In HTML5 Canvas, what's the simplest way to draw and move a line over an Image (already on the canvas), preserving the image underneath? (e.g. have a vertical line track the mouse X position)
My current canvas:
$(document).ready(function() {
canvas = document.getElementById("myCanvas");
context = canvas.getContext("2d");
imageObj = new Image();
imageObj.onload = function() {
context.drawImage(imageObj, 0,0);
}
imageObj.src = "http://example.com/some_image.png";
$('#myCanvas').click(doSomething);
});
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You will have to do most of the ground-work with canvas which in this case you will have to implement the functionality to move the line and then redraw everything.
The steps can be:
- Keep the line as an object which can self-render (method on the object)
- Listen to mousemove (in this case) in order to move the line
- For each move, redraw background (image) then render the line at its new position
You can redraw the background as a whole or you can optimize it to just draw over the last line.
Here is some example code of this and a live demo here:
var canvas = document.getElementById('demo'), /// canvas element
ctx = canvas.getContext('2d'), /// context
line = new Line(ctx), /// our custom line object
img = new Image; /// the image for bg
ctx.strokeStyle = '#fff'; /// white line for demo
/// start image loading, when done draw and setup
img.onload = start;
img.src = 'http://i.imgur.com/O712qpO.jpg';
function start() {
/// initial draw of image
ctx.drawImage(img, 0, 0, demo.width, demo.height);
/// listen to mouse move (or use jQuery on('mousemove') instead)
canvas.onmousemove = updateLine;
}
Now all we need to do is to have a mechnism to update the background and the line for each move:
/// updates the line on each mouse move
function updateLine(e) {
/// correct mouse position so it's relative to canvas
var r = canvas.getBoundingClientRect(),
x = e.clientX - r.left,
y = e.clientY - r.top;
/// draw background image to clear previous line
ctx.drawImage(img, 0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
/// update line object and draw it
line.x1 = x;
line.y1 = 0;
line.x2 = x;
line.y2 = canvas.height;
line.draw();
}
The custom line object is in this demo very simple:
/// This lets us define a custom line object which self-draws
function Line(ctx) {
var me = this;
this.x1 = 0;
this.x2 = 0;
this.y1 = 0;
this.y2 = 0;
/// call this method to update line
this.draw = function() {
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.moveTo(me.x1, me.y1);
ctx.lineTo(me.x2, me.y2);
ctx.stroke();
}
}
If you are not gonna do anything specific with the image itself you can also set it as a background-image using CSS. You will still need to clear the canvas before redrawing the line though.
You can get your "crosshairs" by listening to mousemove events and then:
- clear the canvas
- draw the image
- draw your line at the mouse position
Here is code and a Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/m1erickson/jEc7N/
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="css/reset.css" /> <!-- reset css -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery.min.js"></script>
<style>
body{ background-color: ivory; padding:20px; }
#canvas{border:1px solid red;}
</style>
<script>
$(function(){
var canvas=document.getElementById("canvas");
var ctx=canvas.getContext("2d");
ctx.lineWidth=2;
var canvasOffset=$("#canvas").offset();
var offsetX=canvasOffset.left;
var offsetY=canvasOffset.top;
var img=new Image();
img.onload=function(){
canvas.width=img.width;
canvas.height=img.height;
ctx.drawImage(img,0,0);
}
img.src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/139992952/stackoverflow/KoolAidMan.png";
function handleMouseMove(e){
mouseX=parseInt(e.clientX-offsetX);
mouseY=parseInt(e.clientY-offsetY);
ctx.clearRect(0,0,canvas.width,canvas.height);
ctx.drawImage(img,0,0);
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.moveTo(mouseX,0);
ctx.lineTo(mouseX,canvas.height);
ctx.moveTo(0,mouseY);
ctx.lineTo(canvas.width,mouseY);
ctx.stroke();
}
$("#canvas").mousemove(function(e){handleMouseMove(e);});
}); // end $(function(){});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<canvas id="canvas" width=300 height=300></canvas>
</body>
</html>
May this is not an actual answer, just in case you need it (in the future). Working with canvas would be better (and easier) with some library. I have tried EaselJS of CreateJS and find myself loving it.
You can have a look at it EaselJS
(I have done an example allow drawing and dragging image using EaselJS long time before)
