CanvasRenderingContext2D.direction

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The CanvasRenderingContext2D.direction property of the Canvas 2D API specifies the current text direction used to draw text.

Syntax

ctx.direction = "ltr" || "rtl" || "inherit";

Options

Possible values:

"ltr"

The text direction is left-to-right.

"rtl"

The text direction is right-to-left.

"inherit"

The text direction is inherited from the <canvas> element or the Document as appropriate. Default value.

The default value is "inherit".

Examples

Changing text direction

This example draws two pieces of text. The first one is left-to-right, and the second is right-to-left. Note that "Hi!" in ltr becomes "!Hi" in rtl.

HTML

<canvas id="canvas"></canvas>

JavaScript

var canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

ctx.font = '48px serif';
ctx.fillText('Hi!', 150, 50);
ctx.direction = 'rtl';
ctx.fillText('Hi!', 150, 130);

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
direction
77
39
79
No
No
64
26
9
77
77
No
55
9
12.0

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/CanvasRenderingContext2D/direction