Discover HTML5 Canvas essentials, draw shapes, delve into transformations and animations, and explore interactive applications with advanced mouse and keyboard handling. Gain insights into creating dynamic web graphics.

Kirupa is an MIT grad who works at Microsoft as Senior Program Manager. He has been tinkering with web technologies since 1998. He works on the Edge browser team where he gets to sink his teeth into the cutting-edge web technologies.

HTML5 is taking over the browsers and one of the coolest things in HTML5 is the canvas - the immediate mode drawing surface you have in HTML for bringing pixels to life using JavaScript. It is used to create games, graphs, and animations.

This is an extensive course with interactive playgrounds (so you don't have to install anything). The course can be divided into four parts.

1. Understand basics of Canvas and compare it with DOM.
2. Learn how to draw shapes.
3. Take a deep dive into canvas transformations and animations.
4. Explore advanced mouse and keyboard handling to create truly interactive applications using canvas.

If none of what I just wrote makes sense, then the content here is just what you need 😀 . Let's get started.

HTML5 Canvas: From Noob to Ninja - an interactive deep dive

In the previous section, we basically defined our `canvas` element in markup. While important, what we've just done is a very VERY minor part of working with the `canvas` overall. The real work is about to happen in this section when we write the JavaScript that interacts with the `canvas` element to get pixels to show up on the screen.

# Adding the Script Tags

Before we can write JavaScript, we need a `script` tag that will house the JavaScript we write. You can use an external JavaScript file or keep all of the code in the same document. It will look something as follows:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 
<head>
  <title>Simple Example</title>
  <style>
    canvas {
      border: #333 10px solid;
    }
  </style>
</head>
 
<body>
  <canvas id="myCanvas" width="550px" height="350px"></canvas>
 
  <script>
  </script>
 
</body>
 
</html>

$(document).ready(function () {
$('#content').html('<span>Hello World!</span>');
});


codemirror

With this minor addition, you are now set to write some JavaScript that will interact with our `canvas` element!

# Accessing our Canvas Element

When it comes to working with the `canvas`, the first line of JavaScript you will almost always write will involve getting a reference to the `canvas` element in your HTML. This will allow you to start doing all sorts of canvas-ey things using JavaScript.

Now to get the reference, inside your `script` tag, go ahead and add the following line:

DOM vs. Canvas

Getting Started with the Canvas

Drawing Basics / Lines

Drawing Curves

Drawing Multiple Things

Drawing Rectangles (and Squares)

Drawing Triangles

Drawing Circles

Modifying How Your Corners Look

Working with Colors

Drawing Text

Drawing Images

Canvas Transformations

Structuring Your Drawing Code

Animating with requestAnimationFrame

Creating Animations on the Canvas

Animating Many Things on the Canvas

Creating Motion Trails

Creating Sprite Animations

Working With the Mouse

Follow the Mouse Cursor

Mouse Follow with Ease

Working With the Keyboard

Moving Shapes Using the Keyboard

Resizing the HTML Canvas Element

Detect Whether a Font is Installed

Drawing Things

Adding the Script Tags

Accessing our Canvas Element