Get pixel color from canvas, on mousemove

vince83000 picture vince83000 · Jul 18, 2011 · Viewed 110.4k times · Source

Is it possible to get the RGB value pixel under the mouse? Is there a complete example of this? Here's what I have so far:

function draw() {
      var ctx = document.getElementById('canvas').getContext('2d');
      var img = new Image();
      img.src = 'Your URL';

      img.onload = function(){
        ctx.drawImage(img,0,0);


      };

      canvas.onmousemove = function(e) {
            var mouseX, mouseY;

            if(e.offsetX) {
                mouseX = e.offsetX;
                mouseY = e.offsetY;
            }
            else if(e.layerX) {
                mouseX = e.layerX;
                mouseY = e.layerY;
            }
            var c = ctx.getImageData(mouseX, mouseY, 1, 1).data;
            
            $('#ttip').css({'left':mouseX+20, 'top':mouseY+20}).html(c[0]+'-'+c[1]+'-'+c[2]);
      };
    }

Answer

Wayne picture Wayne · Jul 18, 2011

Here's a complete, self-contained example. First, use the following HTML:

<canvas id="example" width="200" height="60"></canvas>
<div id="status"></div>

Then put some squares on the canvas with random background colors:

var example = document.getElementById('example');
var context = example.getContext('2d');
context.fillStyle = randomColor();
context.fillRect(0, 0, 50, 50);
context.fillStyle = randomColor();
context.fillRect(55, 0, 50, 50);
context.fillStyle = randomColor();
context.fillRect(110, 0, 50, 50);

And print each color on mouseover:

$('#example').mousemove(function(e) {
    var pos = findPos(this);
    var x = e.pageX - pos.x;
    var y = e.pageY - pos.y;
    var coord = "x=" + x + ", y=" + y;
    var c = this.getContext('2d');
    var p = c.getImageData(x, y, 1, 1).data; 
    var hex = "#" + ("000000" + rgbToHex(p[0], p[1], p[2])).slice(-6);
    $('#status').html(coord + "<br>" + hex);
});

The code above assumes the presence of jQuery and the following utility functions:

function findPos(obj) {
    var curleft = 0, curtop = 0;
    if (obj.offsetParent) {
        do {
            curleft += obj.offsetLeft;
            curtop += obj.offsetTop;
        } while (obj = obj.offsetParent);
        return { x: curleft, y: curtop };
    }
    return undefined;
}

function rgbToHex(r, g, b) {
    if (r > 255 || g > 255 || b > 255)
        throw "Invalid color component";
    return ((r << 16) | (g << 8) | b).toString(16);
}

function randomInt(max) {
  return Math.floor(Math.random() * max);
}

function randomColor() {
    return `rgb(${randomInt(256)}, ${randomInt(256)}, ${randomInt(256)})`
}

See it in action here:

// set up some sample squares with random colors
var example = document.getElementById('example');
var context = example.getContext('2d');
context.fillStyle = randomColor();
context.fillRect(0, 0, 50, 50);
context.fillStyle = randomColor();
context.fillRect(55, 0, 50, 50);
context.fillStyle = randomColor();
context.fillRect(110, 0, 50, 50);

$('#example').mousemove(function(e) {
    var pos = findPos(this);
    var x = e.pageX - pos.x;
    var y = e.pageY - pos.y;
    var coord = "x=" + x + ", y=" + y;
    var c = this.getContext('2d');
    var p = c.getImageData(x, y, 1, 1).data; 
    var hex = "#" + ("000000" + rgbToHex(p[0], p[1], p[2])).slice(-6);
    $('#status').html(coord + "<br>" + hex);
});

function findPos(obj) {
    var curleft = 0, curtop = 0;
    if (obj.offsetParent) {
        do {
            curleft += obj.offsetLeft;
            curtop += obj.offsetTop;
        } while (obj = obj.offsetParent);
        return { x: curleft, y: curtop };
    }
    return undefined;
}

function rgbToHex(r, g, b) {
    if (r > 255 || g > 255 || b > 255)
        throw "Invalid color component";
    return ((r << 16) | (g << 8) | b).toString(16);
}

function randomInt(max) {
  return Math.floor(Math.random() * max);
}

function randomColor() {
    return `rgb(${randomInt(256)}, ${randomInt(256)}, ${randomInt(256)})`
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<canvas id="example" width="200" height="60"></canvas>
<div id="status"></div>