canvas

Table of contents

  1. 1. Summary
  2. 2. Usage context
  3. 3. Attributes
  4. 4. DOM interface
  5. 5. Examples
  6. 6. Browser compatibility
    1. 6.1. Browser-specific notes
      1. 6.1.1. Firefox (Gecko)
  7. 7. See also
Page Notifications Off

Introduced in HTML 5

Summary

The Canvas (<canvas>) HTML element can be used to draw graphics via scripting (usually JavaScript). For example, it can be used to draw graphs, make photo compositions or even perform animations.

For more articles on canvas, see the canvas topic page.

Usage context

Permitted content Transparent, either phrasing content or flow content.
Tag omission None, both the start tag and end tag must be included
Permitted parent elements Any element that accepts phrasing content or any element that accepts flow content. 
Normative document HTML 5, section 4.8.10

Attributes

Like all other HTML elements, this element has the global attributes.

width
 The width of the coordinate space in CSS pixels. Defaults to 300.
height
The height of the coordinate space in CSS pixels. Defaults to 150.

Note: The displayed size of the canvas can be changed using a stylesheet. The image is scaled during rendering to fit the styled size.

DOM interface

Examples

<canvas id="canvas" width="300" height="300">
  Sorry, your browser doesn't support the &lt;canvas&gt; element.
</canvas>

Browser compatibility

  • Desktop
  • Mobile

Feature Firefox (Gecko) Chrome Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 1.5 (1.8) 1.0 9.0 9.0 1.0
Feature Firefox Mobile (Gecko) Android IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support 1.0 (1.8) ? ? ? 1.0

Browser-specific notes

Firefox (Gecko)

  • Before Gecko 5.0 (Firefox 5.0 / Thunderbird 5.0 / SeaMonkey 2.2) , the canvas width and height were signed integers instead of unsigned integers.
  • Prior to Gecko 6.0 (Firefox 6.0 / Thunderbird 6.0 / SeaMonkey 2.3) , a <canvas> element with a zero width or height would be rendered as if it had default dimensions.

See also

Tags (5)

Edit tags

Attachments (0)

 

Attach file