SVG and canvas are both technologies that can draw stuff in web browsers, so they are worth comparing and understanding when one is more suitable than the other. Even a light understanding of them makes the choice of choosing one over the other pretty clear.
- A little flat-color icon? That’s clearly SVG territory.
- An interactive console-like game? That’s clearly canvas territory.
I know we didn’t cover why yet, but I hope that will become clear as we dig into it.
SVG is vector and declarative
If you know you need vector art, SVG is the choice. Vector art is visually crisp and tends to be a smaller file size than raster graphics like JPG.
That makes logos a very common SVG use case. SVG code can go right within HTML, and are like declarative drawing instructions:
<svg viewbox="0 0 100 100"> <circle cx="50" cy="50" r="50"></circle> </svg>
If you care a lot about the flexibility and responsiveness of the graphic, SVG is the way.
Canvas is a JavaScript drawing API
You put a
<canvas width="578" height="200"></canvas>
<script>
var canvas = document.getElementById('myCanvas');
var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
var centerX = canvas.width / 2;
var centerY = canvas.height / 2;
var radius = 70;
context.beginPath();
context.arc(centerX, centerY, radius, 0, 2 * Math.PI, false);
context.fillStyle = 'green';
context.fill();
</script>
SVG is in the DOM
If you’re familiar with DOM events like click and mouseDown and whatnot, those are available in SVG as well. A You can have a text alternative for canvas: You can do that in SVG too, but since SVG and its guts can be right in the DOM, we generally think of SVG as being what you use if you’re trying to build an accessible experience. Explained another way, you can build an SVG that assistive technology can access and find links and sub-elements with their own auditory explanations and such. Text is also firmly in SVG territory. SVG literally has a As you’ll see in Sarah Dranser’s comparison below, canvas is a way of saying dance, pixels, dance!. That’s a fun way of explaining the concept that drives it home better than any dry technical sentiment could do. Highly interactive work with lots and lots of complex detail and gradients is the territory of canvas. You’ll see a lot more games built with canvas than SVG for this reason, although there are always exceptions (note the simple vector-y-ness of this game). We saw above that SVG can be in the DOM and that JavaScript can get in there and do stuff. The story is similar with CSS. Note how I’ve put the <script> and <style> blocks within the <svg> for these examples, which is valid. But assuming you’ve put the SVG literally in the HTML, you could move those out, or have other external CSS and JavaScript do the same thing. </script> We have a massive guide of SVG Properties and CSS. But what is great to know is that the stuff that CSS is great at is still possible in SVG, like :hover states and animation!
Technically, they aren’t entirely mutually exclusive. A As Blake Bowen proves, you can even keep the SVG on the canvas very crisp!
Tablized from this tweet. Tablized from this tweet. Many folks consider scenarios with a lot of objects (1,000 , as Shirley says) is the territory of canvas. A strong opinion, but it feels right to me: One extremely basic way to answer it is "use canvas when you cannot use svg" (where "cannot" might mean animating thousands of objects, manipulating each pixel individually, etc.). To put it another way, SVG should be your default choice, canvas your backup plan. — Benjamin De Cock (@bdc) October 2, 2019 So, if we revisit those first two bullet points… And yet there is a bunch of middle ground here. As a day-to-day web designer/developer kinda guy, I find SVG far more useful on a practical level. I’m not sure I’ve done any production work in canvas ever. Part of that is because I don’t know canvas nearly as well. I wrote a book on SVG, so I’ve done far more research on that side, but I know enough that SVG is doing the right stuff for my needs.<svg viewbox="0 0 100 100">
<circle cx="50" cy="50" r="50"></circle>
<script>
document.querySelector('circle').addEventListener('click', e => {
e.target.style.fill = "red";
});
</script>
</svg>
SVG for accessibility
<canvas aria-label="Hello ARIA World" role="img"></canvas>
Canvas for pixels
CSS can play with SVG
<svg viewbox="0 0 100 100">
<circle cx="50" cy="50" r="50"></circle>
<style>
circle { fill: blue; }
</style>
</svg>
Combinations
Ruth John’s comparison
Sarah Drasner’s comparison
DOM/Virtual DOM
Canvas
Pros
Great for UI/UX animation
Dance, pixels, dance!
Great for SVG that is resolution independent
Great for really impressive 3D or immersive stuff
Easier to debug
Movement of tons of objects
Cons
Tanks with lots of objects
Harder to make accessible
Because you have to care about the way you anmimate
Not resolution independent out of the box
Breaks to nothing
Shirley Wu’s comparison
SVG
Canvas
Pros
Easy to get started
Very performant
Easier to register user interactions
Easy to update
Easy to animate
Cons
Potentially complex DOM
More work to get started
Not performant for a large number of elements
More work to handle interactions
Have to write custom animations
SVG is the default choice; canvas is the backup
Wrap up
The above is the detailed content of When to Use SVG vs. When to Use Canvas. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!
Hot AI Tools
Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free
Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos
AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.
Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover
Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!
Hot Article
Hot Tools
Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor
SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use
Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment
Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools
SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)
CSS tutorial for creating loading spinners and animations
Jul 07, 2025 am 12:07 AM
There are three ways to create a CSS loading rotator: 1. Use the basic rotator of borders to achieve simple animation through HTML and CSS; 2. Use a custom rotator of multiple points to achieve the jump effect through different delay times; 3. Add a rotator in the button and switch classes through JavaScript to display the loading status. Each approach emphasizes the importance of design details such as color, size, accessibility and performance optimization to enhance the user experience.
Addressing CSS Browser Compatibility issues and prefixes
Jul 07, 2025 am 01:44 AM
To deal with CSS browser compatibility and prefix issues, you need to understand the differences in browser support and use vendor prefixes reasonably. 1. Understand common problems such as Flexbox and Grid support, position:sticky invalid, and animation performance is different; 2. Check CanIuse confirmation feature support status; 3. Correctly use -webkit-, -moz-, -ms-, -o- and other manufacturer prefixes; 4. It is recommended to use Autoprefixer to automatically add prefixes; 5. Install PostCSS and configure browserslist to specify the target browser; 6. Automatically handle compatibility during construction; 7. Modernizr detection features can be used for old projects; 8. No need to pursue consistency of all browsers,
What is the difference between display: inline, display: block, and display: inline-block?
Jul 11, 2025 am 03:25 AM
Themaindifferencesbetweendisplay:inline,block,andinline-blockinHTML/CSSarelayoutbehavior,spaceusage,andstylingcontrol.1.Inlineelementsflowwithtext,don’tstartonnewlines,ignorewidth/height,andonlyapplyhorizontalpadding/margins—idealforinlinetextstyling
Styling visited links differently with CSS
Jul 11, 2025 am 03:26 AM
Setting the style of links you have visited can improve the user experience, especially in content-intensive websites to help users navigate better. 1. Use CSS's: visited pseudo-class to define the style of the visited link, such as color changes; 2. Note that the browser only allows modification of some attributes due to privacy restrictions; 3. The color selection should be coordinated with the overall style to avoid abruptness; 4. The mobile terminal may not display this effect, and it is recommended to combine it with other visual prompts such as icon auxiliary logos.
Creating custom shapes with css clip-path
Jul 09, 2025 am 01:29 AM
Use the clip-path attribute of CSS to crop elements into custom shapes, such as triangles, circular notches, polygons, etc., without relying on pictures or SVGs. Its advantages include: 1. Supports a variety of basic shapes such as circle, ellipse, polygon, etc.; 2. Responsive adjustment and adaptable to mobile terminals; 3. Easy to animation, and can be combined with hover or JavaScript to achieve dynamic effects; 4. It does not affect the layout flow, and only crops the display area. Common usages are such as circular clip-path:circle (50pxatcenter) and triangle clip-path:polygon (50%0%, 100 0%, 0 0%). Notice
What is the CSS Painting API?
Jul 04, 2025 am 02:16 AM
TheCSSPaintingAPIenablesdynamicimagegenerationinCSSusingJavaScript.1.DeveloperscreateaPaintWorkletclasswithapaint()method.2.TheyregisteritviaregisterPaint().3.ThecustompaintfunctionisthenusedinCSSpropertieslikebackground-image.Thisallowsfordynamicvis
How to create responsive images using CSS?
Jul 15, 2025 am 01:10 AM
To create responsive images using CSS, it can be mainly achieved through the following methods: 1. Use max-width:100% and height:auto to allow the image to adapt to the container width while maintaining the proportion; 2. Use HTML's srcset and sizes attributes to intelligently load the image sources adapted to different screens; 3. Use object-fit and object-position to control image cropping and focus display. Together, these methods ensure that the images are presented clearly and beautifully on different devices.
What are common CSS browser inconsistencies?
Jul 26, 2025 am 07:04 AM
Different browsers have differences in CSS parsing, resulting in inconsistent display effects, mainly including the default style difference, box model calculation method, Flexbox and Grid layout support level, and inconsistent behavior of certain CSS attributes. 1. The default style processing is inconsistent. The solution is to use CSSReset or Normalize.css to unify the initial style; 2. The box model calculation method of the old version of IE is different. It is recommended to use box-sizing:border-box in a unified manner; 3. Flexbox and Grid perform differently in edge cases or in old versions. More tests and use Autoprefixer; 4. Some CSS attribute behaviors are inconsistent. CanIuse must be consulted and downgraded.
