Canvas width and height in HTML5

Question

Is it possible to fix the width and height of an HTML5 canvas element?

The usual way is the following :

<canvas id="canvas" width="300" height="300"></canvas>

Answer 1

The canvas DOM element has .height and .width properties that correspond to the height="…" and width="…" attributes. Set them to numeric values in JavaScript code to resize your canvas. For example:

var canvas = document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0];
canvas.width  = 800;
canvas.height = 600;

Note that this clears the canvas, though you should follow with ctx.clearRect( 0, 0, ctx.canvas.width, ctx.canvas.height); to handle those browsers that don't fully clear the canvas. You'll need to redraw of any content you wanted displayed after the size change.

Note further that the height and width are the logical canvas dimensions used for drawing and are different from the style.height and style.width CSS attributes. If you don't set the CSS attributes, the intrinsic size of the canvas will be used as its display size; if you do set the CSS attributes, and they differ from the canvas dimensions, your content will be scaled in the browser. For example:

// Make a canvas that has a blurry pixelated zoom-in
// with each canvas pixel drawn showing as roughly 2x2 on screen
canvas.width  = 400;
canvas.height = 300; 
canvas.style.width  = '800px';
canvas.style.height = '600px';

See this live example of a canvas that is zoomed in by 4x.

var c = document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0];
var ctx = c.getContext('2d');
ctx.lineWidth   = 1;
ctx.strokeStyle = '#f00';
ctx.fillStyle   = '#eff';

ctx.fillRect(  10.5, 10.5, 20, 20 );
ctx.strokeRect( 10.5, 10.5, 20, 20 );
ctx.fillRect(   40, 10.5, 20, 20 );
ctx.strokeRect( 40, 10.5, 20, 20 );
ctx.fillRect(   70, 10, 20, 20 );
ctx.strokeRect( 70, 10, 20, 20 );

ctx.strokeStyle = '#fff';
ctx.strokeRect( 10.5, 10.5, 20, 20 );
ctx.strokeRect( 40, 10.5, 20, 20 );
ctx.strokeRect( 70, 10, 20, 20 );

body { background:#eee; margin:1em; text-align:center }
canvas { background:#fff; border:1px solid #ccc; width:400px; height:160px }

<canvas width="100" height="40"></canvas>
<p>Showing that re-drawing the same antialiased lines does not obliterate old antialiased lines.</p>

Answer 2

A canvas has 2 sizes, the dimension of the pixels in the canvas (it's backingstore or drawingBuffer) and the display size. The number of pixels is set using the the canvas attributes. In HTML

<canvas width="400" height="300"></canvas>

Or in JavaScript

someCanvasElement.width = 400;
someCanvasElement.height = 300;

Separate from that are the canvas's CSS style width and height

In CSS

canvas {  /* or some other selector */
   width: 500px;
   height: 400px;
}

Or in JavaScript

canvas.style.width = "500px";
canvas.style.height = "400px";

The arguably best way to make a canvas 1x1 pixels is to ALWAYS USE CSS to choose the size then write a tiny bit of JavaScript to make the number of pixels match that size.

function resizeCanvasToDisplaySize(canvas) {
   // look up the size the canvas is being displayed
   const width = canvas.clientWidth;
   const height = canvas.clientHeight;

   // If it's resolution does not match change it
   if (canvas.width !== width || canvas.height !== height) {
     canvas.width = width;
     canvas.height = height;
     return true;
   }

   return false;
}

Why is this the best way? Because it works in most cases without having to change any code.

Here's a full window canvas:

const ctx = document.querySelector("#c").getContext("2d");

function render(time) {
  time *= 0.001;
  resizeCanvasToDisplaySize(ctx.canvas);
 
  ctx.fillStyle = "#DDE";
  ctx.fillRect(0, 0, ctx.canvas.width, ctx.canvas.height);
  ctx.save();
 
  const spacing = 64;
  const size = 48;
  const across = ctx.canvas.width / spacing + 1;
  const down = ctx.canvas.height / spacing + 1;
  const s = Math.sin(time);
  const c = Math.cos(time);
  for (let y = 0; y < down; ++y) {
    for (let x = 0; x < across; ++x) {
      ctx.setTransform(c, -s, s, c, x * spacing, y * spacing);
      ctx.strokeRect(-size / 2, -size / 2, size, size);
    }
  }
  
  ctx.restore();
  
  requestAnimationFrame(render);
}
requestAnimationFrame(render);

function resizeCanvasToDisplaySize(canvas) {
   // look up the size the canvas is being displayed
   const width = canvas.clientWidth;
   const height = canvas.clientHeight;

   // If it's resolution does not match change it
   if (canvas.width !== width || canvas.height !== height) {
     canvas.width = width;
     canvas.height = height;
     return true;
   }

   return false;
}

body { margin: 0; }
canvas { display: block; width: 100vw; height: 100vh; }

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

And Here's a canvas as a float in a paragraph

const ctx = document.querySelector("#c").getContext("2d");

function render(time) {
  time *= 0.001;
  resizeCanvasToDisplaySize(ctx.canvas);
 
  ctx.fillStyle = "#DDE";
  ctx.fillRect(0, 0, ctx.canvas.width, ctx.canvas.height);
  ctx.save();
 
  const spacing = 64;
  const size = 48;
  const across = ctx.canvas.width  / spacing + 1;
  const down   = ctx.canvas.height / spacing + 1;
  const s = Math.sin(time);
  const c = Math.cos(time);
  for (let y = 0; y <= down; ++y) {
    for (let x = 0; x <= across; ++x) {
      ctx.setTransform(c, -s, s, c, x * spacing, y * spacing);
      ctx.strokeRect(-size / 2, -size / 2, size, size);
    }
  }
  
  ctx.restore();
  
  requestAnimationFrame(render);
}
requestAnimationFrame(render);

function resizeCanvasToDisplaySize(canvas) {
   // look up the size the canvas is being displayed
   const width = canvas.clientWidth;
   const height = canvas.clientHeight;

   // If it's resolution does not match change it
   if (canvas.width !== width || canvas.height !== height) {
     canvas.width = width;
     canvas.height = height;
     return true;
   }

   return false;
}

span { 
   width: 250px; 
   height: 100px; 
   float: left; 
   padding: 1em 1em 1em 0;
   display: inline-block;
}
canvas {
   width: 100%;
   height: 100%;
}

<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent cursus venenatis metus. Mauris ac nibh at odio scelerisque scelerisque. Donec ut enim <span class="diagram"><canvas id="c"></canvas></span>
vel urna gravida imperdiet id ac odio. Aenean congue hendrerit eros id facilisis. In vitae leo ullamcorper, aliquet leo a, vehicula magna. Proin sollicitudin vestibulum aliquet. Sed et varius justo.
<br/><br/>
Quisque tempor metus in porttitor placerat. Nulla vehicula sem nec ipsum commodo, at tincidunt orci porttitor. Duis porttitor egestas dui eu viverra. Sed et ipsum eget odio pharetra semper. Integer tempor orci quam, eget aliquet velit consectetur sit amet. Maecenas maximus placerat arcu in varius. Morbi semper, quam a ullamcorper interdum, augue nisl sagittis urna, sed pharetra lectus ex nec elit. Nullam viverra lacinia tellus, bibendum maximus nisl dictum id. Phasellus mauris quam, rutrum ut congue non, hendrerit sollicitudin urna.
</p>

Here's a canvas in a sizable control panel

const ctx = document.querySelector("#c").getContext("2d");

function render(time) {
  time *= 0.001;
  resizeCanvasToDisplaySize(ctx.canvas);

  ctx.fillStyle = "#DDE";
  ctx.fillRect(0, 0, ctx.canvas.width, ctx.canvas.height);
  ctx.save();
 
  const spacing = 64;
  const size = 48;
  const across = ctx.canvas.width / spacing + 1;
  const down = ctx.canvas.height / spacing + 1;
  const s = Math.sin(time);
  const c = Math.cos(time);
  for (let y = 0; y < down; ++y) {
    for (let x = 0; x < across; ++x) {
      ctx.setTransform(c, -s, s, c, x * spacing, y * spacing);
      ctx.strokeRect(-size / 2, -size / 2, size, size);
    }
  }
  
  ctx.restore();
  
  requestAnimationFrame(render);
}
requestAnimationFrame(render);

function resizeCanvasToDisplaySize(canvas) {
   // look up the size the canvas is being displayed
   const width = canvas.clientWidth;
   const height = canvas.clientHeight;

   // If it's resolution does not match change it
   if (canvas.width !== width || canvas.height !== height) {
     canvas.width = width;
     canvas.height = height;
     return true;
   }

   return false;
}

// ----- the code above related to the canvas does not change ----
// ---- the code below is related to the slider ----
const $ = document.querySelector.bind(document);
const left = $(".left");
const slider = $(".slider");
let dragging;
let lastX;
let startWidth;

slider.addEventListener('mousedown', e => {
 lastX = e.pageX;
 dragging = true;
});

window.addEventListener('mouseup', e => {
 dragging = false;
});

window.addEventListener('mousemove', e => {
  if (dragging) {
    const deltaX = e.pageX - lastX;
    left.style.width = left.clientWidth + deltaX + "px";
    lastX = e.pageX;
  }
});

body { 
  margin: 0;
}
.frame {
  display: flex;
  align-items: space-between;
  height: 100vh;
}
.left {
  width: 70%;
  left: 0;
  top: 0;
  right: 0;
  bottom: 0;
}  
canvas {
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
}
pre {
  padding: 1em;
}
.slider {
  width: 10px;
  background: #000;
}
.right {
  flex 1 1 auto;
}

<div class="frame">
  <div class="left">
     <canvas id="c"></canvas>
  </div>
  <div class="slider">
  
  </div>
  <div class="right">
     <pre>
* controls
* go 
* here

&lt;- drag this
     </pre>
  </div>
</div>

here's a canvas as a background

const ctx = document.querySelector("#c").getContext("2d");

function render(time) {
  time *= 0.001;
  resizeCanvasToDisplaySize(ctx.canvas);
 
  ctx.fillStyle = "#DDE";
  ctx.fillRect(0, 0, ctx.canvas.width, ctx.canvas.height);
  ctx.save();
 
  const spacing = 64;
  const size = 48;
  const across = ctx.canvas.width / spacing + 1;
  const down = ctx.canvas.height / spacing + 1;
  const s = Math.sin(time);
  const c = Math.cos(time);
  for (let y = 0; y < down; ++y) {
    for (let x = 0; x < across; ++x) {
      ctx.setTransform(c, -s, s, c, x * spacing, y * spacing);
      ctx.strokeRect(-size / 2, -size / 2, size, size);
    }
  }
  
  ctx.restore();
  
  requestAnimationFrame(render);
}
requestAnimationFrame(render);

function resizeCanvasToDisplaySize(canvas) {
   // look up the size the canvas is being displayed
   const width = canvas.clientWidth;
   const height = canvas.clientHeight;

   // If it's resolution does not match change it
   if (canvas.width !== width || canvas.height !== height) {
     canvas.width = width;
     canvas.height = height;
     return true;
   }

   return false;
}

body { margin: 0; }
canvas { 
  display: block; 
  width: 100vw; 
  height: 100vh;  
  position: fixed;
}
#content {
  position: absolute;
  margin: 0 1em;
  font-size: xx-large;
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-weight: bold;
  text-shadow: 2px  2px 0 #FFF, 
              -2px -2px 0 #FFF,
              -2px  2px 0 #FFF,
               2px -2px 0 #FFF;
}

<canvas id="c"></canvas>
<div id="content">
<p>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent cursus venenatis metus. Mauris ac nibh at odio scelerisque scelerisque. Donec ut enim vel urna gravida imperdiet id ac odio. Aenean congue hendrerit eros id facilisis. In vitae leo ullamcorper, aliquet leo a, vehicula magna. Proin sollicitudin vestibulum aliquet. Sed et varius justo.
</p>
<p>
Quisque tempor metus in porttitor placerat. Nulla vehicula sem nec ipsum commodo, at tincidunt orci porttitor. Duis porttitor egestas dui eu viverra. Sed et ipsum eget odio pharetra semper. Integer tempor orci quam, eget aliquet velit consectetur sit amet. Maecenas maximus placerat arcu in varius. Morbi semper, quam a ullamcorper interdum, augue nisl sagittis urna, sed pharetra lectus ex nec elit. Nullam viverra lacinia tellus, bibendum maximus nisl dictum id. Phasellus mauris quam, rutrum ut congue non, hendrerit sollicitudin urna.
</p>
</div>

Because I didn't set the attributes the only thing that changed in each sample is the CSS (as far as the canvas is concerned)

Notes:

• Don't put borders or padding on a canvas element. Computing the size to subtract from the number of dimensions of the element is troublesome

Answer 3

Thank you very much! Finally I solved the blurred pixels problem with this code:

<canvas id="graph" width=326 height=240 style='width:326px;height:240px'></canvas>

With the addition of the 'half-pixel' does the trick to unblur lines.