OffscreenCanvas.getContext()

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

The OffscreenCanvas.getContext() method returns a drawing context for an offscreen canvas, or null if the context identifier is not supported.

Note: This API is currently implemented for WebGL1 and WebGL2 contexts only. See bug 801176 for Canvas 2D API support from workers.

Syntax

offscreen.getContext(contextType, contextAttributes);

Parameters

contextType

Is a DOMString containing the context identifier defining the drawing context associated to the canvas. Possible values are:

  • "2d" creates a CanvasRenderingContext2D object representing a two-dimensional rendering context.
  • "webgl" creates a WebGLRenderingContext object representing a three-dimensional rendering context. This context is only available on browsers that implement WebGL version 1 (OpenGL ES 2.0).
  • "webgl2" creates a WebGL2RenderingContext object representing a three-dimensional rendering context. This context is only available on browsers that implement WebGL version 2 (OpenGL ES 3.0).
  • "bitmaprenderer" creates a ImageBitmapRenderingContext which only provides functionality to replace the content of the canvas with a given ImageBitmap.

Note: The identifiers "experimental-webgl" or "experimental-webgl2" are also used in implementations of WebGL. These implementations have not reached test suite conformance, or the graphic drivers situation on the platform is not yet stable. The Khronos Group certifies WebGL implementations under certain conformance rules.

contextAttributes

You can use several context attributes when creating your rendering context, for example:

offscreen.getContext("webgl",
                 { antialias: false,
                   depth: false });

2d context attributes:

  • alpha: Boolean that indicates if the canvas contains an alpha channel. If set to false, the browser now knows that the backdrop is always opaque, which can speed up drawing of transparent content and images then.
  • (Gecko only) willReadFrequently: Boolean that indicates whether or not a lot of read-back operations are planned. This will force the use of a software (instead of hardware accelerated) 2D canvas and can save memory when calling getImageData() frequently. This option is only available, if the flag gfx.canvas.willReadFrequently.enable is set to true (which, by default, is only the case for B2G/Firefox OS).
  • (Blink only) storage: String that indicates which storage is used ("persistent" by default).

WebGL context attributes:

  • alpha: Boolean that indicates if the canvas contains an alpha buffer.
  • depth: Boolean that indicates that the drawing buffer has a depth buffer of at least 16 bits.
  • stencil: Boolean that indicates that the drawing buffer has a stencil buffer of at least 8 bits.
  • antialias: Boolean that indicates whether or not to perform anti-aliasing.
  • premultipliedAlpha: Boolean that indicates that the page compositor will assume the drawing buffer contains colors with pre-multiplied alpha.
  • preserveDrawingBuffer: If the value is true the buffers will not be cleared and will preserve their values until cleared or overwritten by the author.
  • failIfMajorPerformanceCaveat: Boolean that indicates if a context will be created if the system performance is low.

Return value

A rendering context which is either a

If the contextType doesn't match a possible drawing context, null is returned.

Examples

var offscreen = new OffscreenCanvas(256, 256);
var gl = offscreen.getContext("webgl");

gl; // WebGLRenderingContext
gl.canvas; // OffscreenCanvas

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
getContext
69
79
44
No
56
No
No
69
44
48
No
10.0
bitmaprenderer_context
76
≤79
46
No
63
No
No
76
46
54
No
12.0
webgl_context
69
≤79
44
No
56
No
No
69
44
48
No
10.0
webgl2_context
69
≤79
44
No
56
No
No
69
44
48
No
10.0
2d_context
69
≤79
No
No
56
No
No
69
No
48
No
10.0

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/OffscreenCanvas/getContext