1.2. Canvas Contexts

The canvas element merely serves as a container for a context. The context provides all the graphics horsepower. Although this book focuses exclusively on the 2d context, the Canvas specification embraces other types of contexts as well; for example, a 3d context specification is already well underway. This section looks at the attributes of the 2d context, with a brief nod to the 3d context.

1.2.1. The 2d Context

In your JavaScript code, you will find little use for the canvas element itself, other than occasionally using it to obtain the canvas width or height or a data URL, as discussed in the preceding section. Additionally, you will use the canvas element to obtain a reference to the canvas’s context, which provides a capable API for drawing shapes and text, displaying and manipulating images, etc. Indeed, for the rest of this book our focus will mainly be on the 2d context.