The Canvas element, perhaps one of the most interesting elements in the internet today, was developed in 2004 by Apple but was eventually added as an HTML5 plugin by the International Consortium for Internet Standards (or the W3C), thus becoming one of the most significant plugins of the HTML5 standard.
Not every day we write a guide for the advanced! So if you are Front-End programmers who want to develop, this is for you!
Building websites using the Canvas element
Until a few years ago we were witness to quite banal websites and it was rare to find a website that would both provide the information or service we are looking for and make us enjoy staying on the website, with the development of technology we saw more and more languages, technologies and tools in the field of website building on the Internet and design such as Photoshop, JavaScript, J Query, Flash, HTML5 and more.
The recently introduced HTML5 device introduced us to a number of new elements that made the work of the programmer much easier, among the new features was the Canvas element, with which you can create real graphics without any need for external software and the purchase of licenses.
The Canvas element allows the construction of interactive and modern websites.
The Canvas element is a bit more complicated than the usual HTML5 elements that you are used to working with and requires a bit more skill and professionalism than knowledge of styling and tags.
The Canvas element allows creating graphics, animations and games by JavaScript code and rendering graphics and video using HTML5, also the element includes width and height values similar to the <img> element.
How to work with Canvas
As we mentioned earlier, the Canvas element has width and height values in order to provide it with the appropriate dimensions, then you can use CSS to make the Canvas visible and even change its rotation and position using the transition option in CSS3 (mouseover effect).
Also, like any HTML5 element it can be mapped, background color, borders and more, you can connect to the element CSS settings , shading and hover settings.
In order to work with the Canvas element, it is necessary to identify it using DOM (Document Object Module), as soon as the Canvas is identified, the “getContext” method is used. In the JavaScript code that allows access to the API in the Canvas painter.
As part of a new feature that was added in Install HTML5 , the Canvas element is used to build interactive and professional websites much more than before, surfing the Internet allows a real experience and not another boring content page.
Why should you use Canvas
Many will argue that this is excessive and useless work that in order to create simple objects it is necessary to use such a complicated element that requires a lot from the user, but this is only if you use the Canvas element to create simple objects when you can create them very simply without this element, using Canvas is intended for drawing dynamic objects.
specialization in the element
- Default color for each shape is black, after that you can choose colors as needed.
- There are currently two types of connections bCanvas, the context of webgl and 2d, where 2d is the more popular while webgl is the context whose purpose is to perform a three-dimensional rendering in the Canvas element.
- Each Canvas element starts as an empty element until we define it and design it, an action that allows it not to be displayed on the page before any change has been made to it.
- The element will not always display a stable resolution after rendering.
supported browsers
If you want to make use of creating graphics using Canvas remember that this element is responsive to browsers in the following versions;
- Internet Explorer 9
- Firefox 3.0 +
- Chrome 3.0 +
- Safari 3.0 +
- Opera 10.0 +
- I Phone 1.0 +
- Android 1.0 +
Properties for creating rectangles in the Canvas element
- The value "fillStyle” Which in its default state was black in color and can change to anything else according to the user's will, can be a CSS color, a pattern, or a gradient.
- The value "fillRect” (width, height, X, Y) – Its purpose is to fill the illustrated rectangle in the requested style.
- The value "clearRect” (width, height, X, Y) – Clears the pixels from the above rectangle.
- The value "strokeStyle” can behave like the value of the "fillStyle” and function as a CSS color, pattern or gradient.