What is html5 canvas?

Question

I'm a little confused to what html5 canvas is. I've been told it is javascript, but it seems to be a much bigger deal?

1. What makes it different than javascript?

2. Why is it so amazing?

3. Does it do other things than javascript?

Thanks,

Dan

Answer 1

I suggest you read this article HTML5 Canvas - the basics

But in short. It does not replace javascript.

HTML 5 canvas gives you an easy and powerful way to draw graphics using JavaScript. For each canvas element you can use a "context" (think about a page in a drawing pad), into which you can issue JavaScript commands to draw anything you want. Browsers can implement multiple canvas contexts and the different APIs provide the drawing functionality.

Answer 2

The canvas is basically an img element that you can draw on using javascript.

Answer 3

The Canvas element is essentially a drawing canvas that can be painted on programmatically; a sort of scriptable bitmap drawing tool for the web.

I suppose the "amazing" thing about it, apart from the fact that we can now all create web-based MS Paint clones with ease, is that you have a much richer, completely free-form area for creating complex graphics client-side and on-the-fly. You can draw pretty graphs, or do things with photos. Allegedly, you can also do animation!

Mozilla's Developer Center has a reasonable tutorial if you want to try it out.