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OffscreenCanvas: getContext() method

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

Syntax

js

getContext(contextType, contextAttributes)

Parameters

contextType

A string containing the context identifier defining the drawing context associated to the canvas. Possible values are:

2d

Creates a OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D 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:

js

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.

willReadFrequently Non-standard (Firefox only)

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).

storage Non-standard (Blink only)

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 is requested to have a depth buffer of at least 16 bits.

stencil

Boolean that indicates that the drawing buffer is requested to have a stencil buffer of at least 8 bits.

antialias

Boolean that indicates whether or not to perform anti-aliasing if possible.

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

js

const offscreen = new OffscreenCanvas(256, 256);
const 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
2d_context 69 79 105 No 56 16.4 No 69 105 48 16.4 10.0
getContext 69 79 105 No 56 16.4 69 69 105 48 16.4 10.0
bitmaprenderer_context 76 79 105 No 63 16.4 No 76 105 54 16.4 12.0
webgl2_context 69 79 105 No 56 No No 69 105 48 No 10.0
webgl_context 69 79 105 No 56 No No 69 105 48 No 10.0

See also

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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/OffscreenCanvas/getContext