The CanvasRenderingContext2D
.globalCompositeOperation
property of the Canvas 2D API sets the type of compositing operation to apply when drawing new shapes.
See also Compositing and clipping in the Canvas Tutorial.
Syntax
ctx.globalCompositeOperation = type;
type
is a String
identifying which of the compositing or blending mode operations to use.
Types
Examples
Changing the composite operation
This example uses the globalCompositeOperation
property to draw two rectangles that exclude themselves where they overlap.
HTML
<canvas id="canvas"></canvas>
JavaScript
const canvas = document.getElementById('canvas'); const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d'); ctx.globalCompositeOperation = 'xor'; ctx.fillStyle = 'blue'; ctx.fillRect(10, 10, 100, 100); ctx.fillStyle = 'red'; ctx.fillRect(50, 50, 100, 100);
Result
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
HTML Living Standard The definition of 'CanvasRenderingContext2D.globalCompositeOperation' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
Compositing and Blending Level 1 | Candidate Recommendation |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Update compatibility data on GitHub
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
globalCompositeOperation | Chrome Full support Yes | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 1.5 | IE Full support Yes | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support Yes | WebView Android Full support Yes | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
WebKit/Blink-specific notes
- In WebKit- and Blink-based Browsers, a non-standard and deprecated method
ctx.setCompositeOperation()
is implemented besides this property. - Support for
"plus-darker"
and"darker"
were removed in Chrome 48. Developers looking for a replacement should use"darken"
.
Gecko-specific notes
- An early Canvas specification draft specified the value
"darker"
. However, Firefox removed support for"darker"
in version 4 (bug 571532). See also this blog post that suggests using"difference"
as a way to achieve a similar affect to"darker"
.
See also
- The interface defining this property:
CanvasRenderingContext2D
CanvasRenderingContext2D.globalAlpha