6.6. Canvas Exporters

Understanding JavaScript is a prerequisite for fully utilizing Canvas, as it is wholly controlled by the language. There is no markup-based way to access its capabilities. However, Canvas exporters and converters are emerging that can create the JavaScript required to render Canvas graphics created in applications. This is great news for designers with limited JavaScript abilities, and great news for programmers too, as creating elaborate vector art with manually entered Canvas commands is tedious and error-prone.

Adobe Flash CS5+ (http://www.adobe.com/products/flash.html)

Adobe’s Flash CS5+ has a Canvas exporter that allows a subset of Flash to be exported as JavaScript Canvas source code. This will benefit developers who want to cover both the Flash and Canvas bases. However, because this solution requires the purchase of the Flash authoring tool, it may not be cost effective for those who want to develop solely using Canvas.

Canvg (http://code.google.com/p/canvg/)

Canvg (Figure 6-1) is a JavaScript library that takes SVG data and draws it using Canvas. Unfortunately, the Canvas JavaScript statements are not saved in any way, and hence you must always include the Canvg library to draw the SVGs.