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CanvasRenderingContext2D: letterSpacing property

The CanvasRenderingContext2D.letterSpacing property of the Canvas API specifies the spacing between letters when drawing text.

This corresponds to the CSS letter-spacing property.

Value

The letter spacing as a string in the CSS length data format. The default is 0px.

The property can be used to get or set the spacing. The property value will remain unchanged if set to an invalid/unparsable value.

Examples

In this example we display the text "Hello World" three times, using the letterSpacing property to modify the letter spacing in each case. The spacing is also displayed for each case, using the value of the property.

HTML

html

<canvas id="canvas" width="700"></canvas>

JavaScript

const canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
const ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");

ctx.font = "30px serif";

// Default letter spacing
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (default: ${ctx.letterSpacing})`, 10, 40);

// Custom letter spacing: 10px
ctx.letterSpacing = "10px";
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (${ctx.letterSpacing})`, 10, 90);

// Custom letter spacing: 20px
ctx.letterSpacing = "20px";
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (${ctx.letterSpacing})`, 10, 140);

Result

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard # dom-context-2d-letterspacing

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
`letterSpacing`	99	99	115	No	85	No	99	99	115	68	No	18.0