CanvasRenderingContext2D.fillText

The CanvasRenderingContext2D method fillText(), part of the Canvas 2D API, draws a text string at the specified coordinates, filling the string's characters with the current foreground color. An optional parameter allows specifying a maximum width for the rendered text, which the user agent will achieve by condensing the text or by using a lower font size.

The text is rendered using the font and text layout configuration as defined by the font, textAlign, textBaseline, and direction properties.

To draw the outlines of the characters in a string, call the context's strokeText() method.

Syntax

CanvasRenderingContext2D.fillText(text, x, y [, maxWidth]);

Parameters

text

A DOMString specifying the text string to render into the context. The text is rendered using the settings specified by font, textAlign, textBaseline, and direction.

x

The x -coordinate of the point at which to begin drawing the text, in pixels.

y

The y-coordinate of the point at which to begin drawing the text, in pixels.

maxWidth Optional

The maximum number of pixels wide the string may be once rendered. If not specified, there is no limit to the width of the string. However, if this value is provided, the user agent will adjust the kerning, select a more horizontally condensed font (if one is available or can be generated without loss of quality), or scale down to a smaller font size in order to fit the text in the specified width.

Return value

undefined.

Example

This is just a simple code snippet which uses the fillText() method.

HTML

First, we need a canvas to draw into. This code creates a context 650 pixels wide and 300 pixels across.

<canvas id="canvas" width="600" height="250"></canvas>

JavaScript

The JavaScript code for this example follows.

var canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

ctx.font = '48px serif';
ctx.fillText('Hello world', 50, 100);

This code obtains a reference to the <canvas>, then gets a reference to its 2D graphics context.

With that in hand, we set the font to 48-pixel-tall "serif" (the user's default serif font), then call fillText() to draw the text "Hello world", starting at the coordinates (50, 100).

Result

Edit the code below and see your changes update live in the canvas:

Playable code

<canvas id="canvas" width=600 height=250 class="playable-canvas"></canvas>
<div class="playable-buttons">
  <input id="edit" type="button" value="Edit" />
  <input id="reset" type="button" value="Reset" />
</div>
<textarea id="code" class="playable-code">
ctx.font = "48px serif";
ctx.fillText("Hello world", 50, 100);</textarea>

var canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
var ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
var textarea = document.getElementById("code");
var reset = document.getElementById("reset");
var edit = document.getElementById("edit");
var code = textarea.value;

function drawCanvas() {
  ctx.clearRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
  eval(textarea.value);
}

reset.addEventListener("click", function() {
  textarea.value = code;
  drawCanvas();
});

edit.addEventListener("click", function() {
  textarea.focus();
})

textarea.addEventListener("input", drawCanvas);
window.addEventListener("load", drawCanvas);

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Drawing text
• CanvasRenderingContext2D
• CanvasRenderingContext2D.strokeText()