CanvasRenderingContext2D.textBaseline

The CanvasRenderingContext2D.textBaseline property of the Canvas 2D API specifies the current text baseline being used when drawing text.

Syntax

ctx.textBaseline = "top" || "hanging" || "middle" || "alphabetic" || "ideographic" || "bottom";

Options

Possible values:

top

The text baseline is the top of the em square.

hanging

The text baseline is the hanging baseline. (Used by Tibetan and other Indic scripts.)

middle

The text baseline is the middle of the em square.

alphabetic (default value)

The text baseline is the normal alphabetic baseline.

ideographic

The text baseline is the ideographic baseline; this is the bottom of the body of the characters, if the main body of characters protrudes beneath the alphabetic baseline. (Used by Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts.)

bottom

The text baseline is the bottom of the bounding box. This differs from the ideographic baseline in that the ideographic baseline doesn't consider descenders.

The default value is alphabetic.

Examples

Using the textBaseline property

This demonstrates the different textBaseline property values.

HTML

<canvas id="canvas" width="550" height="500"></canvas>

JavaScript

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

var baselines = ['top', 'hanging', 'middle', 'alphabetic', 'ideographic', 'bottom'];
ctx.font = '36px serif';
ctx.strokeStyle = 'red';

baselines.forEach(function (baseline, index) {
    ctx.textBaseline = baseline;
    var y = 75 + index * 75;
    ctx.beginPath(); ctx.moveTo(0, y + 0.5); ctx.lineTo(550, y + 0.5); ctx.stroke();
    ctx.fillText('Abcdefghijklmnop (' + baseline + ')', 0, y);
});

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

<canvas id="canvas" width="550" height="500" 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">
var baselines = ['top', 'hanging', 'middle', 'alphabetic', 'ideographic', 'bottom'];
ctx.font = '36px serif';
ctx.strokeStyle = 'red';
baselines.forEach(function (baseline, index) {
    ctx.textBaseline = baseline;
    var y = 75 + index * 75;
    ctx.beginPath(); ctx.moveTo(0, y + 0.5); ctx.lineTo(550, y + 0.5); ctx.stroke();
    ctx.fillText('Abcdefghijklmnop (' + baseline + ')', 0, y);
});
</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.save();
  ctx.clearRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
  eval(textarea.value);
  ctx.restore();
}

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.