CanvasRenderingContext2D.fillText()

The CanvasRenderingContext2D.fillText() method of the Canvas 2D API fills a given text at the given (x, y) position. If the optional fourth parameter for a maximum width is provided, the text will be scaled to fit that width.

See also the CanvasRenderingContext2D.strokeText() method to draw stroked text.

Syntax

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

Parameters

text

The text to render using the current font, textAlign, textBaseline, and direction values.

x

The x axis of the coordinate for the text starting point.

y

The y axis of the coordinate for the text starting point.

maxWidth Optional

The maximum width to draw.  If specified, and the string is computed to be wider than this width, the font is adjusted to use a more horizontally condensed font (if one is available or if a reasonably readable one can be synthesized by scaling the current font horizontally) or a smaller font.

Examples

Using the fillText method

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

HTML

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

JavaScript

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

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

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

<canvas id="canvas" width="400" height="200" 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

• The interface defining it, CanvasRenderingContext2D
• CanvasRenderingContext2D.strokeText()