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CanvasRenderingContext2D.textAlign

The CanvasRenderingContext2D.textAlign property of the Canvas 2D API specifies the current text alignment being used when drawing text. Beware that the alignment is base on the x value of the CanvasRenderingContext2D.fillText method. So if textAlign="center", then the text would be drawn at x-50%*width.

Syntax

ctx.textAlign = "left" || "right" || "center" || "start" || "end";

Options

Possible values:

left
The text is left-aligned.
right
The text is right-aligned.
center
The text is centered.
start
The text is aligned at the normal start of the line (left-aligned for left-to-right locales, right-aligned for right-to-left locales).
end
The text is aligned at the normal end of the line (right-aligned for left-to-right locales, left-aligned for right-to-left locales).

The default value is start.

Examples

Using the textAlign property

This is just a simple code snippet using the textAlign property to set a different text alignment.

HTML

<canvas id="canvas"></canvas>

JavaScript

var canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
var ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");

ctx.font = "48px serif";
ctx.textAlign = "left";
ctx.strokeText("Hello world", 0, 100);

Edit the code below and see your changes update live in the canvas:

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard
The definition of 'CanvasRenderingContext2D.textAlign' in that specification.
Living Standard  

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support (Yes) 3.5 (1.9.1) 9 (Yes) (Yes)
Feature Android Chrome for Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support (Yes) (Yes) 1.0 (1.9.1) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Contributors to this page: moscartong, fscholz
 Last updated by: moscartong,