAscent;
  readonly attribute double fontBoundingBoxDescent;
  readonly attribute double actualBoundingBoxAscent;
  readonly attribute double actualBoundingBoxDescent;
  readonly attribute double emHeightAscent;
  readonly attribute double emHeightDescent;
  readonly attribute double hangingBaseline;
  readonly attribute double alphabeticBaseline;
  readonly attribute double ideographicBaseline;
};

[Constructor(unsigned long sw, unsigned long sh),
 Constructor(Uint8ClampedArray data, unsigned long sw, optional unsigned long sh),
 Exposed=(Window,Worker),
 Serializable]
interface ImageData {
  readonly attribute unsigned long width;
  readonly attribute unsigned long height;
  readonly attribute Uint8ClampedArray data;
};

[Constructor,
 Constructor(Path2D path),
 Constructor(sequence<Path2D> paths, optional CanvasFillRule fillRule = "nonzero"),
 Constructor(DOMString d),
 Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface Path2D {
  void addPath(Path2D path, optional DOMMatrix2DInit transform);
};
Path2D implements CanvasPath;

To maintain compatibility with existing Web content, user agents need to enumerate methods defined in CanvasUserInterface immediately after the stroke() method on CanvasRenderingContext2D objects.

context = canvas . getContext('2d' [, { [ alpha: false ] } ] )

Returns a CanvasRenderingContext2D object that is permanently bound to a particular canvas element.

If the alpha setting is provided and set to false, then the canvas is forced to always be opaque.

context . canvas

Returns the canvas element.

A CanvasRenderingContext2D object has an output bitmap that is initialized when the object is created.

The output bitmap has an origin-clean flag, which can be set to true or false. Initially, when one of these bitmaps is created, its origin-clean flag must be set to true.

The CanvasRenderingContext2D object also has an alpha flag, which can be set to true or false. Initially, when the context is created, its alpha flag must be set to true. When a CanvasRenderingContext2D object has its alpha flag set to false, then its alpha channel must be fixed to 1.0 (fully opaque) for all pixels, and attempts to change the alpha component of any pixel must be silently ignored.

Thus, the bitmap of such a context starts off as fully-opaque black instead of transparent black; clearRect() always results in fully-opaque black pixels, every fourth byte from getImageData() is always 255, the putImageData() method effectively ignores every fourth byte in its input, and so on. However, the alpha component of styles and images drawn onto the canvas are still honoured up to the point where they would impact the output bitmap's alpha channel; for instance, drawing a 50% transparent white square on a freshly created output bitmap with its alpha flag set to false will result in a fully-opaque gray square.


The CanvasRenderingContext2D 2D rendering context represents a flat linear Cartesian surface whose origin (0,0) is at the top left corner, with the coordinate space having x values increasing when going right, and y values increasing when going down. The x-coordinate of the right-most edge is equal to the width of the rendering context's output bitmap in CSS pixels; similarly, the y-coordinate of the bottom-most edge is equal to the height of the rendering context's output bitmap in CSS pixels.

The size of the coordinate space does not necessarily represent the size of the actual bitmaps that the user agent will use internally or during rendering. On high-definition displays, for instance, the user agent may internally use bitmaps with four device pixels per unit in the coordinate space, so that the rendering remains at high quality throughout. Anti-aliasing can similarly be implemented using oversampling with bitmaps of a higher resolution than the final image on the display.

Using CSS pixels to describe the size of a rendering context's output bitmap does not mean that when rendered the canvas will cover an equivalent area in CSS pixels. CSS pixels are reused for ease of integration with CSS features, such as text layout.

In other words, the canvas element below's rendering context has a 200x200 output bitmap (which internally uses CSS pixels as a unit for ease of integration with CSS) and is rendered as 100x100 CSS pixels:

<canvas width=200 height=200 style=width:100px;height:100px>

The 2D context creation algorithm, which is passed a target (a canvas element) and optionally some arguments, consists of running the following steps:

  1. If the algorithm was passed some arguments, then let arg be the first such argument. Otherwise, let arg be undefined.

  2. Let settings be the result of coercing the arg context arguments for 2D.

  3. Create a new CanvasRenderingContext2D object.

  4. Initialize its canvas attribute to point to target.

  5. Let the new CanvasRenderingContext2D object's output bitmap be the same bitmap as target's bitmap (so that they are shared).

  6. Set bitmap dimensions to the numeric values of target's width and height content attributes.

  7. Process each of the members of settings as follows:

    alpha
    If false, then set the new CanvasRenderingContext2D object's alpha flag to false.
  8. Return the new CanvasRenderingContext2D object.



When a user agent is required to coerce context arguments for 2D, it must run these steps:

  1. Let input be the argument to coerce.

  2. Let jsval be the result of converting input to a JavaScript value. (This can throw an exception.)

  3. Let dict be the result of converting jsval to the dictionary type CanvasRenderingContext2DSettings. (This can throw an exception.)

  4. Return dict.


When the user agent is to set bitmap dimensions to width and height, it must run these steps:

  1. Reset the rendering context to its default state.

  2. Resize the output bitmap to the new width and height and clear it to transparent black.

  3. Let canvas be the canvas element to which the rendering context's canvas attribute was initialized.

  4. If the numeric value of canvas's width content attribute differs from width, then set canvas's width content attribute to the shortest possible string representing width as a valid non-negative integer.

  5. If the numeric value of canvas's height content attribute differs from height, then set canvas's height content attribute to the shortest possible string representing height as a valid non-negative integer.

Only one square appears to be drawn in the following example:

// canvas is a reference to a <canvas> element
var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
context.fillRect(0,0,50,50);
canvas.setAttribute('width', '300'); // clears the canvas
context.fillRect(0,100,50,50);
canvas.width = canvas.width; // clears the canvas
context.fillRect(100,0,50,50); // only this square remains

When the user agent is to run the unbinding steps for a rendering context, it must run these steps:

  1. Reset the rendering context to its default state.

  2. Clear the CanvasRenderingContext2D object's output bitmap to transparent black.

  3. Set the CanvasRenderingContext2D object's origin-clean flag to true.

  4. Let the CanvasRenderingContext2D object have no output bitmap.

When the user agent is to run the binding steps to bind the rendering context to the canvas element target, it must run these steps:

  1. Reset the rendering context to its default state.

  2. Resize the CanvasRenderingContext2D object's output bitmap to the dimensions of target's bitmap and clear it to transparent black.

  3. Set the CanvasRenderingContext2D object's origin-clean flag to true.

  4. Let the CanvasRenderingContext2D object's output bitmap be target's bitmap.


The canvas attribute must return the value it was initialized to when the object was created.


Whenever the CSS value currentColor is used as a color in the CanvasRenderingContext2D API, the computed value of the currentColor keyword is the computed value of the 'color' property on the canvas element at the time that the color is specified (e.g. when the appropriate attribute is set, or when the method is called; not when the color is rendered or otherwise used). If the computed value of the 'color' property is undefined for a particular case (e.g. because the element is not in a document), then the computed value of the 'color' property for the purposes of determining the computed value of the currentColor keyword is fully opaque black. [CSSCOLOR]

In the case of addColorStop() on CanvasGradient, the "computed value of the 'color' property" for the purposes of determining the computed value of the currentColor keyword is always fully opaque black (there is no associated element). [CSSCOLOR]

This is because CanvasGradient objects are canvas-neutral — a CanvasGradient object created by one canvas can be used by another, and there is therefore no way to know which is the "element in question" at the time that the color is specified.

Similar concerns exist with font-related properties; the rules for those are described in detail in the relevant section below.


The CanvasFillRule enumeration is used to select the fill rule algorithm by which to determine if a point is inside or outside a path.

The value "nonzero" value indicates the nonzero winding rule, wherein a point is considered to be outside a shape if the number of times a half-infinite straight line drawn from that point crosses the shape's path going in one direction is equal to the number of times it crosses the path going in the other direction.

The "evenodd" value indicates the even-odd rule, wherein a point is considered to be outside a shape if the number of times a half-infinite straight line drawn from that point crosses the shape's path is even.

If a point is not outside a shape, it is inside the shape.


The ImageSmoothingQuality enumeration is used to express a preference for the interpolation quality to use when smoothing images.

The "low" value indicates a preference for a low level of image interpolation quality. Low-quality image interpolation may be more computationally efficient than higher settings.

The "medium" value indicates a preference for a medium level of image interpolation quality.

The "high" value indicates a preference for a high level of image interpolation quality. High-quality image interpolation may be more computationally expensive than lower settings.

Bilinear scaling is an example of a relatively fast, lower-quality image-smoothing algorithm. Bicubic or Lanczos scaling are examples of image-smoothing algorithms that produce higher-quality output. This specification does not mandate that specific interpolation algorithms be used.

4.12.5.1.1 Implementation notes

This section is non-normative.

The output bitmap, when it is not directly displayed by the user agent, implementations can, instead of updating this bitmap, merely remember the sequence of drawing operations that have been applied to it until such time as the bitmap's actual data is needed (for example because of a call to drawImage(), or the createImageBitmap() factory method). In many cases, this will be more memory efficient.

The bitmap of a canvas element is the one bitmap that's pretty much always going to be needed in practice. The output bitmap of a rendering context, when it has one, is always just an alias to a canvas element's bitmap.

Additional bitmaps are sometimes needed, e.g. to enable fast drawing when the canvas is being painted at a different size than its intrinsic size, or to enable double buffering so that graphics updates, like page scrolling for example, can be processed concurrently while canvas draw commands are being executed.

4.12.5.1.2 The canvas state

Objects that implement the CanvasState interface maintain a stack of drawing states. Drawing states consist of:

The current default path and the rendering context's bitmaps are not part of the drawing state. The current default path is persistent, and can only be reset using the beginPath() method. The bitmaps depend on whether and how the rendering context is bound to a canvas element.

context . save()

Pushes the current state onto the stack.

context . restore()

Pops the top state on the stack, restoring the context to that state.

The save() method, when invoked, must push a copy of the current drawing state onto the drawing state stack.

The restore() method, when invoked, must pop the top entry in the drawing state stack, and reset the drawing state it describes. If there is no saved state, then the method must do nothing.

When the user agent is to reset the rendering context to its default state, it must clear the drawing state stack and everything that drawing state consists of to initial values.

4.12.5.1.3 Line styles
context . lineWidth [ = value ]
styles . lineWidth [ = value ]

Returns the current line width.

Can be set, to change the line width. Values that are not finite values greater than zero are ignored.

context . lineCap [ = value ]
styles . lineCap [ = value ]

Returns the current line cap style.

Can be set, to change the line cap style.

The possible line cap styles are "butt", "round", and "square". Other values are ignored.

context . lineJoin [ = value ]
styles . lineJoin [ = value ]

Returns the current line join style.

Can be set, to change the line join style.

The possible line join styles are "bevel", "round", and "miter". Other values are ignored.

context . miterLimit [ = value ]
styles . miterLimit [ = value ]

Returns the current miter limit ratio.

Can be set, to change the miter limit ratio. Values that are not finite values greater than zero are ignored.

context . setLineDash(segments)
styles . setLineDash(segments)

Sets the current line dash pattern (as used when stroking). The argument is a list of distances for which to alternately have the line on and the line off.

segments = context . getLineDash()
segments = styles . getLineDash()

Returns a copy of the current line dash pattern. The array returned will always have an even number of entries (i.e. the pattern is normalized).

context . lineDashOffset
styles . lineDashOffset

Returns the phase offset (in the same units as the line dash pattern).

Can be set, to change the phase offset. Values that are not finite values are ignored.

Objects that implement the CanvasPathDrawingStyles interface have attributes and methods (defined in this section) that control how lines are treated by the object.

The lineWidth attribute gives the width of lines, in coordinate space units. On getting, it must return the current value. On setting, zero, negative, infinite, and NaN values must be ignored, leaving the value unchanged; other values must change the current value to the new value.

When the object implementing the CanvasPathDrawingStyles interface is created, the lineWidth attribute must initially have the value 1.0.


The lineCap attribute defines the type of endings that UAs will place on the end of lines. The three valid values are "butt", "round", and "square".

On getting, it must return the current value. On setting, the current value must be changed to the new value.

When the object implementing the CanvasPathDrawingStyles interface is created, the lineCap attribute must initially have the value "butt".


The lineJoin attribute defines the type of corners that UAs will place where two lines meet. The three valid values are "bevel", "round", and "miter".

On getting, it must return the current value. On setting, the current value must be changed to the new value.

When the object implementing the CanvasPathDrawingStyles interface is created, the lineJoin attribute must initially have the value "miter".


When the lineJoin attribute has the value "miter", strokes use the miter limit ratio to decide how to render joins. The miter limit ratio can be explicitly set using the miterLimit attribute. On getting, it must return the current value. On setting, zero, negative, infinite, and NaN values must be ignored, leaving the value unchanged; other values must change the current value to the new value.

When the object implementing the CanvasPathDrawingStyles interface is created, the miterLimit attribute must initially have the value 10.0.


Each CanvasPathDrawingStyles object has a dash list, which is either empty or consists of an even number of non-negative numbers. Initially, the dash list must be empty.

The setLineDash() method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. Let a be the argument.

  2. If any value in a is not finite (e.g. an Infinity or a NaN value), or if any value is negative (less than zero), then return (without throwing an exception; user agents could show a message on a developer console, though, as that would be helpful for debugging).

  3. If the number of elements in a is odd, then let a be the concatenation of two copies of a.

  4. Let the object's dash list be a.

When the getLineDash() method is invoked, it must return a sequence whose values are the values of the object's dash list, in the same order.

It is sometimes useful to change the "phase" of the dash pattern, e.g. to achieve a "marching ants" effect. The phase can be set using the lineDashOffset attribute. On getting, it must return the current value. On setting, infinite and NaN values must be ignored, leaving the value unchanged; other values must change the current value to the new value.

When the object implementing the CanvasPathDrawingStyles interface is created, the lineDashOffset attribute must initially have the value 0.0.


When a user agent is to trace a path, given an object style that implements the CanvasPathDrawingStyles interface, it must run the following algorithm. This algorithm returns a new path.

  1. Let path be a copy of the path being traced.

  2. Prune all zero-length line segments from path.

  3. Remove from path any subpaths containing no lines (i.e. subpaths with just one point).

  4. Replace each point in each subpath of path other than the first point and the last point of each subpath by a join that joins the line leading to that point to the line leading out of that point, such that the subpaths all consist of two points (a starting point with a line leading out of it, and an ending point with a line leading into it), one or more lines (connecting the points and the joins), and zero or more joins (each connecting one line to another), connected together such that each subpath is a series of one or more lines with a join between each one and a point on each end.

  5. Add a straight closing line to each closed subpath in path connecting the last point and the first point of that subpath; change the last point to a join (from the previously last line to the newly added closing line), and change the first point to a join (from the newly added closing line to the first line).

  6. If the styles dash list is empty, then jump to the step labeled convert.

  7. Let pattern width be the concatenation of all the entries of the styles dash list, in coordinate space units.

  8. For each subpath subpath in path, run the following substeps. These substeps mutate the subpaths in path in vivo.

    1. Let subpath width be the length of all the lines of subpath, in coordinate space units.

    2. Let offset be the value of the styles lineDashOffset, in coordinate space units.

    3. While offset is greater than pattern width, decrement it by pattern width.

      While offset is less than zero, increment it by pattern width.

    4. Define L to be a linear coordinate line defined along all lines in subpath, such that the start of the first line in the subpath is defined as coordinate 0, and the end of the last line in the subpath is defined as coordinate subpath width.

    5. Let position be zero minus offset.

    6. Let index be 0.

    7. Let current state be off (the other states being on and zero-on).

    8. Dash on: Let segment length be the value of the styles dash list's indexth entry.

    9. Increment position by segment length.

    10. If position is greater than subpath width, then end these substeps for this subpath and start them again for the next subpath; if there are no more subpaths, then jump to the step labeled convert instead.

    11. If segment length is nonzero, then let current state be on.

    12. Increment index by one.

    13. Dash off: Let segment length be the value of the styles dash list's indexth entry.

    14. Let start be the offset position on L.

    15. Increment position by segment length.

    16. If position is less than zero, then jump to the step labeled post-cut.

    17. If start is less than zero, then let start be zero.

    18. If position is greater than subpath width, then let end be the offset subpath width on L. Otherwise, let end be the offset position on L.

    19. Jump to the first appropriate step:

      If segment length is zero and current state is off

      Do nothing, just continue to the next step.

      If current state is off

      Cut the line on which end finds itself short at end and place a point there, cutting in two the subpath that it was in; remove all line segments, joins, points, and subpaths that are between start and end; and finally place a single point at start with no lines connecting to it.

      The point has a directionality for the purposes of drawing line caps (see below). The directionality is the direction that the original line had at that point (i.e. when L was defined above).

      Otherwise

      Cut the line on which start finds itself into two at start and place a point there, cutting in two the subpath that it was in, and similarly cut the line on which end finds itself short at end and place a point there, cutting in two the subpath that it was in, and then remove all line segments, joins, points, and subpaths that are between start and end.

      If start and end are the same point, then this results in just the line being cut in two and two points being inserted there, with nothing being removed, unless a join also happens to be at that point, in which case the join must be removed.

    20. Post-cut: If position is greater than subpath width, then jump to the step labeled convert.

    21. If segment length is greater than zero, then let positioned-at-on-dash be false.

    22. Increment index by one. If it is equal to the number of entries in the styles dash list, then let index be 0.

    23. Return to the step labeled dash on.

  9. Convert: This is the step that converts the path to a new path that represents its stroke.

    Create a new path that describes the edge of the areas that would be covered if a straight line of length equal to the styles lineWidth was swept along each subpath in path while being kept at an angle such that the line is orthogonal to the path being swept, replacing each point with the end cap necessary to satisfy the styles lineCap attribute as described previously and elaborated below, and replacing each join with the join necessary to satisfy the styles lineJoin type, as defined below.

    Caps: Each point has a flat edge perpendicular to the direction of the line coming out of it. This is then augmented according to the value of the styles lineCap. The "butt" value means that no additional line cap is added. The "round" value means that a semi-circle with the diameter equal to the styles lineWidth width must additionally be placed on to the line coming out of each point. The "square" value means that a rectangle with the length of the styles lineWidth width and the width of half the styles lineWidth width, placed flat against the edge perpendicular to the direction of the line coming out of the point, must be added at each point.

    Points with no lines coming out of them must have two caps placed back-to-back as if it was really two points connected to each other by an infinitesimally short straight line in the direction of the point's directionality (as defined above).

    Joins: In addition to the point where a join occurs, two additional points are relevant to each join, one for each line: the two corners found half the line width away from the join point, one perpendicular to each line, each on the side furthest from the other line.

    A triangle connecting these two opposite corners with a straight line, with the third point of the triangle being the join point, must be added at all joins. The lineJoin attribute controls whether anything else is rendered. The three aforementioned values have the following meanings:

    The "bevel" value means that this is all that is rendered at joins.

    The "round" value means that an arc connecting the two aforementioned corners of the join, abutting (and not overlapping) the aforementioned triangle, with the diameter equal to the line width and the origin at the point of the join, must be added at joins.

    The "miter" value means that a second triangle must (if it can given the miter length) be added at the join, with one line being the line between the two aforementioned corners, abutting the first triangle, and the other two being continuations of the outside edges of the two joining lines, as long as required to intersect without going over the miter length.

    The miter length is the distance from the point where the join occurs to the intersection of the line edges on the outside of the join. The miter limit ratio is the maximum allowed ratio of the miter length to half the line width. If the miter length would cause the miter limit ratio (as set by the style miterLimit attribute) to be exceeded, then this second triangle must not be added.

    The subpaths in the newly created path must be oriented such that for any point, the number of times a half-infinite straight line drawn from that point crosses a subpath is even if and only if the number of times a half-infinite straight line drawn from that same point crosses a subpath going in one direction is equal to the number of times it crosses a subpath going in the other direction.

  10. Return the newly created path.

4.12.5.1.4 Text styles
context . font [ = value ]
styles . font [ = value ]

Returns the current font settings.

Can be set, to change the font. The syntax is the same as for the CSS 'font' property; values that cannot be parsed as CSS font values are ignored.

Relative keywords and lengths are computed relative to the font of the canvas element.

context . textAlign [ = value ]
styles . textAlign [ = value ]

Returns the current text alignment settings.

Can be set, to change the alignment. The possible values are and their meanings are given below. Other values are ignored. The default is "start".

context . textBaseline [ = value ]
styles . textBaseline [ = value ]

Returns the current baseline alignment settings.

Can be set, to change the baseline alignment. The possible values and their meanings are given below. Other values are ignored. The default is "alphabetic".

context . direction [ = value ]
styles . direction [ = value ]

Returns the current directionality.

Can be set, to change the directionality. The possible values and their meanings are given below. Other values are ignored. The default is "inherit".

Objects that implement the CanvasTextDrawingStyles interface have attributes (defined in this section) that control how text is laid out (rasterized or outlined) by the object. Such objects can also have a font style source object. For CanvasRenderingContext2D objects, this is the canvas element referenced by the context's canvas property.

The font IDL attribute, on setting, must be parsed as a CSS <'font'> value (but without supporting property-independent style sheet syntax like 'inherit'), and the resulting font must be assigned to the context, with the 'line-height' component forced to 'normal', with the 'font-size' component converted to CSS pixels, and with system fonts being computed to explicit values. If the new value is syntactically incorrect (including using property-independent style sheet syntax like 'inherit' or 'initial'), then it must be ignored, without assigning a new font value. [CSS]

Font family names must be interpreted in the context of the font style source object when the font is to be used; any fonts embedded using @font-face or loaded using FontFace objects that are visible to the font style source object must therefore be available once they are loaded. (Each font style source object has a font source, which determines what fonts are available.) If a font is used before it is fully loaded, or if the font style source object does not have that font in scope at the time the font is to be used, then it must be treated as if it was an unknown font, falling back to another as described by the relevant CSS specifications. [CSSFONTS] [CSSFONTLOAD]

On getting, the font attribute must return the serialized form of the current font of the context (with no 'line-height' component). [CSSOM]

For example, after the following statement:

context.font = 'italic 400 12px/2 Unknown Font, sans-serif';

...the expression context.font would evaluate to the string "italic 12px "Unknown Font", sans-serif". The "400" font-weight doesn't appear because that is the default value. The line-height doesn't appear because it is forced to "normal", the default value.

When the object implementing the CanvasTextDrawingStyles interface is created, the font of the context must be set to 10px sans-serif. When the 'font-size' component is set to lengths using percentages, 'em' or 'ex' units, or the 'larger' or 'smaller' keywords, these must be interpreted relative to the computed value of the 'font-size' property of the font style source object at the time that the attribute is set, if it is an element. When the 'font-weight' component is set to the relative values 'bolder' and 'lighter', these must be interpreted relative to the computed value of the 'font-weight' property of the font style source object at the time that the attribute is set, if it is an element. If the computed values are undefined for a particular case (e.g. because the font style source object is not an element or is not being rendered), then the relative keywords must be interpreted relative to the normal-weight 10px sans-serif default.

The textAlign IDL attribute, on getting, must return the current value. On setting, the current value must be changed to the new value. When the object implementing the CanvasTextDrawingStyles interface is created, the textAlign attribute must initially have the value start.

The textBaseline IDL attribute, on getting, must return the current value. On setting, the current value must be changed to the new value. When the object implementing the CanvasTextDrawingStyles interface is created, the textBaseline attribute must initially have the value alphabetic.

The direction IDL attribute, on getting, must return the current value. On setting, the current value must be changed to the new value. When the object implementing the CanvasTextDrawingStyles interface is created, the direction attribute must initially have the value "inherit".

The textAlign attribute's allowed keywords are as follows:

start

Align to the start edge of the text (left side in left-to-right text, right side in right-to-left text).

end

Align to the end edge of the text (right side in left-to-right text, left side in right-to-left text).

left

Align to the left.

right

Align to the right.

center

Align to the center.

The textBaseline attribute's allowed keywords correspond to alignment points in the font:

The top of the em square is roughly at the top of the glyphs in a font, the hanging baseline is where some glyphs like आ are anchored, the middle is half-way between the top of the em square and the bottom of the em square, the alphabetic baseline is where characters like Á, ÿ, f, and Ω are anchored, the ideographic baseline is where glyphs like 私 and 達 are anchored, and the bottom of the em square is roughly at the bottom of the glyphs in a font. The top and bottom of the bounding box can be far from these baselines, due to glyphs extending far outside the em square.

The keywords map to these alignment points as follows:

top
The top of the em square
hanging
The hanging baseline
middle
The middle of the em square
alphabetic
The alphabetic baseline
ideographic
The ideographic baseline
bottom
The bottom of the em square

The direction attribute's allowed keywords are as follows:

ltr

Treat input to the text preparation algorithm as left-to-right text.

rtl

Treat input to the text preparation algorithm as right-to-left text.

inherit

Default to the directionality of the canvas element or Document as appropriate.

The text preparation algorithm is as follows. It takes as input a string text , a CanvasTextDrawingStyles object target, and an optional length maxWidth. It returns an array of glyph shapes, each positioned on a common coordinate space, a physical alignment whose value is one of left, right, and center, and an inline box. (Most callers of this algorithm ignore the physical alignment and the inline box.)

  1. If maxWidth was provided but is less than or equal to zero or equal to NaN, then return an empty array.

  2. Replace all ASCII whitespace in text with U+0020 SPACE characters.

  3. Let font be the current font of target, as given by that object's font attribute.

  4. Apply the appropriate step from the following list to determine the value of direction:

    If the target object's direction attribute has the value "ltr"
    Let direction be 'ltr'.
    If the target object's direction attribute has the value "rtl"
    Let direction be 'rtl'.
    If the target object's font style source object is an element
    Let direction be the directionality of the target object's font style source object.
    If the target object's font style source object is a Document with a non-null document element
    Let direction be the directionality of the target object's font style source object's document element.
    Otherwise
    Let direction be 'ltr'.
  5. Form a hypothetical infinitely-wide CSS line box containing a single inline box containing the text text, with all the properties at their initial values except the 'font' property of the inline box set to font, the 'direction' property of the inline box set to direction, and the 'white-space' property set to 'pre'. [CSS]

  6. If maxWidth was provided and the hypothetical width of the inline box in the hypothetical line box is greater than maxWidth CSS pixels, then change font to have a more condensed font (if one is available or if a reasonably readable one can be synthesized by applying a horizontal scale factor to the font) or a smaller font, and return to the previous step.

  7. The anchor point is a point on the inline box, and the physical alignment is one of the values left, right, and center. These variables are determined by the textAlign and textBaseline values as follows:

    Horizontal position:

    If textAlign is left
    If textAlign is start and direction is 'ltr'
    If textAlign is end and direction is 'rtl'
    Let the anchor point's horizontal position be the left edge of the inline box, and let physical alignment be left.
    If textAlign is right
    If textAlign is end and direction is 'ltr'
    If textAlign is start and direction is 'rtl'
    Let the anchor point's horizontal position be the right edge of the inline box, and let physical alignment be right.
    If textAlign is center
    Let the anchor point's horizontal position be half way between the left and right edges of the inline box, and let physical alignment be center.

    Vertical position:

    If textBaseline is top
    Let the anchor point's vertical position be the top of the em box of the first available font of the inline box.
    If textBaseline is hanging
    Let the anchor point's vertical position be the hanging baseline of the first available font of the inline box.
    If textBaseline is middle
    Let the anchor point's vertical position be half way between the bottom and the top of the em box of the first available font of the inline box.
    If textBaseline is alphabetic
    Let the anchor point's vertical position be the alphabetic baseline of the first available font of the inline box.
    If textBaseline is ideographic
    Let the anchor point's vertical position be the ideographic baseline of the first available font of the inline box.
    If textBaseline is bottom
    Let the anchor point's vertical position be the bottom of the em box of the first available font of the inline box.
  8. Let result be an array constructed by iterating over each glyph in the inline box from left to right (if any), adding to the array, for each glyph, the shape of the glyph as it is in the inline box, positioned on a coordinate space using CSS pixels with its origin is at the anchor point.

  9. Return result, physical alignment, and the inline box.

4.12.5.1.5 Building paths

Objects that implement the CanvasPath interface have a path. A path has a list of zero or more subpaths. Each subpath consists of a list of one or more points, connected by straight or curved line segments, and a flag indicating whether the subpath is closed or not. A closed subpath is one where the last point of the subpath is connected to the first point of the subpath by a straight line. Subpaths with only one point are ignored when painting the path.

Paths have a need new subpath flag. When this flag is set, certain APIs create a new subpath rather than extending the previous one. When a path is created, its need new subpath flag must be set.

When an object implementing the CanvasPath interface is created, its path must be initialized to zero subpaths.

context . moveTo(x, y)
path . moveTo(x, y)

Creates a new subpath with the given point.

context . closePath()
path . closePath()

Marks the current subpath as closed, and starts a new subpath with a point the same as the start and end of the newly closed subpath.

context . lineTo(x, y)
path . lineTo(x, y)

Adds the given point to the current subpath, connected to the previous one by a straight line.

context . quadraticCurveTo(cpx, cpy, x, y)
path . quadraticCurveTo(cpx, cpy, x, y)

Adds the given point to the current subpath, connected to the previous one by a quadratic Bézier curve with the given control point.

context . bezierCurveTo(cp1x, cp1y, cp2x, cp2y, x, y)
path . bezierCurveTo(cp1x, cp1y, cp2x, cp2y, x, y)

Adds the given point to the current subpath, connected to the previous one by a cubic Bézier curve with the given control points.

context . arcTo(x1, y1, x2, y2, radiusX [, radiusY, rotation ] )
path . arcTo(x1, y1, x2, y2, radiusX [, radiusY, rotation ] )

Adds an arc with the given control points and radius to the current subpath, connected to the previous point by a straight line.

If two radii are provided, then the first controls the width of the arc's ellipse, and the second controls the height. If only one is provided, or if they are the same, then the arc is from a circle. In the case of an ellipse, the rotation argument controls the clockwise inclination of the ellipse relative to the x-axis.

Throws an "IndexSizeError" DOMException if the given radius is negative.

context . arc(x, y, radius, startAngle, endAngle [, anticlockwise ] )
path . arc(x, y, radius, startAngle, endAngle [, anticlockwise ] )

Adds points to the subpath such that the arc described by the circumference of the circle described by the arguments, starting at the given start angle and ending at the given end angle, going in the given direction (defaulting to clockwise), is added to the path, connected to the previous point by a straight line.

Throws an "IndexSizeError" DOMException if the given radius is negative.

context . ellipse(x, y, radiusX, radiusY, rotation, startAngle, endAngle [, anticlockwise] )
path . ellipse(x, y, radiusX, radiusY, rotation, startAngle, endAngle [, anticlockwise] )

Adds points to the subpath such that the arc described by the circumference of the ellipse described by the arguments, starting at the given start angle and ending at the given end angle, going in the given direction (defaulting to clockwise), is added to the path, connected to the previous point by a straight line.

Throws an "IndexSizeError" DOMException if the given radius is negative.

context . rect(x, y, w, h)
path . rect(x, y, w, h)

Adds a new closed subpath to the path, representing the given rectangle.

The following methods allow authors to manipulate the paths of objects implementing the CanvasPath interface.

For objects implementing the CanvasDrawPath and CanvasTransform interfaces, the points passed to the methods, and the resulting lines added to current default path by these methods, must be transformed according to the current transformation matrix before being added to the path.

The moveTo(x, y) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If either of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Create a new subpath with the specified point as its first (and only) point.

When the user agent is to ensure there is a subpath for a coordinate (x, y) on a path, the user agent must check to see if the path has its need new subpath flag set. If it does, then the user agent must create a new subpath with the point (x, y) as its first (and only) point, as if the moveTo() method had been called, and must then unset the path's need new subpath flag.

The closePath() method, when invoked, must do nothing if the object's path has no subpaths. Otherwise, it must mark the last subpath as closed, create a new subpath whose first point is the same as the previous subpath's first point, and finally add this new subpath to the path.

If the last subpath had more than one point in its list of points, then this is equivalent to adding a straight line connecting the last point back to the first point, thus "closing" the shape, and then repeating the last (possibly implied) moveTo() call.

New points and the lines connecting them are added to subpaths using the methods described below. In all cases, the methods only modify the last subpath in the object's path.

The lineTo(x, y) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If either of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. If the object's path has no subpaths, then ensure there is a subpath for (x, y).

  3. Otherwise, connect the last point in the subpath to the given point (x, y) using a straight line, and then add the given point (x, y) to the subpath.

The quadraticCurveTo(cpx, cpy, x, y) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Ensure there is a subpath for (cpx, cpy)

  3. Connect the last point in the subpath to the given point (x, y) using a quadratic Bézier curve with control point (cpx, cpy). [BEZIER]

  4. Add the given point (x, y) to the subpath.

The bezierCurveTo(cp1x, cp1y, cp2x, cp2y, x, y) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Ensure there is a subpath for (cp1x, cp1y).

  3. Connect the last point in the subpath to the given point (x, y) using a cubic Bézier curve with control points (cp1x, cp1y) and (cp2x, cp2y). [BEZIER]

  4. Add the point (x, y) to the subpath.


The arcTo(x1, y1, x2, y2, radiusX, radiusY, rotation) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Ensure there is a subpath for (x1, y1).

  3. If either radiusX or radiusY are negative, then throw an "IndexSizeError" DOMException.

  4. If radiusY is omitted, then set radiusY to radiusX.

  5. Let the point (x0, y0) be the last point in the subpath, transformed by the inverse of the current transformation matrix (so that it is in the same coordinate system as the points passed to the method).

  6. If the point (x0, y0) is equal to the point (x1, y1), or if the point (x1, y1) is equal to the point (x2, y2), or if both radiusX and radiusY are zero, then add the point (x1, y1) to the subpath, and connect that point to the previous point (x0, y0) by a straight line.

  7. Otherwise, if the points (x0, y0), (x1, y1), and (x2, y2) all lie on a single straight line, then add the point (x1, y1) to the subpath, and connect that point to the previous point (x0, y0) by a straight line.

  8. Otherwise, let The Arc be the shortest arc given by circumference of the ellipse that has radius radiusX on the major axis and radius radiusY on the minor axis, and whose semi-major axis is rotated rotation radians clockwise from the positive x-axis, and that has one point tangent to the half-infinite line that crosses the point (x0, y0) and ends at the point (x1, y1), and that has a different point tangent to the half-infinite line that ends at the point (x1, y1) and crosses the point (x2, y2). The points at which this ellipse touches these two lines are called the start and end tangent points respectively. Connect the point (x0, y0) to the start tangent point by a straight line, adding the start tangent point to the subpath, and then connect the start tangent point to the end tangent point by The Arc, adding the end tangent point to the subpath.


The arc(x, y, radius, startAngle, endAngle, anticlockwise) and ellipse(x, y, radiusX, radiusY, rotation, startAngle, endAngle, anticlockwise) methods draw arcs.

The arc() method is equivalent to the ellipse() method in the case where the two radii are equal. When the arc() method is invoked, it must act as if the ellipse() method had been invoked with the radiusX and radiusY arguments set to the value of the radius argument, the rotation argument set to zero, and the other arguments set to the same values as their identically named arguments on the arc() method.

The ellipse() method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. If either radiusX or radiusY are negative, then throw an "IndexSizeError" DOMException.

  3. If the object's path has any subpaths, then add a straight line from the last point in the subpath to the start point of the arc.

  4. Add the start and end points of the arc to the subpath, and connect them with an arc. The arc and its start and end points are defined as follows:

    Consider an ellipse that has its origin at (x, y), that has a major-axis radius radiusX and a minor-axis radius radiusY, and that is rotated about its origin such that its semi-major axis is inclined rotation radians clockwise from the x-axis.

    If anticlockwise is false and endAngle-startAngle is equal to or greater than , or, if anticlockwise is true and startAngle-endAngle is equal to or greater than , then the arc is the whole circumference of this ellipse, and the point at startAngle along this circle's circumference, measured in radians clockwise from the ellipse's semi-major axis, acts as both the start point and the end point.

    Otherwise, the points at startAngle and endAngle along this circle's circumference, measured in radians clockwise from the ellipse's semi-major axis, are the start and end points respectively, and the arc is the path along the circumference of this ellipse from the start point to the end point, going anti-clockwise if anticlockwise is true, and clockwise otherwise. Since the points are on the ellipse, as opposed to being simply angles from zero, the arc can never cover an angle greater than radians.

    Even if the arc covers the entire circumference of the ellipse and there are no other points in the subpath, the path is not closed unless the closePath() method is appropriately invoked.


The rect(x, y, w, h) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Create a new subpath containing just the four points (x, y), (x+w, y), (x+w, y+h), (x, y+h), in that order, with those four points connected by straight lines.

  3. Mark the subpath as closed.

  4. Create a new subpath with the point (x, y) as the only point in the subpath.

4.12.5.1.6 Path2D objects

Support: path2dChrome for Android (limited) 62+Chrome 63+UC Browser for Android (limited) 11.4+iOS Safari 9.0+Firefox 48+IE NoneSamsung Internet (limited) 4+Opera Mini NoneSafari 9.1+Edge (limited) 14+Android Browser (limited) 62+Opera (limited) 23+

Source: caniuse.com

Path2D objects can be used to declare paths that are then later used on objects implementing the CanvasDrawPath interface. In addition to many of the APIs described in earlier sections, Path2D objects have methods to combine paths, and to add text to paths.

path = new Path2D()

Creates a new empty Path2D object.

path = new Path2D(path)

Creates a new Path2D object that is a copy of the argument.

path = new Path2D(paths [, fillRule ] )

Creates a new Path2D object that describes a path that outlines the given paths, using the given fill rule.

path = new Path2D(d)

Creates a new path with the path described by the argument, interpreted as SVG path data. [SVG]

path . addPath(path [, transform ] )

Adds to the path the path given by the argument.

The Path2D() constructor, when invoked, must return a newly created Path2D object.


The Path2D(path) constructor, when invoked, must return a newly created Path2D object, to which the subpaths of the argument are added. (In other words, it returns a copy of the argument.)


The Path2D(paths, fillRule) constructor, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. Run the appropriate step from the following list, based on the constructor's second argument:

    If it is "nonzero"

    Let merged path be a path that consists of a set of non-overlapping subpaths that exactly outline the points from which, in any of the paths provided in the constructor's first argument, the number of times a half-infinite straight line drawn from that point crosses a subpath going in one direction is not equal to the number of times it crosses a subpath going in the other direction.

    If it is "evenodd"

    Let merged path be a path that consists of a set of non-overlapping subpaths that exactly outline the points from which, in any of the paths provided in the constructor's first argument, the number of times a half-infinite straight line drawn from that point crosses that path is odd.

    The subpaths in merged path must be oriented such that for any point, the number of times a half-infinite straight line drawn from that point crosses a subpath is even if and only if the number of times a half-infinite straight line drawn from that same point crosses a subpath going in one direction is equal to the number of times it crosses a subpath going in the other direction.

  2. Add all the subpaths in merged path to the Path2D object.

  3. Set the Path2D object's need new subpath flag.


The Path2D(d) constructor, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. Parse and interpret the d argument according to the SVG specification's rules for path data, thus obtaining an SVG path. [SVG]

    The resulting path could be empty. SVG defines error handling rules for parsing and applying path data.

  2. Let (x, y) be the last point in the SVG path.

  3. Create a new Path2D object and add all the subpaths in the SVG path, if any, to that Path2D object.

  4. Create a new subpath in the Path2D object with (x, y) as the only point in the subpath.

  5. Return the Path2D object as the constructed object.


The addPath(b, transform) method, when invoked on a Path2D object a, must run these steps:

  1. If the Path2D object b has no subpaths, then return.

  2. Let matrix be the result of creating a DOMMatrix from the 2D dictionary transform.

  3. If one or more of matrix's m11 element, m12 element, m21 element, m22 element, m41 element, or m42 element are infinite or NaN, then return.

  4. Create a copy of all the subpaths in b. Let this copy be known as c.

  5. Transform all the coordinates and lines in c by the transform matrix matrix.

  6. Let (x, y) be the last point in the last subpath of c.

  7. Add all the subpaths in c to a.

  8. Create a new subpath in a with (x, y) as the only point in the subpath.

4.12.5.1.7 Transformations

Spec bugs: 28333

Objects that implement the CanvasTransform interface have a current transformation matrix, as well as methods (described in this section) to manipulate it. When an object implementing the CanvasTransform interface is created, its transformation matrix must be initialized to the identity transform.

The current transformation matrix is applied to coordinates when creating the current default path, and when painting text, shapes, and Path2D objects, on objects implementing the CanvasTransform interface.

Most of the API uses DOMMatrix objects rather than this API. This API remains mostly for historical reasons.

The transformations must be performed in reverse order.

For instance, if a scale transformation that doubles the width is applied to the canvas, followed by a rotation transformation that rotates drawing operations by a quarter turn, and a rectangle twice as wide as it is tall is then drawn on the canvas, the actual result will be a square.

context . scale(x, y)

Changes the current transformation matrix to apply a scaling transformation with the given characteristics.

context . rotate(angle)

Changes the current transformation matrix to apply a rotation transformation with the given characteristics. The angle is in radians.

context . translate(x, y)

Changes the current transformation matrix to apply a translation transformation with the given characteristics.

context . transform(a, b, c, d, e, f)

Changes the current transformation matrix to apply the matrix given by the arguments as described below.

matrix = context . getTransform()

Returns a copy of the current transformation matrix, as a newly created DOMMatrix object.

context . setTransform(a, b, c, d, e, f)

Changes the current transformation matrix to the matrix given by the arguments as described below.

context . setTransform(transform)

Changes the current transformation matrix to the matrix represented by the passed DOMMatrix2DInit dictionary.

context . resetTransform()

Changes the current transformation matrix to the identity transform.

The scale(x, y) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If either of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Add the scaling transformation described by the arguments to the current transformation matrix. The x argument represents the scale factor in the horizontal direction and the y argument represents the scale factor in the vertical direction. The factors are multiples.

The rotate(angle) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If angle is infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Add the rotation transformation described by the argument to the current transformation matrix. The angle argument represents a clockwise rotation angle expressed in radians.

The translate(x, y) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If either of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Add the translation transformation described by the arguments to the current transformation matrix. The x argument represents the translation distance in the horizontal direction and the y argument represents the translation distance in the vertical direction. The arguments are in coordinate space units.

The transform(a, b, c, d, e, f) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Replace the current transformation matrix with the result of multiplying the current transformation matrix with the matrix described by:

ace
bdf
001

The arguments a, b, c, d, e, and f are sometimes called m11, m12, m21, m22, dx, and dy or m11, m21, m12, m22, dx, and dy. Care ought to be taken in particular with the order of the second and third arguments (b and c) as their order varies from API to API and APIs sometimes use the notation m12/m21 and sometimes m21/m12 for those positions.

The getTransform() method, when invoked, must return a newly created DOMMatrix representing a copy of the current transformation matrix matrix of the context.

This returned object is not live, so updating it will not affect the current transformation matrix, and updating the current transformation matrix will not affect an already returned DOMMatrix.

The setTransform(a, b, c, d, e, f) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Reset the current transformation matrix to the identity matrix.

  3. Invoke the transform(a, b, c, d, e, f) method with the same arguments.

The setTransform(transform) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. Let matrix be the result of creating a DOMMatrix from the 2D dictionary transform.

  2. If one or more of matrix's m11 element, m12 element, m21 element, m22 element, m41 element, or m42 element are infinite or NaN, then return.

  3. Reset the current transformation matrix to matrix.

The resetTransform() method, when invoked, must reset the current transformation matrix to the identity matrix.

4.12.5.1.8 Image sources for 2D rendering contexts

Some methods on the CanvasDrawImage and CanvasFillStrokeStyles interfaces take the union type CanvasImageSource as an argument.

This union type allows objects implementing any of the following interfaces to be used as image sources:

Although not formally specified as such, SVG image elements are expected to be implemented nearly identical to img elements. That is, SVG image elements share the fundamental concepts and features of img elements.

The ImageBitmap interface can be created from a number of other image-representing types, including ImageData.

When a user agent is required to check the usability of the image argument, where image is a CanvasImageSource object, the user agent must run these steps, which return either good, bad, or aborted:

  1. If image is an HTMLOrSVGImageElement object whose current request's state is broken, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  2. If image is an HTMLOrSVGImageElement object that is not fully decodable, or if image is an HTMLVideoElement object whose readyState attribute is either HAVE_NOTHING or HAVE_METADATA, then return bad.

  3. If image is an HTMLOrSVGImageElement object with an intrinsic width or intrinsic height (or both) equal to zero, then return bad.

  4. If image is an HTMLCanvasElement object with either a horizontal dimension or a vertical dimension equal to zero, then return bad.

  5. If image is an ImageBitmap object with its [[Detached]] internal slot value set to true, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  6. Return good.

When a CanvasImageSource object represents an HTMLOrSVGImageElement, the element's image must be used as the source image.

Specifically, when a CanvasImageSource object represents an animated image in an HTMLOrSVGImageElement, the user agent must use the default image of the animation (the one that the format defines is to be used when animation is not supported or is disabled), or, if there is no such image, the first frame of the animation, when rendering the image for CanvasRenderingContext2D APIs.

When a CanvasImageSource object represents an HTMLVideoElement, then the frame at the current playback position when the method with the argument is invoked must be used as the source image when rendering the image for CanvasRenderingContext2D APIs, and the source image's dimensions must be the intrinsic width and intrinsic height of the media resource (i.e. after any aspect-ratio correction has been applied).

When a CanvasImageSource object represents an HTMLCanvasElement, the element's bitmap must be used as the source image.

When a CanvasImageSource object represents an element that is being rendered and that element has been resized, the original image data of the source image must be used, not the image as it is rendered (e.g. width and height attributes on the source element have no effect on how the object is interpreted when rendering the image for CanvasRenderingContext2D APIs).

When a CanvasImageSource object represents an ImageBitmap, the object's bitmap image data must be used as the source image.

The image argument is not origin-clean if it is an HTMLOrSVGImageElement or HTMLVideoElement whose origin is not the same as the origin specified by the entry settings object, or if it is an HTMLCanvasElement whose bitmap's origin-clean flag is false.

4.12.5.1.9 Fill and stroke styles
context . fillStyle [ = value ]

Returns the current style used for filling shapes.

Can be set, to change the fill style.

The style can be either a string containing a CSS color, or a CanvasGradient or CanvasPattern object. Invalid values are ignored.

context . strokeStyle [ = value ]

Returns the current style used for stroking shapes.

Can be set, to change the stroke style.

The style can be either a string containing a CSS color, or a CanvasGradient or CanvasPattern object. Invalid values are ignored.

Objects that implement the CanvasFillStrokeStyles interface have attributes and methods (defined in this section) that control how shapes are treated by the object.

The fillStyle attribute represents the color or style to use inside shapes, and the strokeStyle attribute represents the color or style to use for the lines around the shapes.

Both attributes can be either strings, CanvasGradients, or CanvasPatterns. On setting, strings must be parsed as CSS <color> values and the color assigned, and CanvasGradient and CanvasPattern objects must be assigned themselves. [CSSCOLOR] If the value is a string but cannot be parsed as a CSS <color> value, then it must be ignored, and the attribute must retain its previous value. If the new value is a CanvasPattern object that is marked as not origin-clean, then the CanvasRenderingContext2D's origin-clean flag must be set to false.

When set to a CanvasPattern or CanvasGradient object, the assignment is live, meaning that changes made to the object after the assignment do affect subsequent stroking or filling of shapes.

On getting, if the value is a color, then the serialization of the color must be returned. Otherwise, if it is not a color but a CanvasGradient or CanvasPattern, then the respective object must be returned. (Such objects are opaque and therefore only useful for assigning to other attributes or for comparison to other gradients or patterns.)

The serialization of a color for a color value is a string, computed as follows: if it has alpha equal to 1.0, then the string is a lowercase six-digit hex value, prefixed with a "#" character (U+0023 NUMBER SIGN), with the first two digits representing the red component, the next two digits representing the green component, and the last two digits representing the blue component, the digits being ASCII lower hex digits. Otherwise, the color value has alpha less than 1.0, and the string is the color value in the CSS rgba() functional-notation format: the literal string "rgba" (U+0072 U+0067 U+0062 U+0061) followed by a U+0028 LEFT PARENTHESIS, a base-ten integer in the range 0-255 representing the red component (using ASCII digits in the shortest form possible), a literal U+002C COMMA and U+0020 SPACE, an integer for the green component, a comma and a space, an integer for the blue component, another comma and space, a U+0030 DIGIT ZERO, if the alpha value is greater than zero then a U+002E FULL STOP (representing the decimal point), if the alpha value is greater than zero then one or more ASCII digits representing the fractional part of the alpha, and finally a U+0029 RIGHT PARENTHESIS. User agents must express the fractional part of the alpha value, if any, with the level of precision necessary for the alpha value, when reparsed, to be interpreted as the same alpha value.

When the context is created, the fillStyle and strokeStyle attributes must initially have the string value #000000.

When the value is a color, it must not be affected by the transformation matrix when used to draw on bitmaps.


There are two types of gradients, linear gradients and radial gradients, both represented by objects implementing the opaque CanvasGradient interface.

Once a gradient has been created (see below), stops are placed along it to define how the colors are distributed along the gradient. The color of the gradient at each stop is the color specified for that stop. Between each such stop, the colors and the alpha component must be linearly interpolated over the RGBA space without premultiplying the alpha value to find the color to use at that offset. Before the first stop, the color must be the color of the first stop. After the last stop, the color must be the color of the last stop. When there are no stops, the gradient is transparent black.

gradient . addColorStop(offset, color)

Adds a color stop with the given color to the gradient at the given offset. 0.0 is the offset at one end of the gradient, 1.0 is the offset at the other end.

Throws an "IndexSizeError" DOMException if the offset is out of range. Throws a "SyntaxError" DOMException if the color cannot be parsed.

gradient = context . createLinearGradient(x0, y0, x1, y1)

Returns a CanvasGradient object that represents a linear gradient that paints along the line given by the coordinates represented by the arguments.

gradient = context . createRadialGradient(x0, y0, r0, x1, y1, r1)

Returns a CanvasGradient object that represents a radial gradient that paints along the cone given by the circles represented by the arguments.

If either of the radii are negative, throws an "IndexSizeError" DOMException exception.

The addColorStop(offset, color) method on the CanvasGradient interface adds a new stop to a gradient. If the offset is less than 0 or greater than 1 then an "IndexSizeError" DOMException must be thrown. If the color cannot be parsed as a CSS <color> value, then a "SyntaxError" DOMException must be thrown. Otherwise, the gradient must have a new stop placed, at offset offset relative to the whole gradient, and with the color obtained by parsing color as a CSS <color> value. If multiple stops are added at the same offset on a gradient, then they must be placed in the order added, with the first one closest to the start of the gradient, and each subsequent one infinitesimally further along towards the end point (in effect causing all but the first and last stop added at each point to be ignored).

The createLinearGradient(x0, y0, x1, y1) method takes four arguments that represent the start point (x0, y0) and end point (x1, y1) of the gradient. The method, when invoked, must return a linear CanvasGradient initialized with the specified line.

Linear gradients must be rendered such that all points on a line perpendicular to the line that crosses the start and end points have the color at the point where those two lines cross (with the colors coming from the interpolation and extrapolation described above). The points in the linear gradient must be transformed as described by the current transformation matrix when rendering.

If x0 = x1 and y0 = y1, then the linear gradient must paint nothing.

The createRadialGradient(x0, y0, r0, x1, y1, r1) method takes six arguments, the first three representing the start circle with origin (x0, y0) and radius r0, and the last three representing the end circle with origin (x1, y1) and radius r1. The values are in coordinate space units. If either of r0 or r1 are negative, then an "IndexSizeError" DOMException must be thrown. Otherwise, the method, when invoked, must return a radial CanvasGradient initialized with the two specified circles.

Radial gradients must be rendered by following these steps:

  1. If x0 = x1 and y0 = y1 and r0 = r1, then the radial gradient must paint nothing. Return.

  2. Let x(ω) = (x1-x0)ω + x0

    Let y(ω) = (y1-y0)ω + y0

    Let r(ω) = (r1-r0)ω + r0

    Let the color at ω be the color at that position on the gradient (with the colors coming from the interpolation and extrapolation described above).

  3. For all values of ω where r(ω) > 0, starting with the value of ω nearest to positive infinity and ending with the value of ω nearest to negative infinity, draw the circumference of the circle with radius r(ω) at position (x(ω), y(ω)), with the color at ω, but only painting on the parts of the bitmap that have not yet been painted on by earlier circles in this step for this rendering of the gradient.

This effectively creates a cone, touched by the two circles defined in the creation of the gradient, with the part of the cone before the start circle (0.0) using the color of the first offset, the part of the cone after the end circle (1.0) using the color of the last offset, and areas outside the cone untouched by the gradient (transparent black).

The resulting radial gradient must then be transformed as described by the current transformation matrix when rendering.

Gradients must be painted only where the relevant stroking or filling effects requires that they be drawn.


Patterns are represented by objects implementing the opaque CanvasPattern interface.

pattern = context . createPattern(image, repetition)

Returns a CanvasPattern object that uses the given image and repeats in the direction(s) given by the repetition argument.

The allowed values for repetition are repeat (both directions), repeat-x (horizontal only), repeat-y (vertical only), and no-repeat (neither). If the repetition argument is empty, the value repeat is used.

If the image isn't yet fully decoded, then nothing is drawn. If the image is a canvas with no data, throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

pattern . setTransform(transform)

Sets the transformation matrix that will be used when rendering the pattern during a fill or stroke painting operation.

The createPattern(image, repetition) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. Let image be the first argument and repetition be the second argument.

  2. Let usability be the result of checking the usability of image.

  3. If result is bad, then return null.

  4. Assert: result is good.

  5. If repetition is the empty string, then set it to "repeat".

  6. If repetition is not a case-sensitive match for one of "repeat", "repeat-x", "repeat-y", or "no-repeat", then throw a "SyntaxError" DOMException.

  7. Create a new CanvasPattern object with the image image and the repetition behavior given by repetition.

  8. If the image argument is not origin-clean, then mark the CanvasPattern object as not origin-clean.

  9. Return the CanvasPattern object.

Modifying the image used when creating a CanvasPattern object after calling the createPattern() method must not affect the pattern(s) rendered by the CanvasPattern object.

Patterns have a transformation matrix, which controls how the pattern is used when it is painted. Initially, a pattern's transformation matrix must be the identity transform.

The setTransform(transform) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. Let matrix be the result of creating a DOMMatrix from the 2D dictionary transform.

  2. If one or more of matrix's m11 element, m12 element, m21 element, m22 element, m41 element, or m42 element are infinite or NaN, then return.

  3. Reset the pattern's transformation matrix to matrix.

When a pattern is to be rendered within an area, the user agent must run the following steps to determine what is rendered:

  1. Create an infinite transparent black bitmap.

  2. Place a copy of the image on the bitmap, anchored such that its top left corner is at the origin of the coordinate space, with one coordinate space unit per CSS pixel of the image, then place repeated copies of this image horizontally to the left and right, if the repetition behavior is "repeat-x", or vertically up and down, if the repetition behavior is "repeat-y", or in all four directions all over the bitmap, if the repetition behavior is "repeat".

    If the original image data is a bitmap image, then the value painted at a point in the area of the repetitions is computed by filtering the original image data. When scaling up, if the imageSmoothingEnabled attribute is set to false, then the image must be rendered using nearest-neighbor interpolation. Otherwise, the user agent may use any filtering algorithm (for example bilinear interpolation or nearest-neighbor). User agents which support multiple filtering algorithms may use the value of the imageSmoothingQuality attribute to guide the choice of filtering algorithm. When such a filtering algorithm requires a pixel value from outside the original image data, it must instead use the value from wrapping the pixel's coordinates to the original image's dimensions. (That is, the filter uses 'repeat' behavior, regardless of the value of the pattern's repetition behavior.)

  3. Transform the resulting bitmap according to the pattern's transformation matrix.

  4. Transform the resulting bitmap again, this time according to the current transformation matrix.

  5. Replace any part of the image outside the area in which the pattern is to be rendered with transparent black.

  6. The resulting bitmap is what is to be rendered, with the same origin and same scale.


If a radial gradient or repeated pattern is used when the transformation matrix is singular, then the resulting style must be transparent black (otherwise the gradient or pattern would be collapsed to a point or line, leaving the other pixels undefined). Linear gradients and solid colors always define all points even with singular transformation matrices.

4.12.5.1.10 Drawing rectangles to the bitmap

Objects that implement the CanvasRect interface provide the following methods for immediately drawing rectangles to the bitmap. The methods each take four arguments; the first two give the x and y coordinates of the top left of the rectangle, and the second two give the width w and height h of the rectangle, respectively.

The current transformation matrix must be applied to the following four coordinates, which form the path that must then be closed to get the specified rectangle: (x, y), (x+w, y), (x+w, y+h), (x, y+h).

Shapes are painted without affecting the current default path, and are subject to the clipping region, and, with the exception of clearRect(), also shadow effects, global alpha, and global composition operators.

context . clearRect(x, y, w, h)

Clears all pixels on the bitmap in the given rectangle to transparent black.

context . fillRect(x, y, w, h)

Paints the given rectangle onto the bitmap, using the current fill style.

context . strokeRect(x, y, w, h)

Paints the box that outlines the given rectangle onto the bitmap, using the current stroke style.

The clearRect(x, y, w, h) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Let pixels be the set of pixels in the specified rectangle that also intersect the current clipping region.

  3. Clear the pixels in pixels to a transparent black, erasing any previous image.

If either height or width are zero, this method has no effect, since the set of pixels would be empty.

The fillRect(x, y, w, h) method, when invoked, must must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. If either w or h are zero, then return.

  3. Paint the specified rectangular area using the fillStyle.

The strokeRect(x, y, w, h) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Take the result of tracing the path described below, using the CanvasPathDrawingStyles interface's line styles, and fill it with the strokeStyle.

If both w and h are zero, the path has a single subpath with just one point (x, y), and no lines, and this method thus has no effect (the trace a path algorithm returns an empty path in that case).

If just one of either w or h is zero, then the path has a single subpath consisting of two points, with coordinates (x, y) and (x+w, y+h), in that order, connected by a single straight line.

Otherwise, the path has a single subpath consisting of four points, with coordinates (x, y), (x+w, y), (x+w, y+h), and (x, y+h), connected to each other in that order by straight lines.

4.12.5.1.11 Drawing text to the bitmap

Support: canvas-textChrome for Android 62+Chrome 4+UC Browser for Android 11.4+iOS Safari 3.2+Firefox 3.5+IE 9+Samsung Internet 4+Opera Mini NoneSafari 4+Edge 12+Android Browser 2.1+Opera 10.5+

Source: caniuse.com

context . fillText(text, x, y [, maxWidth ] )
context . strokeText(text, x, y [, maxWidth ] )

Fills or strokes (respectively) the given text at the given position. If a maximum width is provided, the text will be scaled to fit that width if necessary.

metrics = context . measureText(text)

Returns a TextMetrics object with the metrics of the given text in the current font.

metrics . width
metrics . actualBoundingBoxLeft
metrics . actualBoundingBoxRight
metrics . fontBoundingBoxAscent
metrics . fontBoundingBoxDescent
metrics . actualBoundingBoxAscent
metrics . actualBoundingBoxDescent
metrics . emHeightAscent
metrics . emHeightDescent
metrics . hangingBaseline
metrics . alphabeticBaseline
metrics . ideographicBaseline

Returns the measurement described below.

Objects that implement the CanvasText interface provide the following methods for rendering text.

The fillText() and strokeText() methods take three or four arguments, text, x, y, and optionally maxWidth, and render the given text at the given (x, y) coordinates ensuring that the text isn't wider than maxWidth if specified, using the current font, textAlign, and textBaseline values. Specifically, when the methods are invoked, the user agent must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Run the text preparation algorithm, passing it text, the object implementing the CanvasText interface, and, if the maxWidth argument was provided, that argument. Let glyphs be the result.

  3. Move all the shapes in glyphs to the right by x CSS pixels and down by y CSS pixels.

  4. Paint the shapes given in glyphs, as transformed by the current transformation matrix, with each CSS pixel in the coordinate space of glyphs mapped to one coordinate space unit.

    For fillText(), fillStyle must be applied to the shapes and strokeStyle must be ignored. For strokeText(), the reverse holds: strokeStyle must be applied to the result of tracing the shapes using the object implementing the CanvasText interface for the line styles, and fillStyle must be ignored.

    These shapes are painted without affecting the current path, and are subject to shadow effects, global alpha, the clipping region, and global composition operators.

The measureText() method takes one argument, text. When the method is invoked, the user agent must run the text preparation algorithm, passing it text and the object implementing the CanvasText interface, and then using the returned inline box must create a new TextMetrics object with its attributes set as described in the following list. If doing these measurements requires using a font that has an origin that is not the same as that of the Document object that owns the canvas element (even if "using a font" means just checking if that font has a particular glyph in it before falling back to another font), then the method, when invoked, must throw a "SecurityError" DOMException. Otherwise, it must return the new TextMetrics object. [CSS] (This is a fingerprinting vector.)

width attribute

The width of that inline box, in CSS pixels. (The text's advance width.)

actualBoundingBoxLeft attribute

The distance parallel to the baseline from the alignment point given by the textAlign attribute to the left side of the bounding rectangle of the given text, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating a distance going left from the given alignment point.

The sum of this value and the next (actualBoundingBoxRight) can be wider than the width of the inline box (width), in particular with slanted fonts where characters overhang their advance width.

actualBoundingBoxRight attribute

The distance parallel to the baseline from the alignment point given by the textAlign attribute to the right side of the bounding rectangle of the given text, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating a distance going right from the given alignment point.

fontBoundingBoxAscent attribute

The distance from the horizontal line indicated by the textBaseline attribute to the top of the highest bounding rectangle of all the fonts used to render the text, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating a distance going up from the given baseline.

This value and the next are useful when rendering a background that have to have a consistent height even if the exact text being rendered changes. The actualBoundingBoxAscent attribute (and its corresponding attribute for the descent) are useful when drawing a bounding box around specific text.

fontBoundingBoxDescent attribute

The distance from the horizontal line indicated by the textBaseline attribute to the bottom of the lowest bounding rectangle of all the fonts used to render the text, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating a distance going down from the given baseline.

actualBoundingBoxAscent attribute

The distance from the horizontal line indicated by the textBaseline attribute to the top of the bounding rectangle of the given text, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating a distance going up from the given baseline.

This number can vary greatly based on the input text, even if the first font specified covers all the characters in the input. For example, the actualBoundingBoxAscent of a lowercase "o" from an alphabetic baseline would be less than that of an uppercase "F". The value can easily be negative; for example, the distance from the top of the em box (textBaseline value "top") to the top of the bounding rectangle when the given text is just a single comma "," would likely (unless the font is quite unusual) be negative.

actualBoundingBoxDescent attribute

The distance from the horizontal line indicated by the textBaseline attribute to the bottom of the bounding rectangle of the given text, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating a distance going down from the given baseline.

emHeightAscent attribute

The distance from the horizontal line indicated by the textBaseline attribute to the highest top of the em squares in the line box, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating that the given baseline is below the top of that em square (so this value will usually be positive). Zero if the given baseline is the top of that em square; half the font size if the given baseline is the middle of that em square.

emHeightDescent attribute

The distance from the horizontal line indicated by the textBaseline attribute to the lowest bottom of the em squares in the line box, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating that the given baseline is below the bottom of that em square (so this value will usually be negative). (Zero if the given baseline is the bottom of that em square.)

hangingBaseline attribute

The distance from the horizontal line indicated by the textBaseline attribute to the hanging baseline of the line box, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating that the given baseline is below the hanging baseline. (Zero if the given baseline is the hanging baseline.)

alphabeticBaseline attribute

The distance from the horizontal line indicated by the textBaseline attribute to the alphabetic baseline of the line box, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating that the given baseline is below the alphabetic baseline. (Zero if the given baseline is the alphabetic baseline.)

ideographicBaseline attribute

The distance from the horizontal line indicated by the textBaseline attribute to the ideographic baseline of the line box, in CSS pixels; positive numbers indicating that the given baseline is below the ideographic baseline. (Zero if the given baseline is the ideographic baseline.)

Glyphs rendered using fillText() and strokeText() can spill out of the box given by the font size (the em square size) and the width returned by measureText() (the text width). Authors are encouraged to use the bounding box values described above if this is an issue.

A future version of the 2D context API might provide a way to render fragments of documents, rendered using CSS, straight to the canvas. This would be provided in preference to a dedicated way of doing multiline layout.

4.12.5.1.12 Drawing paths to the canvas

Objects that implement the CanvasDrawPath interface have a current default path. There is only one current default path, it is not part of the drawing state. The current default path is a path, as described above.

context . beginPath()

Resets the current default path.

context . fill( [ fillRule ] )
context . fill(path [, fillRule ] )

Fills the subpaths of the current default path or the given path with the current fill style, obeying the given fill rule.

context . stroke()
context . stroke(path)

Strokes the subpaths of the current default path or the given path with the current stroke style.

context . clip( [ fillRule ] )
context . clip(path [, fillRule ] )

Further constrains the clipping region to the current default path or the given path, using the given fill rule to determine what points are in the path.

context . resetClip()

Unconstrains the clipping region.

context . isPointInPath(x, y [, fillRule ] )
context . isPointInPath(path, x, y [, fillRule ] )

Returns true if the given point is in the current default path or the given path, using the given fill rule to determine what points are in the path.

context . isPointInStroke(x, y)
context . isPointInStroke(path, x, y)

Returns true if the given point would be in the region covered by the stroke of the current default path or the given path, given the current stroke style.

The beginPath() method, when invoked, must empty the list of subpaths in the context's current default path so that the it once again has zero subpaths.

Where the following method definitions use the term intended path, it means the Path2D argument, if one was provided, or the current default path otherwise.

When the intended path is a Path2D object, the coordinates and lines of its subpaths must be transformed according to the current transformation matrix on the object implementing the CanvasTransform interface when used by these methods (without affecting the Path2D object itself). When the intended path is the current default path, it is not affected by the transform. (This is because transformations already affect the current default path when it is constructed, so applying it when it is painted as well would result in a double transformation.)

The fill() method, when invoked, must fill all the subpaths of the intended path, using fillStyle, and using the fill rule indicated by the fillRule argument. Open subpaths must be implicitly closed when being filled (without affecting the actual subpaths).

Spec bugs: 28217

The stroke() method, when invoked, must trace the intended path, using this CanvasPathDrawingStyles object for the line styles, and then fill the resulting path using the strokeStyle attribute, using the nonzero winding rule.

As a result of how the algorithm to trace a path is defined, overlapping parts of the paths in one stroke operation are treated as if their union was what was painted.

The stroke style is affected by the transformation during painting, even if the intended path is the current default path.

Paths, when filled or stroked, must be painted without affecting the current default path or any Path2D objects, and must be subject to shadow effects, global alpha, the clipping region, and global composition operators. (The effect of transformations is described above and varies based on which path is being used.)


The clip() method, when invoked, must create a new clipping region by calculating the intersection of the current clipping region and the area described by the intended path, using the fill rule indicated by the fillRule argument. Open subpaths must be implicitly closed when computing the clipping region, without affecting the actual subpaths. The new clipping region replaces the current clipping region.

When the context is initialized, the clipping region must be set to the largest infinite surface (i.e. by default, no clipping occurs).

The resetClip() method, when invoked, must create a new clipping region that is the largest infinite surface. The new clipping region replaces the current clipping region.


The isPointInPath() method, when invoked, must return true if the point given by the x and y coordinates passed to the method, when treated as coordinates in the canvas coordinate space unaffected by the current transformation, is inside the intended path as determined by the fill rule indicated by the fillRule argument; and must return false otherwise. Open subpaths must be implicitly closed when computing the area inside the path, without affecting the actual subpaths. Points on the path itself must be considered to be inside the path. If either of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then the method must return false.


The isPointInStroke() method, when invoked, must return true if the point given by the x and y coordinates passed to the method, when treated as coordinates in the canvas coordinate space unaffected by the current transformation, is inside the path that results from tracing the intended path, using the nonzero winding rule, and using the CanvasPathDrawingStyles interface for the line styles; and must return false otherwise. Points on the resulting path must be considered to be inside the path. If either of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then the method must return false.


This canvas element has a couple of checkboxes. The path-related commands are highlighted:

<canvas height=400 width=750>
 <label><input type=checkbox id=showA> Show As</label>
 <label><input type=checkbox id=showB> Show Bs</label>
 <!-- ... -->
</canvas>
<script>
 function drawCheckbox(context, element, x, y, paint) {
   context.save();
   context.font = '10px sans-serif';
   context.textAlign = 'left';
   context.textBaseline = 'middle';
   var metrics = context.measureText(element.labels[0].textContent);
   if (paint) {
     context.beginPath();
     context.strokeStyle = 'black';
     context.rect(x-5, y-5, 10, 10);
     context.stroke();
     if (element.checked) {
       context.fillStyle = 'black';
       context.fill();
     }
     context.fillText(element.labels[0].textContent, x+5, y);
   }
   context.beginPath();
   context.rect(x-7, y-7, 12 + metrics.width+2, 14);

   context.drawFocusIfNeeded(element);
   context.restore();
 }
 function drawBase() { /* ... */ }
 function drawAs() { /* ... */ }
 function drawBs() { /* ... */ }
 function redraw() {
   var canvas = document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0];
   var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
   context.clearRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
   drawCheckbox(context, document.getElementById('showA'), 20, 40, true);
   drawCheckbox(context, document.getElementById('showB'), 20, 60, true);
   drawBase();
   if (document.getElementById('showA').checked)
     drawAs();
   if (document.getElementById('showB').checked)
     drawBs();
 }
 function processClick(event) {
   var canvas = document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0];
   var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
   var x = event.clientX;
   var y = event.clientY;
   var node = event.target;
   while (node) {
     x -= node.offsetLeft - node.scrollLeft;
     y -= node.offsetTop - node.scrollTop;
     node = node.offsetParent;
   }
   drawCheckbox(context, document.getElementById('showA'), 20, 40, false);
   if (context.isPointInPath(x, y))
     document.getElementById('showA').checked = !(document.getElementById('showA').checked);
   drawCheckbox(context, document.getElementById('showB'), 20, 60, false);
   if (context.isPointInPath(x, y))
     document.getElementById('showB').checked = !(document.getElementById('showB').checked);
   redraw();
 }
 document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0].addEventListener('focus', redraw, true);
 document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0].addEventListener('blur', redraw, true);
 document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0].addEventListener('change', redraw, true);
 document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0].addEventListener('click', processClick, false);
 redraw();
</script>
4.12.5.1.13 Drawing focus rings and scrolling paths into view
context . drawFocusIfNeeded(element)
context . drawFocusIfNeeded(path, element)

If the given element is focused, draws a focus ring around the current default path or the given path, following the platform conventions for focus rings.

context . scrollPathIntoView()
context . scrollPathIntoView(path)

Scrolls the current default path or the given path into view. This is especially useful on devices with small screens, where the whole canvas might not be visible at once.

Objects that implement the CanvasUserInterface interface provide the following methods to control drawing focus rings and scrolling paths into view.

The drawFocusIfNeeded(element) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. If element is not focused or is not a descendant of the element with whose context the method is associated, then return.

  2. Draw a focus ring of the appropriate style along the intended path, following platform conventions.

    Some platforms only draw focus rings around elements that have been focused from the keyboard, and not those focused from the mouse. Other platforms simply don't draw focus rings around some elements at all unless relevant accessibility features are enabled. This API is intended to follow these conventions. User agents that implement distinctions based on the manner in which the element was focused are encouraged to classify focus driven by the focus() method based on the kind of user interaction event from which the call was triggered (if any).

    The focus ring should not be subject to the shadow effects, the global alpha, the global composition operators, or any of the members in the CanvasFillStrokeStyles, CanvasPathDrawingStyles, CanvasTextDrawingStyles interfaces, but should be subject to the clipping region. (The effect of transformations is described above and varies based on which path is being used.)

  3. Inform the user that the focus is at the location given by the intended path. User agents may wait until the next time the event loop reaches its update the rendering step to optionally inform the user.

User agents should not implicitly close open subpaths in the intended path when drawing the focus ring.

This might be a moot point, however. For example, if the focus ring is drawn as an axis-aligned bounding rectangle around the points in the intended path, then whether the subpaths are closed or not has no effect. This specification intentionally does not specify precisely how focus rings are to be drawn: user agents are expected to honor their platform's native conventions.


The scrollPathIntoView() method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. Let the specified rectangle be the rectangle of the bounding box of the intended path.

  2. Let notional child be a hypothetical element that is a rendered child of the canvas element whose dimensions are those of the specified rectangle.

  3. Scroll notional child into view with the align to top flag set.

  4. Optionally, inform the user that the caret or selection (or both) cover the specified rectangle of the canvas. The user agent may wait until the next time the event loop reaches its update the rendering step to optionally inform the user.

"Inform the user", as used in this section, does not imply any persistent state change. It could mean, for instance, calling a system accessibility API to notify assistive technologies such as magnification tools so that the user's magnifier moves to the given area of the canvas. However, it does not associate the path with the element, or provide a region for tactile feedback, etc.

4.12.5.1.14 Drawing images

Objects that implement the CanvasDrawImage interface have the drawImage method to draw images.

This method can be invoked with three different sets of arguments:

context . drawImage(image, dx, dy)
context . drawImage(image, dx, dy, dw, dh)
context . drawImage(image, sx, sy, sw, sh, dx, dy, dw, dh)

Draws the given image onto the canvas. The arguments are interpreted as follows:

The sx and sy parameters give the x and y coordinates of the source rectangle; the sw and sh arguments give the width and height of the source rectangle; the dx and dy give the x and y coordinates of the destination rectangle; and the dw and dh arguments give the width and height of the destination rectangle.

If the image isn't yet fully decoded, then nothing is drawn. If the image is a canvas with no data, throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

When the drawImage() method is invoked, the user agent must run these steps:

  1. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, then return.

  2. Check the usability of the image argument. If this returns aborted, then an exception has been thrown and the method doesn't return anything. If it returns bad, without drawing anything. Otherwise it returns good; continue with these steps.

  3. Establish the source and destination rectangles as follows:

    If not specified, the dw and dh arguments must default to the values of sw and sh, interpreted such that one CSS pixel in the image is treated as one unit in the output bitmap's coordinate space. If the sx, sy, sw, and sh arguments are omitted, then they must default to 0, 0, the image's intrinsic width in image pixels, and the image's intrinsic height in image pixels, respectively. If the image has no intrinsic dimensions, then the concrete object size must be used instead, as determined using the CSS "Concrete Object Size Resolution" algorithm, with the specified size having neither a definite width nor height, nor any additional constraints, the object's intrinsic properties being those of the image argument, and the default object size being the size of the output bitmap. [CSSIMAGES]

    The source rectangle is the rectangle whose corners are the four points (sx, sy), (sx+sw, sy), (sx+sw, sy+sh), (sx, sy+sh).

    The destination rectangle is the rectangle whose corners are the four points (dx, dy), (dx+dw, dy), (dx+dw, dy+dh), (dx, dy+dh).

    When the source rectangle is outside the source image, the source rectangle must be clipped to the source image and the destination rectangle must be clipped in the same proportion.

    When the destination rectangle is outside the destination image (the output bitmap), the pixels that land outside the output bitmap are discarded, as if the destination was an infinite canvas whose rendering was clipped to the dimensions of the output bitmap.

  4. If one of the sw or sh arguments is zero, then abort these steps. Nothing is painted.

  5. Paint the region of the image argument specified by the source rectangle on the region of the rendering context's output bitmap specified by the destination rectangle, after applying the current transformation matrix to the destination rectangle.

    The image data must be processed in the original direction, even if the dimensions given are negative.

    When scaling up, if the imageSmoothingEnabled attribute is set to true, the user agent should attempt to apply a smoothing algorithm to the image data when it is scaled. User agents which support multiple filtering algorithms may use the value of the imageSmoothingQuality attribute to guide the choice of filtering algorithm when the imageSmoothingEnabled attribute is set to true. Otherwise, the image must be rendered using nearest-neighbor interpolation.

    This specification does not define the precise algorithm to use when scaling an image down, or when scaling an image up when the imageSmoothingEnabled attribute is set to true.

    When a canvas element is drawn onto itself, the drawing model requires the source to be copied before the image is drawn, so it is possible to copy parts of a canvas element onto overlapping parts of itself.

    If the original image data is a bitmap image, then the value painted at a point in the destination rectangle is computed by filtering the original image data. The user agent may use any filtering algorithm (for example bilinear interpolation or nearest-neighbor). When the filtering algorithm requires a pixel value from outside the original image data, it must instead use the value from the nearest edge pixel. (That is, the filter uses 'clamp-to-edge' behavior.) When the filtering algorithm requires a pixel value from outside the source rectangle but inside the original image data, then the value from the original image data must be used.

    Thus, scaling an image in parts or in whole will have the same effect. This does mean that when sprites coming from a single sprite sheet are to be scaled, adjacent images in the sprite sheet can interfere. This can be avoided by ensuring each sprite in the sheet is surrounded by a border of transparent black, or by copying sprites to be scaled into temporary canvas elements and drawing the scaled sprites from there.

    Images are painted without affecting the current path, and are subject to shadow effects, global alpha, the clipping region, and global composition operators.

  6. If the image argument is not origin-clean, then set the CanvasRenderingContext2D's origin-clean flag to false.

4.12.5.1.15 Pixel manipulation
imagedata = new ImageData(sw, sh)
imagedata = context . createImageData(sw, sh)

Returns an ImageData object with the given dimensions. All the pixels in the returned object are transparent black.

Throws an "IndexSizeError" DOMException if either of the width or height arguments are zero.

imagedata = context . createImageData(imagedata)

Returns an ImageData object with the same dimensions as the argument. All the pixels in the returned object are transparent black.

imagedata = new ImageData(data, sw [, sh ] )

Returns an ImageData object using the data provided in the Uint8ClampedArray argument, interpreted using the given dimensions.

As each pixel in the data is represented by four numbers, the length of the data needs to be a multiple of four times the given width. If the height is provided as well, then the length needs to be exactly the width times the height times 4.

Throws an "IndexSizeError" DOMException if the given data and dimensions can't be interpreted consistently, or if either dimension is zero.

imagedata = context . getImageData(sx, sy, sw, sh)

Returns an ImageData object containing the image data for the given rectangle of the bitmap.

Throws an "IndexSizeError" DOMException if the either of the width or height arguments are zero.

imagedata . width
imagedata . height

Returns the actual dimensions of the data in the ImageData object, in pixels.

imagedata . data

Returns the one-dimensional array containing the data in RGBA order, as integers in the range 0 to 255.

context . putImageData(imagedata, dx, dy [, dirtyX, dirtyY, dirtyWidth, dirtyHeight ] )

Paints the data from the given ImageData object onto the bitmap. If a dirty rectangle is provided, only the pixels from that rectangle are painted.

The globalAlpha and globalCompositeOperation attributes, as well as the shadow attributes, are ignored for the purposes of this method call; pixels in the canvas are replaced wholesale, with no composition, alpha blending, no shadows, etc.

Throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException if the imagedata object's data's [[Detached]] internal slot value is true.

Objects that implement the CanvasImageData interface provide the following methods for reading and writing pixel data to the bitmap.

The ImageData() constructors and the createImageData() methods are used to instantiate new ImageData objects.

When the ImageData() constructor is invoked with two numeric arguments sw and sh, it must create an ImageData object with parameter pixelsPerRow set to sw, and rows set to sh. The image data of the newly created ImageData object must be initialized to transparent black. If both sw and sh are nonzero, then return the new ImageData object. If one or both of sw and sh are zero, then the constructor must throw an "IndexSizeError" DOMException instead.

When the ImageData() constructor is invoked with its first argument being an Uint8ClampedArray source and its second and optional third arguments being numeric arguments sw and sh, it must run these steps:

  1. Let length be the number of bytes in source.

  2. If length is not a nonzero integral multiple of four, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException and abort these steps.

  3. Let length be length divided by four.

  4. If length is not an integral multiple of sw, then throw an "IndexSizeError" DOMException and return.

    At this step, the length is guaranteed to be greater than zero (otherwise the second step above would have aborted the steps), so if sw is zero, this step will throw the exception and return.

  5. Let height be length divided by sw.

  6. If the sh argument was not omitted, and its value is not equal to height, then throw an "IndexSizeError" DOMException.

  7. Create an ImageData object, with parameter pixelsPerRow set to sw, rows set to sh, and using source. Return the newly created ImageData object.

    The resulting object's data is not a copy of source, it's the actual Uint8ClampedArray object passed as the first argument to the constructor.

When the createImageData() method is invoked with two numeric arguments sw and sh, it must create an ImageData object, with parameter pixelsPerRow set to the absolute magnitude of sw, and parameter rows set to the absolute magnitude of sh. Initialize the image data of the new ImageData object to transparent black. If both sw and sh are nonzero, then return the new ImageData object. If one or both of sw and sh are zero, then throw an "IndexSizeError" DOMException instead.

When the createImageData() method is invoked with a single imagedata argument, it must create an ImageData object, with parameter pixelsPerRow set to the value of the width attribute of the ImageData object passed as the argument, and the rows parameter set to the value of the height attribute. Initialize the image data of the new ImageData object to transparent black. Return the newly created ImageData object.

The getImageData(sx, sy, sw, sh) method, when invoked, must, if either the sw or sh arguments are zero, throw an "IndexSizeError" DOMException; otherwise, if the CanvasRenderingContext2D's origin-clean flag is set to false, it must throw a "SecurityError" DOMException; otherwise, it must create an ImageData object, with parameter pixelsPerRow set to sw, and parameter rows set to sh. Set the pixel values of the image data of the newly created ImageData object to represent the output bitmap for the area of that bitmap denoted by the rectangle whose corners are the four points (sx, sy), (sx+sw, sy), (sx+sw, sy+sh), (sx, sy+sh), in the bitmap's coordinate space units. Pixels outside the output bitmap must be set to transparent black. Pixel values must not be premultiplied by alpha.

When the user agent is required to create an ImageData object, given a positive integer number of rows rows, a positive integer number of pixels per row pixelsPerRow, and an optional Uint8ClampedArray source, it must run these steps:

  1. Let imageData be a new uninitialized ImageData object.

  2. If source is specified, then assign the data attribute of imageData to source.

  3. If source is not specified, then initialize the data attribute of imageData to a new Uint8ClampedArray object. The Uint8ClampedArray object must use a new Canvas Pixel ArrayBuffer for its storage, and must have a zero start offset and a length equal to the length of its storage, in bytes. The Canvas Pixel ArrayBuffer must have the correct size to store rows × pixelsPerRow pixels.

    If the Canvas Pixel ArrayBuffer cannot be allocated, then rethrow the RangeError thrown by JavaScript, and return.

  4. Initialize the width attribute of imageData to pixelsPerRow.

  5. Initialize the height attribute of imageData to rows.

  6. Return imageData.

ImageData objects are serializable objects. Their serialization steps, given value and serialized, are:

  1. Set serialized.[[Data]] to the sub-serialization of the value of value's data attribute.

  2. Set serialized.[[Width]] to the value of value's width attribute.

  3. Set serialized.[[Height]] to the value of value's height attribute.

Their deserialization steps, given serialized and value, are:

  1. Initialize value's data attribute to the sub-deserialization of serialized.[[Data]].

  2. Initialize value's width attribute to serialized.[[Width]].

  3. Initialize value's height attribute to serialized.[[Height]].

A Canvas Pixel ArrayBuffer is an ArrayBuffer whose data is represented in left-to-right order, row by row top to bottom, starting with the top left, with each pixel's red, green, blue, and alpha components being given in that order for each pixel. Each component of each pixel represented in this array must be in the range 0..255, representing the 8 bit value for that component. The components must be assigned consecutive indices starting with 0 for the top left pixel's red component.

The putImageData() method writes data from ImageData structures back to the rendering context's output bitmap. Its arguments are: imagedata, dx, dy, dirtyX, dirtyY, dirtyWidth, and dirtyHeight.

When the last four arguments to this method are omitted, they must be assumed to have the values 0, 0, the width member of the imagedata structure, and the height member of the imagedata structure, respectively.

The method, when invoked, must act as follows:

  1. If imagedata's data attribute value's [[Detached]] internal slot value is true, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException and abort these steps.

  2. If dirtyWidth is negative, then let dirtyX be dirtyX+dirtyWidth, and let dirtyWidth be equal to the absolute magnitude of dirtyWidth.

    If dirtyHeight is negative, then let dirtyY be dirtyY+dirtyHeight, and let dirtyHeight be equal to the absolute magnitude of dirtyHeight.

  3. If dirtyX is negative, then let dirtyWidth be dirtyWidth+dirtyX, and let dirtyX be zero.

    If dirtyY is negative, then let dirtyHeight be dirtyHeight+dirtyY, and let dirtyY be zero.

  4. If dirtyX+dirtyWidth is greater than the width attribute of the imagedata argument, then let dirtyWidth be the value of that width attribute, minus the value of dirtyX.

    If dirtyY+dirtyHeight is greater than the height attribute of the imagedata argument, then let dirtyHeight be the value of that height attribute, minus the value of dirtyY.

  5. If, after those changes, either dirtyWidth or dirtyHeight are negative or zero, then return without affecting any bitmaps.

  6. For all integer values of x and y where dirtyX ≤ x < dirtyX+dirtyWidth and dirtyY ≤ y < dirtyY+dirtyHeight, copy the four channels of the pixel with coordinate (x, y) in the imagedata data structure's Canvas Pixel ArrayBuffer to the pixel with coordinate (dx+x, dy+y) in the rendering context's output bitmap.

Due to the lossy nature of converting to and from premultiplied alpha color values, pixels that have just been set using putImageData() might be returned to an equivalent getImageData() as different values.

The current path, transformation matrix, shadow attributes, global alpha, the clipping region, and global composition operator must not affect the methods described in this section.

In the following example, the script generates an ImageData object so that it can draw onto it.

// canvas is a reference to a <canvas> element
var context = canvas.getContext('2d');

// create a blank slate
var data = context.createImageData(canvas.width, canvas.height);

// create some plasma
FillPlasma(data, 'green'); // green plasma

// add a cloud to the plasma
AddCloud(data, data.width/2, data.height/2); // put a cloud in the middle

// paint the plasma+cloud on the canvas
context.putImageData(data, 0, 0);

// support methods
function FillPlasma(data, color) { ... }
function AddCloud(data, x, y) { ... }

Here is an example of using getImageData() and putImageData() to implement an edge detection filter.

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
 <head>
  <title>Edge detection demo</title>
  <script>
   var image = new Image();
   function init() {
     image.onload = demo;
     image.src = "image.jpeg";
   }
   function demo() {
     var canvas = document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0];
     var context = canvas.getContext('2d');

     // draw the image onto the canvas
     context.drawImage(image, 0, 0);

     // get the image data to manipulate
     var input = context.getImageData(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);

     // get an empty slate to put the data into
     var output = context.createImageData(canvas.width, canvas.height);

     // alias some variables for convenience
     // In this case input.width and input.height
     // match canvas.width and canvas.height
     // but we'll use the former to keep the code generic.
     var w = input.width, h = input.height;
     var inputData = input.data;
     var outputData = output.data;

     // edge detection
     for (var y = 1; y < h-1; y += 1) {
       for (var x = 1; x < w-1; x += 1) {
         for (var c = 0; c < 3; c += 1) {
           var i = (y*w + x)*4 + c;
           outputData[i] = 127 + -inputData[i - w*4 - 4] -   inputData[i - w*4] - inputData[i - w*4 + 4] +
                                 -inputData[i - 4]       + 8*inputData[i]       - inputData[i + 4] +
                                 -inputData[i + w*4 - 4] -   inputData[i + w*4] - inputData[i + w*4 + 4];
         }
         outputData[(y*w + x)*4 + 3] = 255; // alpha
       }
     }

     // put the image data back after manipulation
     context.putImageData(output, 0, 0);
   }
  </script>
 </head>
 <body onload="init()">
  <canvas></canvas>
 </body>
</html>
4.12.5.1.16 Compositing
context . globalAlpha [ = value ]

Returns the current alpha value applied to rendering operations.

Can be set, to change the alpha value. Values outside of the range 0.0 .. 1.0 are ignored.

context . globalCompositeOperation [ = value ]

Returns the current composition operation, from the values defined in the Compositing and Blending specification. [COMPOSITE].

Can be set, to change the composition operation. Unknown values are ignored.

All drawing operations on an object which implements the CanvasCompositing interface are affected by the global compositing attributes, globalAlpha and globalCompositeOperation.

The globalAlpha attribute gives an alpha value that is applied to shapes and images before they are composited onto the output bitmap. The value must be in the range from 0.0 (fully transparent) to 1.0 (no additional transparency). If an attempt is made to set the attribute to a value outside this range, including Infinity and Not-a-Number (NaN) values, then the attribute must retain its previous value. When the context is created, the globalAlpha attribute must initially have the value 1.0.

The globalCompositeOperation attribute sets the current composition operator, which controls how shapes and images are drawn onto the output bitmap, once they have had globalAlpha and the current transformation matrix applied. The possible values are those defined in the Compositing and Blending specification, and include the values source-over and copy. [COMPOSITE]

Spec bugs: 27313

These values are all case-sensitive — they must be used exactly as defined. User agents must not recognize values that are not a case-sensitive match for one of the values given in the Compositing and Blending specification. [COMPOSITE]

On setting, if the user agent does not recognize the specified value, it must be ignored, leaving the value of globalCompositeOperation unaffected. Otherwise, the attribute must be set to the given new value.

When the context is created, the globalCompositeOperation attribute must initially have the value source-over.

4.12.5.1.17 Image smoothing
context . imageSmoothingEnabled [ = value ]

Returns whether pattern fills and the drawImage() method will attempt to smooth images if their pixels don't line up exactly with the display, when scaling images up.

Can be set, to change whether images are smoothed (true) or not (false).

context . imageSmoothingQuality [ = value ]

Returns the current image-smoothing-quality preference.

Can be set, to change the preferred quality of image smoothing. The possible values are "low", "medium" and "high". Unknown values are ignored.

Objects that implement the CanvasImageSmoothing interface have attributes that control how image smoothing is performed.

The imageSmoothingEnabled attribute, on getting, must return the last value it was set to. On setting, it must be set to the new value. When the object implementing the CanvasImageSmoothing interface is created, the attribute must be set to true.

The imageSmoothingQuality attribute, on getting, must return the last value it was set to. On setting, it must be set to the new value. When the object implementing the CanvasImageSmoothing interface is created, the attribute must be set to "low".

4.12.5.1.18 Shadows

All drawing operations on an object which implements the CanvasShadowStyles interface are affected by the four global shadow attributes.

context . shadowColor [ = value ]

Returns the current shadow color.

Can be set, to change the shadow color. Values that cannot be parsed as CSS colors are ignored.

context . shadowOffsetX [ = value ]
context . shadowOffsetY [ = value ]

Returns the current shadow offset.

Can be set, to change the shadow offset. Values that are not finite numbers are ignored.

context . shadowBlur [ = value ]

Returns the current level of blur applied to shadows.

Can be set, to change the blur level. Values that are not finite numbers greater than or equal to zero are ignored.

The shadowColor attribute sets the color of the shadow.

When the context is created, the shadowColor attribute initially must be transparent black.

On getting, the serialization of the color must be returned.

On setting, the new value must be parsed as a CSS <color> value and the color assigned. If the value cannot be parsed as a CSS <color> value then it must be ignored, and the attribute must retain its previous value. [CSSCOLOR]

The shadowOffsetX and shadowOffsetY attributes specify the distance that the shadow will be offset in the positive horizontal and positive vertical distance respectively. Their values are in coordinate space units. They are not affected by the current transformation matrix.

When the context is created, the shadow offset attributes must initially have the value 0.

On getting, they must return their current value. On setting, the attribute being set must be set to the new value, except if the value is infinite or NaN, in which case the new value must be ignored.

The shadowBlur attribute specifies the level of the blurring effect. (The units do not map to coordinate space units, and are not affected by the current transformation matrix.)

When the context is created, the shadowBlur attribute must initially have the value 0.

On getting, the attribute must return its current value. On setting the attribute must be set to the new value, except if the value is negative, infinite or NaN, in which case the new value must be ignored.

Shadows are only drawn if the opacity component of the alpha component of the color of shadowColor is nonzero and either the shadowBlur is nonzero, or the shadowOffsetX is nonzero, or the shadowOffsetY is nonzero.

When shadows are drawn, they must be rendered as follows:

  1. Let A be an infinite transparent black bitmap on which the source image for which a shadow is being created has been rendered.

  2. Let B be an infinite transparent black bitmap, with a coordinate space and an origin identical to A.

  3. Copy the alpha channel of A to B, offset by shadowOffsetX in the positive x direction, and shadowOffsetY in the positive y direction.

  4. If shadowBlur is greater than 0:

    1. Let σ be half the value of shadowBlur.

    2. Perform a 2D Gaussian Blur on B, using σ as the standard deviation.

    User agents may limit values of σ to an implementation-specific maximum value to avoid exceeding hardware limitations during the Gaussian blur operation.

  5. Set the red, green, and blue components of every pixel in B to the red, green, and blue components (respectively) of the color of shadowColor.

  6. Multiply the alpha component of every pixel in B by the alpha component of the color of shadowColor.

  7. The shadow is in the bitmap B, and is rendered as part of the drawing model described below.

If the current composition operation is copy, then shadows effectively won't render (since the shape will overwrite the shadow).

4.12.5.1.19 Filters

All drawing operations on an object which implements the CanvasFilters interface are affected by the global filter attribute.

context . filter [ = value ]

Returns the current filter.

Can be set, to change the filter. Values that cannot be parsed as a <filter-function-list> value are ignored.

The filter attribute, on getting, must return the last value it was successfully set to. The value must not be re-serialized. On setting, if the new value is 'none' (not the empty string, null, or undefined), filters must be disabled for the context. Otherwise, the value must be parsed as a <filter-function-list> value. If the value cannot be parsed as a <filter-function-list> value, where using property-independent style sheet syntax like 'inherit' or 'initial' is considered an invalid value, then it must be ignored, and the attribute must retain its previous value. When creating the object implementing the CanvasFilters interface, the attribute must be set to 'none'.

A <filter-function-list> value consists of a sequence of one or more filter functions or references to SVG filters. The input to the filter is used as the input to the first item in the list. Subsequent items take the output of the previous item as their input. [FILTERS]

Coordinates used in the value of the filter attribute are interpreted such that one pixel is equivalent to one SVG user space unit and to one canvas coordinate space unit. Filter coordinates are not affected by the current transformation matrix. The current transformation matrix affects only the input to the filter. Filters are applied in the output bitmap's coordinate space.

When the value of the filter attribute defines lengths using percentages or using 'em' or 'ex' units, these must be interpreted relative to the computed value of the 'font-size' property of the font style source object at the time that the attribute is set, if it is an element. If the computed values are undefined for a particular case (e.g. because the font style source object is not an element or is not being rendered), then the relative keywords must be interpreted relative to the default value of the font attribute. The 'larger' and 'smaller' keywords are not supported.

If the value of the filter attribute refers to an SVG filter in the same document, and this SVG filter changes, then the changed filter is used for the next draw operation.

If the value of the filter attribute refers to an SVG filter in an external resource document and that document is not loaded when a drawing operation is invoked, then the drawing operation must proceed with no filtering.

4.12.5.1.20 Working with externally-defined SVG filters

This section is non-normative.

Since drawing is performed using filter value 'none' until an externally-defined filter has finished loading, authors might wish to determine whether such a filter has finished loading before proceeding with a drawing operation. One way to accomplish this is to load the externally-defined filter elsewhere within the same page in some element that sends a load event (for example, an SVG use element), and wait for the load event to be dispatched.

4.12.5.1.21 Drawing model

When a shape or image is painted, user agents must follow these steps, in the order given (or act as if they do):

  1. Render the shape or image onto an infinite transparent black bitmap, creating image A, as described in the previous sections. For shapes, the current fill, stroke, and line styles must be honored, and the stroke must itself also be subjected to the current transformation matrix.

  2. When the filter attribute is set to a value other than 'none' and all the externally-defined filters it references, if any, are in documents that are currently loaded, then use image A as the input to the filter, creating image B. Otherwise, let B be an alias for A.

  3. When shadows are drawn, render the shadow from image B, using the current shadow styles, creating image C.

  4. When shadows are drawn, multiply the alpha component of every pixel in C by globalAlpha.

  5. When shadows are drawn, composite C within the clipping region over the current output bitmap using the current composition operator.

  6. Multiply the alpha component of every pixel in B by globalAlpha.

  7. Composite B within the clipping region over the current output bitmap using the current composition operator.

When compositing onto the output bitmap, pixels that would fall outside of the output bitmap must be discarded.

4.12.5.1.22 Best practices

When a canvas is interactive, authors should include focusable elements in the element's fallback content corresponding to each focusable part of the canvas, as in the example above.

When rendering focus rings, to ensure that focus rings have the appearance of native focus rings, authors should use the drawFocusIfNeeded() method, passing it the element for which a ring is being drawn. This method only draws the focus ring if the element is focused, so that it can simply be called whenever drawing the element, without checking whether the element is focused or not first.

In addition to drawing focus rings, authors should use the scrollPathIntoView() method when an element in the canvas is focused, to make sure it is visible on the screen (if applicable).

Authors should avoid implementing text editing controls using the canvas element. Doing so has a large number of disadvantages:

This is a huge amount of work, and authors are most strongly encouraged to avoid doing any of it by instead using the input element, the textarea element, or the contenteditable attribute.

4.12.5.1.23 Examples

This section is non-normative.

Here is an example of a script that uses canvas to draw pretty glowing lines.

<canvas width="800" height="450"></canvas>
<script>

 var context = document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0].getContext('2d');

 var lastX = context.canvas.width * Math.random();
 var lastY = context.canvas.height * Math.random();
 var hue = 0;
 function line() {
   context.save();
   context.translate(context.canvas.width/2, context.canvas.height/2);
   context.scale(0.9, 0.9);
   context.translate(-context.canvas.width/2, -context.canvas.height/2);
   context.beginPath();
   context.lineWidth = 5 + Math.random() * 10;
   context.moveTo(lastX, lastY);
   lastX = context.canvas.width * Math.random();
   lastY = context.canvas.height * Math.random();
   context.bezierCurveTo(context.canvas.width * Math.random(),
                         context.canvas.height * Math.random(),
                         context.canvas.width * Math.random(),
                         context.canvas.height * Math.random(),
                         lastX, lastY);

   hue = hue + 10 * Math.random();
   context.strokeStyle = 'hsl(' + hue + ', 50%, 50%)';
   context.shadowColor = 'white';
   context.shadowBlur = 10;
   context.stroke();
   context.restore();
 }
 setInterval(line, 50);

 function blank() {
   context.fillStyle = 'rgba(0,0,0,0.1)';
   context.fillRect(0, 0, context.canvas.width, context.canvas.height);
 }
 setInterval(blank, 40);

</script>

The 2D rendering context for canvas is often used for sprite-based games. The following example demonstrates this:

Here is the source for this example:

EXAMPLE canvas/blue-robot/index.html
4.12.5.2 The ImageBitmap rendering context
4.12.5.2.1 Introduction

ImageBitmapRenderingContext is a performance-oriented interface that provides a low overhead method for displaying the contents of ImageBitmap objects. It uses transfer semantics to reduce overall memory consumption. It also streamlines performance by avoiding intermediate compositing, unlike the drawImage() method of CanvasRenderingContext2D.

Using an img element as an intermediate for getting an image resource into a canvas, for example, would result in two copies of the decoded image existing in memory at the same time: the img element's copy, and the one in the canvas's backing store. This memory cost can be prohibitive when dealing with extremely large images. This can be avoided by using ImageBitmapRenderingContext.

Using ImageBitmapRenderingContext, here is how to transcode an image to the JPEG format in a memory- and CPU-efficient way:

createImageBitmap(inputImageBlob).then(image => {
  const canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
  const context = canvas.getContext('bitmaprenderer');
  context.transferFromImageBitmap(image);

  canvas.toBlob(outputJPEGBlob => {
    // Do something with outputJPEGBlob.
  }, 'image/jpeg');
});
4.12.5.2.2 The ImageBitmapRenderingContext interface
[Exposed=Window]
interface ImageBitmapRenderingContext {
  readonly attribute HTMLCanvasElement canvas;
  void transferFromImageBitmap(ImageBitmap? bitmap);
};

dictionary ImageBitmapRenderingContextSettings {
  boolean alpha = true;
};
context = canvas . getContext('bitmaprenderer' [, { [ alpha: false ] } ] )

Returns an ImageBitmapRenderingContext object that is permanently bound to a particular canvas element.

If the alpha setting is provided and set to false, then the canvas is forced to always be opaque.

context . canvas

Returns the canvas element that the context is bound to.

context . transferFromImageBitmap(imageBitmap)

Transfers the underlying bitmap data from imageBitmap to context, and the bitmap becomes the contents of the canvas element to which context is bound.

context . transferFromImageBitmap( null)

Replaces contents of the canvas element to which context is bound with a transparent black bitmap whose size corresponds to the width and height content attributes of the canvas element.

The canvas attribute must return the value it was initialized to when the object was created.

An ImageBitmapRenderingContext object has an output bitmap, which is a reference to bitmap data.

An ImageBitmapRenderingContext object has a bitmap mode, which can be set to valid or blank. A value of valid indicates that the context's output bitmap refers to bitmap data that was acquired via transferFromImageBitmap(). A value blank indicates that the context's output bitmap is a default transparent bitmap.

An ImageBitmapRenderingContext object also has an alpha flag, which can be set to true or false. When an ImageBitmapRenderingContext object has its alpha flag set to false, the contents of the canvas element to which the context is bound are obtained by compositing the context's output bitmap onto an opaque black bitmap of the same size using the source-over composite operation. If the alpha flag is set to true, then the output bitmap is used as the contents of the canvas element to which the context is bound. [COMPOSITE]

The step of compositing over an opaque black bitmap ought to be elided whenever equivalent results can be obtained more efficiently by other means.


When a user agent is required to set an ImageBitmapRenderingContext's output bitmap, with a context argument that is an ImageBitmapRenderingContext object and an optional argument bitmap that refers to bitmap data, it must run these steps:

  1. If a bitmap argument was not provided, then:

    1. Set context's bitmap mode to blank.

    2. Let canvas be the canvas element to which context is bound.

    3. Set context's output bitmap to be transparent black with an intrinsic width equal to the numeric value of canvas's width attribute and an intrinsic height equal to the numeric value of canvas's height attribute, those values being interpreted in CSS pixels.

    4. Set the output bitmap's origin-clean flag to true.

  2. If a bitmap argument was provided, then:

    1. Set context's bitmap mode to valid.

    2. Set context's output bitmap to refer to the same underlying bitmap data as bitmap, without making a copy.

      The origin-clean flag of bitmap is included in the bitmap data to be referenced by context's output bitmap.


The ImageBitmapRenderingContext creation algorithm, which is passed a target (a canvas element) and optionally some arguments, consists of running the following steps:

  1. If the algorithm was passed some arguments, then let arg be the first such argument. Otherwise, let arg be undefined.

  2. Let settings be the result of coercing the arg context arguments for ImageBitmapRenderingContext.

  3. Create a new ImageBitmapRenderingContext object.

  4. Initialize its canvas attribute to point to target.

  5. Let the new ImageBitmapRenderingContext object's output bitmap and target's bitmap be a shared reference to the same bitmap.

  6. Run the steps to set an ImageBitmapRenderingContext's output bitmap, using the new ImageBitmapRenderingContext object as the context argument, and with no bitmap argument.

  7. Initialize context's alpha flag to true.

  8. Process each of the members of settings as follows:

    alpha
    If false, then set context's alpha flag to false.
  9. Return the new ImageBitmapRenderingContext object.


When a user agent is required to coerce context arguments for ImageBitmapRenderingContext, it must run these steps:

  1. Let input be the argument to coerce.

  2. Let jsval be the result of converting input to a JavaScript value. (This can throw an exception.)

  3. Let dict be the result of converting jsval to the dictionary type ImageBitmapRenderingContextSettings. (This can throw an exception.)

  4. Return dict.


The transferFromImageBitmap(imageBitmap) method, when invoked, must run these steps:

  1. Let bitmapContext be the ImageBitmapRenderingContext object on which the transferFromImageBitmap() method was called.

  2. If imageBitmap is null, then run the steps to set an ImageBitmapRenderingContext's output bitmap, with bitmapContext as the context argument and no bitmap argument, then return.

  3. If the value of imageBitmap's [[Detached]] internal slot is set to true, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  4. Run the steps to set an ImageBitmapRenderingContext's output bitmap, with the context argument equal to bitmapContext, and the bitmap argument referring to imageBitmap's underlying bitmap data.

  5. Set the value of imageBitmap's [[Detached]] internal slot to true.

  6. Unset imageBitmap's bitmap data.

4.12.5.3 The OffscreenCanvas interface

Support: offscreencanvasChrome for Android NoneChrome NoneUC Browser for Android NoneiOS Safari NoneFirefox NoneIE NoneSamsung Internet NoneOpera Mini NoneSafari NoneEdge NoneAndroid Browser NoneOpera None

Source: caniuse.com

typedef (OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D or
        WebGLRenderingContext) OffscreenRenderingContext;

dictionary ImageEncodeOptions {
  DOMString type = "image/png";
  unrestricted double quality = 1.0;
};

enum OffscreenRenderingContextType { "2d", "webgl" };

[Constructor([EnforceRange] unsigned long long width, [EnforceRange] unsigned long long height), Exposed=(Window,Worker), Transferable]
interface OffscreenCanvas : EventTarget {
  attribute unsigned long long width;
  attribute unsigned long long height;

  OffscreenRenderingContext? getContext(OffscreenRenderingContextType contextType, any... arguments);
  ImageBitmap transferToImageBitmap();
  Promise<Blob> convertToBlob(optional ImageEncodeOptions options);
};

OffscreenCanvas objects are used to create rendering contexts, much like an HTMLCanvasElement, but with no connection to the DOM. This makes it possible to use canvas rendering contexts in workers.

An OffscreenCanvas object may hold a weak reference to a placeholder canvas element, which is typically in the DOM, whose embedded content is provided by the OffscreenCanvas object. The bitmap of the OffscreenCanvas object is pushed to the placeholder canvas element by calling the commit() method of the OffscreenCanvas object's rendering context. All rendering context types that can be created by an OffscreenCanvas object must implement a commit() method. The exact behavior of the commit method (e.g. whether it copies or transfers bitmaps) may vary, as defined by the rendering contexts' respective specifications. Only the 2D context for offscreen canvases is defined in this specification.

offscreenCanvas = new OffscreenCanvas(width, height)

Returns a new OffscreenCanvas object that is not linked to a placeholder canvas element, and whose bitmap's size is determined by the width and height arguments.

context = offscreenCanvas . getContext(contextType [, ... ] )

Returns an object that exposes an API for drawing on the OffscreenCanvas object. The first argument specifies the desired API, either "2d", or "webgl". Subsequent arguments are handled by that API.

This specification defines the "2d" context below, which is similar but distinct from the "2d" context that is created from a canvas element. There is also a specification that defines a "webgl" context. [WEBGL]

Returns null if the canvas has already been initialized with another context type (e.g. trying to get a "2d" context after getting a "webgl" context).

An OffscreenCanvas object has an internal bitmap that is initialized when the object is created. The width and height of the bitmap are equal to the values of the width and height attributes of the OffscreenCanvas object. Initially, all the bitmap's pixels are transparent black.

An OffscreenCanvas object can have a rendering context bound to it. Initially, it does not have a bound rendering context. To keep track of whether it has a rendering context or not, and what kind of rendering context it is, an OffscreenCanvas object also has a context mode, which is initially none but can be changed to either 2d, webgl or detached by algorithms defined in this specification.

The constructor OffscreenCanvas(width, height), when invoked, must create a new OffscreenCanvas object with its bitmap initialized to a rectangular array of transparent black pixels of the dimensions specified by width and height; and its width and height attributes initialized to width and height respectively.


OffscreenCanvas objects are transferable. Their transfer steps, given value and dataHolder, are as follows:

  1. If value's context mode is not equal to none, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  2. Set value's context mode to detached.

  3. Let width and height be the dimensions of value's bitmap.

  4. Unset value's bitmap.

  5. Set dataHolder.[[With]] to width, and dataHolder.[[Height]] to height.

  6. Set dataHolder.[[PlaceholderCanvas]] to be a weak reference to value's placeholder canvas element, if value has one, or null if it does not.

Their transfer-receiving steps, given dataHolder and value, are:

  1. Initialize value's bitmap to a rectangular array of transparent black pixels with width given by dataHolder.[[Width]] and height given by dataHolder.[[Height]].

  2. If dataHolder.[[PlaceholderCanvas]] is not null, set value's placeholder canvas element to dataHolder.[[PlaceholderCanvas]] (while maintaining the weak reference semantics).


The getContext(contextId, arguments...) method of an OffscreenCanvas object, when invoked, must run the steps in the cell of the following table whose column header describes the OffscreenCanvas object's context mode and whose row header describes the method's first argument.

none 2d webgl detached
"2d" Follow the steps to create an offscreen 2D context defined in the section below, passing it the OffscreenCanvas object and the method's arguments..., to obtain an OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D object; if this does not throw an exception, then set the OffscreenCanvas object's context mode to 2d, and return the new OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D object. Return the same object as was returned the last time the method was invoked with this same first argument. Return null. Throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.
"webgl" Follow the instructions given in the WebGL specification's Context Creation section to obtain either a WebGLRenderingContext or null; if the returned value is null, then return null; otherwise, set the OffscreenCanvas object's context mode to webgl, and return the WebGLRenderingContext object. [WEBGL] Return null. Return the same value as was returned the last time the method was invoked with this same first argument. Throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

offscreenCanvas . width [ = value ]
offscreenCanvas . height [ = value ]

These attributes return the dimensions of the OffscreenCanvas object's bitmap.

They can be set, to replace the bitmap with a new, transparent black bitmap of the specified dimensions (effectively resizing it).

If either the width or height attributes of an OffscreenCanvas object are set (to a new value or to the same value as before) and the OffscreenCanvas object's context mode is 2d, then replace the OffscreenCanvas object's bitmap with a new transparent black bitmap and reset the rendering context to its default state. The new bitmap's dimensions are equal to the new values of the width and height attributes.

The resizing behavior for "webgl" contexts is defined in the WebGL specification. [WEBGL]

If an OffscreenCanvas object whose dimensions were changed has a placeholder canvas element, then the placeholder canvas element's intrinsic size will only be updated via the commit() method of the OffscreenCanvas object's rendering context.

promise = offscreenCanvas . convertToBlob( [options] )

Returns a promise that will fulfill with a new Blob object representing a file containing the image in the OffscreenCanvas object.

The argument, if provided, is a dictionary that controls the encoding options of the image file to be created. The type field specifies the file format and has a default value of "image/png"; that type is also used if the requested type isn't supported. If the image format supports variable quality (such as "image/jpeg"), then the quality field is a number in the range 0.0 to 1.0 inclusive indicating the desired quality level for the resulting image.

canvas . transferToImageBitmap()

Returns a newly created ImageBitmap object with the image in the OffscreenCanvas object. The image in the OffscreenCanvas object is replaced with a new blank image.

The convertToBlob(options) method, when invoked, must run the following steps:

  1. If the value of this OffscreenCanvas object's [[Detached]] internal slot is set to true, then return a promise rejected with an "InvalidStateError" DOMException and abort these steps.

  2. If this OffscreenCanvas object's context mode is 2d and the rendering context's bitmap's origin-clean flag is set to false, then return a promise rejected with a "SecurityError" DOMException.

  3. If this OffscreenCanvas object's bitmap has no pixels (i.e. either its horizontal dimension or its vertical dimension is zero) then return a promise rejected with an "IndexSizeError" DOMException and abort these steps.

  4. Let result be a new promise object.

  5. Return result, and queue a task to run the remaining steps in parallel.

  6. Let blob be a Blob object, created in the relevant Realm of this OffscreenCanvas object, representing a serialization of this OffscreenCanvas object's bitmap as a file, passing the values of the type and quality fields of options, if options was specified. [FILEAPI]

  7. If blob is null, then reject result with an "EncodingError" DOMException.

  8. Otherwise, resolve result with blob.

The transferToImageBitmap() method, when invoked, must run the following steps:

  1. If the value of this OffscreenCanvas object's [[Detached]] internal slot is set to true, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  2. If this OffscreenCanvas object's context mode is set to none, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException and abort these steps.

  3. Let image be a newly created ImageBitmap object that references the same underlying bitmap data as this OffscreenCanvas object's bitmap.

  4. Set this OffscreenCanvas object's bitmap to reference a newly created bitmap of the same dimensions as the previous bitmap, and with its pixels initialized to transparent black, or opaque black if the rendering context's alpha flag is set to false.

  5. Return image.

4.12.5.3.1 The offscreen 2D rendering context
[Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D {
  void commit();
  readonly attribute OffscreenCanvas canvas;
};

OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasState;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasTransform;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasCompositing;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasImageSmoothing;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasFillStrokeStyles;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasShadowStyles;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasFilters;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasRect;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasDrawPath;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasDrawImage;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasImageData;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasPathDrawingStyles;
OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D implements CanvasPath;

The OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D is a rendering context interface for drawing to the bitmap of an OffscreenCanvas object. It is similar to CanvasRenderingContext2D, with the following differences:

An OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D object has a bitmap that is initialized when the object is created.

The bitmap has an origin-clean flag, which can be set to true or false. Initially, when one of these bitmaps is created, its origin-clean flag must be set to true.

An OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D object also has an alpha flag, which can be set to true or false. Initially, when the context is created, its alpha flag must be set to true. When an OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D object has its alpha flag set to false, then its alpha channel must be fixed to 1.0 (fully opaque) for all pixels, and attempts to change the alpha component of any pixel must be silently ignored.

An OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D object has an associated OffscreenCanvas object, which is the OffscreenCanvas object from which the OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D object was created.

offscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D . commit()

Copies the rendering context's bitmap to the bitmap of the placeholder canvas element of the associated OffscreenCanvas object. The copy operation is asynchronous.

offscreenCanvas = offscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D . canvas

Returns the associated OffscreenCanvas object.

The offscreen 2D context creation algorithm, which is passed a target (an OffscreenCanvas object) and optionally some arguments, consists of running the following steps:

  1. If the algorithm was passed some arguments, let arg be the first such argument. Otherwise, let arg be undefined.

  2. Let settings be the result of coercing the arg context arguments for 2D.

  3. Let context be a new OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D object.

  4. Set context's associated OffscreenCanvas object to target.

  5. Process each of the members of settings as follows:

    alpha
    If false, set context's alpha flag to false.
  6. Set context's bitmap to a newly created bitmap with the dimensions specified by the width and height attributes of target, and set target's bitmap to the same bitmap (so that they are shared).

  7. If context's alpha flag is set to true, initialize all the pixels of context's bitmap to transparent black. Otherwise, initialize the pixels to opaque black.

  8. Return context.

The commit() method, when invoked, must run the following steps:

  1. If this OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D's associated OffscreenCanvas object does not have a placeholder canvas element, abort these steps.

  2. Let image be a copy of this OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D's bitmap, including the value of its origin-clean flag.

  3. Queue a task in the placeholder canvas element's relevant settings object's responsible event loop (which will be a browsing context event loop) to set the placeholder canvas element's output bitmap to be a reference to image.

    If image has different dimensions than the bitmap previously referenced as the placeholder canvas element's output bitmap, then this task will result in a change in the placeholder canvas element's intrinsic size, which can affect document layout.

Implementations are encouraged to short-circuit the graphics update steps of the browsing context event loop for the purposes of updating the contents of a placeholder canvas element to the display. This could mean, for example, that the commit() method can copy the bitmap contents directly to a graphics buffer that is mapped to the physical display location of the placeholder canvas element. This or similar short-circuiting approaches can significantly reduce display latency, especially in cases where the commit() method is invoked from a worker and the event loop of the placeholder canvas element's browsing context is busy. However, such shortcuts can not have any script-observable side-effects. This means that the committed bitmap still needs to be sent to the placeholder canvas element, in case the element is used as a CanvasImageSource, as an ImageBitmapSource, or in case toDataURL() or toBlob() are called on it.

The canvas attribute, on getting, must return this OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D's associated OffscreenCanvas object.

4.12.5.4 Color spaces and color correction

The canvas APIs must perform color correction at only two points: when rendering images with their own gamma correction and color space information onto a bitmap, to convert the image to the color space used by the bitmaps (e.g. using the 2D Context's drawImage() method with an HTMLOrSVGImageElement object), and when rendering the actual canvas bitmap to the output device.

Thus, in the 2D context, colors used to draw shapes onto the canvas will exactly match colors obtained through the getImageData() method.

The toDataURL() method, when invoked, must not include color space information in the resources they return. Where the output format allows it, the color of pixels in resources created by toDataURL() must match those returned by the getImageData() method.

In user agents that support CSS, the color space used by a canvas element must match the color space used for processing any colors for that element in CSS.

The gamma correction and color space information of images must be handled in such a way that an image rendered directly using an img element would use the same colors as one painted on a canvas element that is then itself rendered. Furthermore, the rendering of images that have no color correction information (such as those returned by the toDataURL() method) must be rendered with no color correction.

Thus, in the 2D context, calling the drawImage() method to render the output of the toDataURL() method to the canvas, given the appropriate dimensions, has no visible effect.

4.12.5.5 Serializing bitmaps to a file

When a user agent is to create a serialization of the bitmap as a file, given an optional type and quality, it must create an image file in the format given by type, or if type was not supplied, in the PNG format. If an error occurs during the creation of the image file (e.g. an internal encoder error), then the result of the serialization is null. [PNG]

The image file's pixel data must be the bitmap's pixel data scaled to one image pixel per coordinate space unit, and if the file format used supports encoding resolution metadata, the resolution must be given as 96dpi (one image pixel per CSS pixel).

If type is supplied, then it must be interpreted as a MIME type giving the format to use. If the type has any parameters, then it must be treated as not supported.

For example, the value "image/png" would mean to generate a PNG image, the value "image/jpeg" would mean to generate a JPEG image, and the value "image/svg+xml" would mean to generate an SVG image (which would require that the user agent track how the bitmap was generated, an unlikely, though potentially awesome, feature).

User agents must support PNG ("image/png"). User agents may support other types. If the user agent does not support the requested type, then it must create the file using the PNG format. [PNG]

User agents must convert the provided type to ASCII lowercase before establishing if they support that type.

For image types that do not support an alpha channel, the serialized image must be the bitmap image composited onto a solid black background using the source-over operator.

If type is an image format that supports variable quality (such as "image/jpeg") and quality is given, then, if Type(quality) is Number, and quality is in the range 0.0 to 1.0 inclusive, the user agent must treat quality as the desired quality level. If Type(quality) is not Number, or if quality is outside that range, the user agent must use its default quality value, as if the quality argument had not been given.

The use of type-testing here, instead of simply declaring quality as a Web IDL double, is a historical artifact.

4.12.5.6 Security with canvas elements

This section is non-normative.

Information leakage can occur if scripts from one origin can access information (e.g. read pixels) from images from another origin (one that isn't the same).

To mitigate this, bitmaps used with canvas elements and ImageBitmap objects are defined to have a flag indicating whether they are origin-clean. All bitmaps start with their origin-clean set to true. The flag is set to false when cross-origin images are used.

The toDataURL(), toBlob(), and getImageData() methods check the flag and will throw a "SecurityError" DOMException rather than leak cross-origin data.

The value of the origin-clean flag is propagated from a source canvas element's bitmap to a new ImageBitmap object by createImageBitmap(). Conversely, a destination canvas element's bitmap will have its origin-clean flags set to false by drawImage if the source image is an ImageBitmap object whose bitmap has its origin-clean flag set to false.

The flag can be reset in certain situations; for example, when changing the value of the width or the height content attribute of the canvas element to which a CanvasRenderingContext2D is bound, the bitmap is cleared and its origin-clean flag is reset.

When using an ImageBitmapRenderingContext, the value of the origin-clean flag is propagated from ImageBitmap objects when they are transferred to the canvas via transferFromImageBitmap().