Is there a Javascript library for Paint-like applications using canvas?

Ivan picture Ivan · Aug 20, 2011 · Viewed 24.5k times · Source

Is there a Javascript library which has built-in features for quickly creating a Paint-like web application using the canvas element?

EDIT: So, far, I have found Javascript libraries that allow easy animation of canvas elements -- such as Raphael JS -- and Javascript tutorials for creating simple Paint apps, but no robust libraries for Paint-like applications.

EDIT 2: I found a Javascript tutorial on a pretty nice looking Paint app using the canvas element. I'd still like to see what others have found.

Answer

rsp picture rsp · Jan 25, 2013

Raphaël

Raphaël doesn't use Canvas. It uses SVG on browsers that support it or VML on Internet Explorer.

SVG

If you want an SVG solution designed specifically for drawing then take a look at:

See this demo.

Canvas

If you want to use Canvas but you need a retained mode rendering then see:

Update (February 2014)

  • ART, a retained mode vector drawing API - targets all three of HTML5 Canvas, SVG and VML (plus some code generation). Used by the Facebook team together with the React UI toolkit (see: react-art and the "art" branch of the react-page project on GitHub).