Get a complete guide on HTML 5 Tag to show your art in Web Development
The HTML Canvas tag is truly a great feature and a gifted element for the developers. It enables professionals to craft rich web applications while cutting down the installation of browser plug-ins like Adobe’s Flash player.
Fortunately, all the modern browsers like Firefox, Chrome and internet explorer 9 and 10 support this canvas element. Thus, developers can now play with all the media files and animations to make eye-catching apps with simple efforts. Let’s know more about canvas tags.
What is a Canvas tag?
Canvas tags are defined as an integral part of the HTML5 coding. They enable users to draw different raster-based images like geometric 2D figures, media and other images. The HTML5 canvas animation also brings great styles in the work.
- The user could easily start the coding and watch the result being displayed
- The user could easily start the coding and see the outcome in the browser. This means there is no requirement of the additional plugin like Adobe Flash player.
- One of the most important reasons to choose Canvas is the cost-effective approach. It is a part of the HTML 5 platform and the user doesn’t have to invest in other software. Additionally, it also provides an opportunity to developers to grab new things.
- It enables developers to create simple and complex animations. Furthermore, the use of custom JavaScript code can also be used to show varying levels of animations running.
- The HTML5 canvas is also useful to develop 2D and 3D games. By creating custom graphics on the fly, it is easy to make web-based games more engaging.
- The canvas element is also useful to run ads and banners. This again cut down the need for third-party tools.
What Application can you create using HTML5 Canvas?
1) Gaming
The HTML5 Canvas feature set is an excellent choice for creating a wide range of 2D and 3D games.
2) Advertising
HTML5 Canvas is an excellent substitute for Flash-based banners and advertisements. It contains all of the necessary qualities to attract the attention of potential customers.
3) Data Representation
HTML5 can use the canvas element to collect data from worldwide data sources and create aesthetically appealing and interactive graphs and charts.
4) Art and Decoration
All artistic and decorative images can be drawn with a little imagination and canvas’s large selection of colours, gradients, patterns, transparency, shadows, and clipping functionalities.
Read about: Best React libraries in 2021
How to use Canvas tag?
Using canvas tags requires coding knowledge. The expertise in coding with JavaScript is crucial to implement canvas tags.
To create an element use the <canvas></canvas> tag. Also, you need to define the id attribute to define the canvas tag.
"<canvas id=”myDraw” width =”200” height =”150”></canvas>"
Here we have defined the id attribute as myDraw. We will use the same attribute in further examples.
By default, the canvas will have 300 pixels in width and 150 pixels in height. But you can change them as per the requirement.
For instance "<canvas height =”200”width=”300”></canvas>"
The style attribute will be useful to add the border
<canvas id=” myDraw” width=”300” height=”200” style=”border:1px solid #000000;”>
CSS is used to create the border using the canvas
For example <style>canvas {border:1px solid#333;}</style>
You can also use JavaScript to make this work while generating the ID.
For example <canvas height=”100”width=”200”id=”myDraw”></canvas>
Now insert the canvas ID into the variable as
<script type=”text/javascript”> var canvasID = document.getElementById(“myDraw”);
</script>>
Understanding Canvas Coordinate
The canvas is a two-dimensional rectangular surface. The top-left corner of the canvas has the coordinates (0, 0), which is known as origin, and the bottom-right corner has the coordinates (0, 0). (canvas width, canvas height). Here’s a quick example of how to use the default coordinate system in Canvas.
Let’s see the use of Canvas with JavaScript to draw different shapes
To change the canvas to 2D or 3D you need to use the below code.
Var canvas = canvas.getContext(“2d”)
Drawing Path and Shapes on Canvas
Here is the basic template onto 2D HTML5 canvas for drawing paths and shapes.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta charset=”utf-8″>
<title>Drawing on Canvas</title>
<script>
window.onload = function() {
var canvas = document.getElementById(“myCanvas”);
var context = canvas.getContext(“2d”);
// draw stuff here
};
</script>
</head>
<body>
<canvas id=”myCanvas” width=”300″ height=”200″></canvas>
</body>
</html>
1) Drawing a Line
A straight line is the simplest path you can draw on a Canvas. The most important functions for this are moveTo(), lineTo(), and stroke() ().
The moveTo() function specifies the position of the drawing cursor on the canvas, the lineTo() method specifies the coordinates of the line’s endpoint, and the stroke() method makes the line visible. Let’s have a look at an illustration:
<script>
window.onload = function() {
var canvas = document.getElementById(“myCanvas”);
var context = canvas.getContext(“2d”);
context.moveTo(50, 150);
context.lineTo(250, 50);
context.stroke();
};
</script>
2) Drawing a Arc
You can create arcs using the arc() method.
Example:
<script>
window.onload = function() {
var canvas = document.getElementById(“myCanvas”);
var context = canvas.getContext(“2d”);
context.arc(150, 150, 80, 1.2 * Math.PI, 1.8 * Math.PI, false);
context.stroke();
};
</script>
3) Drawing a Rectangle
The rect() method is used to make a rectangle and square shapes. This technique takes four parameters: the rectangle’s x, y coordinates, and width and height.
Example:
<script>
window.onload = function()
{
var canvas = document.getElementById(“myCanvas”);
var context = canvas.getContext(“2d”);
context.rect(50, 50, 200, 100); context.stroke();
};
</script>
4) Drawing a Circle
There is no particular method for constructing circles, such as the rect() function for rectangles. You can, however, use the arc() function to build a fully enclosed arc, such as a circle.
<script>
window.onload = function()
{
var canvas = document.getElementById(“myCanvas”);
var context = canvas.getContext(“2d”);
context.arc(150, 100, 70, 0, 2 * Math.PI, false);
context.stroke();
};
</script>
5) Drawing Circular Gradient
<script>
var c = document.getElementById(“myDraw”);
var ctx = c.getContext(“2d”);
// Create gradient
var grd = ctx.createRadialGradient(75, 50, 5, 90, 60, 100);
grd.addColorStop(0, “red”);
grd.addColorStop(1, “white”);
// Fill with gradient
ctx.fillStyle = grd;
ctx.fillRect(10, 10, 150, 80);
</script>
Pros of using Canvas
There are a plethora of advantages of considering canvas. Some of them are as follows
- The ability for elements to work on any HTML5 web browser.
- It is simple to create bitmap vectors and graphics on screen because of its HTML5 platform part.
- No requirement of JavaScript parsing.
- It can render images.
- Due to its text-based concept, all the search engines could read it. Thus creating a good effect on SEO.
- It works on both Android and iOS devices due to its cross-platform functionality.
Cons of using Canvas
- Canvas doesn’t work if the JavaScript is disabled in the browser.
- There is only an option to choose the entire element instead of clicking individual items.
Verdict
Canvas is a wonderful element of HTML5. There are a great number of verities of forms and shapes. Open source is easily available for all and requires no investment. The canvas element holds the power to change the boring outlay into catchy animations. The HTML5 Canvas tag is a powerful tool, especially for new developers, as it is an open-source platform that requires no investment.
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