<canvas>

Summary

The HTML <canvas> 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. You may (and should) provide alternate content inside the <canvas> block. That content will be rendered both on older browsers that don't support canvas and in browsers with JavaScript disabled.

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

• Content categories Flow content, phrasing content, embedded content, palpable content.
• Permitted content Transparent but with no interactive content descendants except for <a> elements, <button> elements, <input> elements whose type attribute is checkbox, radio, or button.
• Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
• Permitted parent elements Any element that accepts phrasing_content.
• DOM interface HTMLCanvasElement

Attributes

This element includes 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.

Examples

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

Specifications

Browser compatibility

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.
• Before Gecko 12.0 (Firefox 12.0 / Thunderbird 12.0 / SeaMonkey 2.9), if JavaScript is disabled, the <canvas> element was being rendered instead of showing the fallback content as per the specification. Now the fallback content is rendered instead.

See also

• MDN canvas portal
• A canvas tutorial
• Canvas cheat sheet
• Canvas-related demos