skia-canvas - npm Package Versions

🥚 ⟩ [v2.0.2] ⟩ Jan 28, 2025

New Features

• Added fontHinting attribute (off by default to better match font weights in browser rendering). Setting it to true may result in crisper edges but adds some weight to the font.

Bugfixes

• Text spacing
  • Setting letterSpacing no longer indents text at beginning of line
  • letterSpacing now properly handles negative values
• Improved accuracy of [measureText()][measureText()]
  • Now uses font metrics' default leading when the line-height is left unspecified in the ctx.font string (NB: this is likely to cause vertical shifts for non-alphabetic baselines)
  • Updated baseline offset calculations for middle & hanging to better match browsers
  • The actualBoundingBox* & lines[].x/y/width/height rectangles returned by measureText() are now just the glyph-occupied area, not the whole line-height of the textblock
  • Fixed the sign on actualBoundingBoxLeft (positive values now mean left of the origin)
  • lines[].baseline now corresponds to the selected ctx.textBaseline, previously it was always the alphabetic baseline
• TypeScript definitions no longer include the entire DOM library (which had been pulling in tons of non-Canvas-related object types that this library doesn't emulate)

📦 ⟩ [v2.0.1] ⟩ Dec 8, 2024

Misc. Improvements

• Added support for Intel integrated GPUs that would previously throw an "instantiated but unable to render" error
  • Note: you may need to upgrade to the latest Mesa drivers ([24.3.1 or later][mesa_ppa]), especially for in-window rendering to work correctly on Linux
• Fixed window initialization for Vulkan GPUs that default to a framebuffer color-format Skia doesn't support
• Vulkan drivers that fall back to the [Mesa LLVMpipe][mesa_llvmpipe] software renderer now work correctly
• Optimized font library initialization to improve SVG parsing speed

📦 ⟩ [v2.0.0] ⟩ Dec 2, 2024

New Features

Website

• Documentation is now hosted at skia-canvas.org. Go there for a more readable version of all the details that used to be wedged into the README file.

Imagery

• Added initial SVG rendering support. Images can now load SVG files and can be drawn in a resolution-independent manner via [drawImage()][mdn_drawImage] (thanks to @mpaperno #180). Note that Images loaded from SVG files that don't have a width and height set on their root <svg> element have some quirks as of this release:
  • The Image object's height will report being 150 and the width will be set to accurately capture the image's aspect ratio
  • When passed to drawImage() without size arguments, the SVG will be scaled to a size that fits within the Canvas's current bounds (using an approach akin to CSS's object-fit: contain).
  • When using the 9-argument version of drawImage(), the ‘crop’ arguments (sx, sy, sWidth, & sHeight) will correspond to this scaled-to-fit size, not the Image's reported width & height.
• WEBP support
  • Canvas.[saveAs()][Canvas.saveAs] & [toBuffer()][Canvas.toBuffer] can now generate WEBP images and Images can load WEBP files as well (contributed by @mpaperno #177, h/t @revam for the initial work on this)
• Raw pixel data support
  • The toBuffer() and saveAs() methods now support "raw" as a format name and/or file extension, causing them to return non-encoded pixel data (by default in an "rgba" layout like a standard [ImageData][ImageData] buffer)
  • Both functions now take an optional [colorType][colorType] argument to specify alternative pixel data layouts (e.g., "rgb" or "bgra")
• [ImageData][ImageData] enhancements
  • The [drawImage()][mdn_drawImage] and [createPattern()][mdn_createPattern] methods have been extended to accept ImageData objects as arguments. Previously only [putImageData()][mdn_putImageData] could be used for rendering, but this method ignores the context's current transform, filters, opacity, etc.
  • When creating an ImageData via the [getImageData()][mdn_getImageData] & [createImageData()][mdn_createImageData] methods or new ImageData() constructor, the optional settings arg now allows you to select the colorType for the buffer's pixels.

Typography

• FontLibrary.[use()][FontLibrary.use] now supports dynamically loaded [WOFF & WOFF2][woff_wiki] fonts
• The [outlineText()][outline_text] method now takes an optional width argument and supports all the context's typographic settings (e.g., .font, .fontVariant, .textWrap, .textTracking, etc.)
• Fonts with condensed/expanded widths can now be selected with the [.fontStretch][fontStretch] property. Note that stretch values included in the .font string will overwrite the current .fontStretch setting (or will reset it to normal if omitted).
• Generic font family names are now mapped to fonts installed on the system. The serif, sans-serif, monospace, and system-ui families are currently supported.
• Underlines, overlines, and strike-throughs can now be set via the Context's .textDecoration property.
• Text spacing can now be fine-tuned using the [.letterSpacing][letterSpacing] and [.wordSpacing][wordSpacing] properties.

GUI

• The [Window][window] class now has a [resizable][resizable] property which can be set to false to prevent the window from being manually resized or maximized (contributed by @nornagon #124).
• Window [event handlers][win_bind] now support Input Method Editor events for entering composed characters via the [compositionstart][compositionstart], [compositionupdate][compositionupdate], & [compositionend][compositionend] events. The [input][input] event now reports the composed character, not the individual keystrokes.

Rendering

• The Canvas object has a new engine property which describes whether the CPU or GPU is being used, which graphics device was selected, and what (if any) error prevented it from being initialized.
• The .transform and .setTransform methods on Context, Path2D, and CanvasPattern objects can now take their arguments in additional formats. They can now be passed a [DOMMatrix][DOMMatrix] object or a string with a list of transformation operations compatible with the [CSS transform][css_transform] property. The DOMMatrix constructor also supports these strings as well as plain, matrix-like objects with numeric attributes named a, b, c, d, e, & f (contributed by @mpaperno #178).
• The number of background threads used for asynchronous exports can now be controlled with the [SKIA_CANVAS_THREADS][multithreading] environment variable

Breaking Changes

• An upgrade to [Neon][neon_rs] with [N-API v8][node_napi] raised the minimum required Node version to 12.22+, 14.17+, or 16+.
• Images now load asynchronously in cases where the src property has been set to a local path. As a result, it's now necessary to await img.decode() or set up an .on("load", …) handler before drawing it—even when the src is non-remote.
• The KeyboardEvent object returned by the keyup/keydown and input event listeners now has fields and values consistent with browser behavior. In particular, code is now a name (e.g., ShiftLeft or KeyS) rather than a numeric scancode, key is a straightforward label for the key (e.g., Shift or s) and the new [location][key_location] field provides a numeric description of which variant of a key was pressed.
• The deprecated .async property has been removed. See the v0.9.28 release notes for details.
• The non-standard .textTracking property has been removed in favor of the new [.letterSpacing][letterSpacing] property

Bugfixes

• Initializing a GPU-renderer using Vulkan now uses the vulkano crate and makes better selections among devices present (previously it was just using the first result, which is not always optimal).
• The Image.onload callback now properly sets this to point to the new image (contributed by @mpaperno & @ForkKILLET).
• Creating a Window with fullscreen set to true now takes effect immediately (previously it was failing silently)
• Drawing paths after setting an invalid transform no longer crashes (contributed by @mpaperno #175)
• Windows with .on("draw") handlers no longer become unresponsive on macOS 14+ after being fully occluded by other windows
• Ellipses with certain combinations of positive and negative start- and stop-angles now render correctly—previously they would not appear at all if the total sweep exceeded 360° (contributed by @mpaperno #176)
• The drawCanvas() method now clips to the specified crop size (contributed by @mpaperno #179)
• Hit-testing with [isPointInPath][isPointInPath()] and [isPointInStroke][isPointInStroke()] now works correctly when called with a Path2D object as the first argument

Misc. Improvements

• Upgraded Skia to milestone 131
• Added TypeScript definitions for the Window object’s event types (contributed by @saantonandre #163) and the roundRect method (contributed by @sandy85625 & @santilema)
• Performance improvements to FontLibrary, speeding up operations like listing families and adding new typefaces.
• Updated winit and replaced the end-of-life’d skulpin-based Vulkan renderer with a new implementation using Vulkano for window-drawing on Windows and Linux.

  It’s a fairly direct adaptation of Vulkano [sample code][vulkano_demo] for device setup with skia-specific rendering routines inspired by @pragmatrix’s renderer for [emergent][pragmatrix_emergent]. All of which is to say, if you understand this better than I do I'd love some suggestions for improving the rendering setup.

• The GPU is now initialized only when it is needed, not at startup. As a result, setting that Canvas's [.gpu][canvas_gpu] property to false immediately after creation will prevent any GPU-related resource acquisition from occurring (though rendering speed will be predictably slower).
• The sample-count used by the GPU for multiscale antialiasing can now be configured through the optional [msaa][msaa] export argument. If omitted, defaults to 4x MSAA.
• Added support for non-default imports (e.g., import {Image} from "skia-canvas") when used as an ES Module.
• The [getImageData()][mdn_getImageData] method now makes use of the GPU (if enabled) and caches data between calls, greatly improving performance for sequential queries

📦 ⟩ [v1.0.2] ⟩ Aug 21, 2024

Maintenance

• After getting a surprise bill from Amazon for the S3 bucket hosting the pre-compiled binaries, I've moved them to GitHub Releases instead. Aside from resolving some security warnings by upgrading dependencies, this version should be functionally identical to 1.0.1…

Breaking Changes

• The 32-bit ARM-based linux builds are no longer provided pre-compiled; you'll now need to build from source.

📦 ⟩ [v1.0.1] ⟩ Oct 15, 2022

Bugfixes

• If an offscreen buffer can't be allocated using the Vulkan renderer, CPU rendering is used as a fallback
• The drawCanvas() routine now works even when the destination canvas is later saved as an SVG (previously, the source canvas would be missing from the output). Caveat: this only works if the destination canvas is using the default source-over blend mode, has its globalAlpha set to 1, and is not using shadows or the effect property. If any of those defaults have been changed, the drawn canvas will not appear in the saved SVG. Bitmap and PDF exports do not have this restriction.

Misc. Improvements

• Added a fullscreen event to the Window class to flag changes into and out of full-screen mode.

📦 ⟩ [v1.0.0] ⟩ Aug 5, 2022

New Features

• The new [Window][window] class can display a Canvas on screen, respond to mouse and keyboard input, and fluidly [animate][window_anim] by calling user-defined [event handlers][window_events].
• Bitmap rendering now occurs on the GPU by default and can be configured using the Canvas's [.gpu][canvas_gpu] property. If the platform supports hardware-accelerated rendering (using Metal on macOS and Vulkan on Linux & Windows), the property will be true by default and can be set to false to use the software renderer.
• Added support for recent Chrome features:
  • the [reset()][chrome_reset] context method which erases the canvas, resets the transformation state, and clears the current path
  • the [roundRect()][chrome_rrect] method on contexts and Path2D objects which adds a rounded rectangle using 1–4 corner radii (provided as a single value or an array of numbers and/or DOMPoint objects)

Bugfixes

• The FontLibrary.reset() method didn't actually remove previously installed fonts that had already been drawn with (and thus cached). It now clears those caches, which also means previously used fonts can now be replaced by calling .use() again with the same family name.
• The [.drawCanvas()][drawCanvas] routine now applies filter effects and shadows consistent with the current resolution and transformation state.

Misc. Improvements

• The [.filter][filter] property's "blur(…)" and "drop-shadow(…)" effects now match browser behavior much more closely and scale appropriately with the density export option.
• Antialiasing is smoother, particularly when down-scaling images, thanks to the use of mipmaps rather than Skia's (apparently buggy?) implementation of bicubic interpolation.
• Calling clearRect() with dimensions that fully enclose the canvas will now discard all the vector objects that have been drawn so far (rather than simply covering them up).
• Upgraded Skia to milestone 103

📦 ⟩ [v0.9.30] ⟩ Jun 7, 2022

New Features

• Enhacements to the shared FontLibrary object:
  • Added a [reset()][FontLibrary.reset] method to FontLibrary which uninstalls any fonts that had been dynamically installed via FontLibrary.use()
  • The [use()][FontLibrary.use] method now checks for previously installed fonts with the same family name (or alias) and will replace them with the newly added font
• Added pre-compiled binaries for Alpine Linux on arm64

Bugfixes

• Calling clip with an empty path (or one that does not intersect the current clipping mask) will now prevent drawing altogether
• Transformation (translate, rotate, etc.) and line-drawing methods (moveTo, lineTo, ellipse, etc.) are now silently ignored if called with NaN, Infinity, or non-Number values in the arguments rather than throwing an error
  • applies to both the Context and Path2D versions of the drawing methods
  • a TypeError is thrown only if the number of arguments is too low (mirroring browser behavior)
• [conicCurveTo()][conicCurveTo] now correctly reflects the canvas's transform state
• The browser-based version of [loadImage()][loadImage()] now returns a Promise that correctly resolves to an Image object
• SVG exports no longer have an invisible, canvas-sized <rect/> as their first element
• Fixed an incompatibility on Alpine between the version of libstdc++ present on the node:alpine docker images and the version used when building the precompiled binaries

Misc. Improvements

• Upgraded Skia to milestone 101

📦 ⟩ [v0.9.29] ⟩ Feb 7, 2022

New Features

• PDF exports now support the optional [matte][matte] argument.

Breaking Changes

• When the [drawImage()][mdn_drawImage] function is passed a Canvas object as its image source it will now rasterize the canvas before drawing. The prior behavior (in which it is drawn as a vector graphic) can now be accessed through the new [drawCanvas()][drawCanvas] method which supports the same numerical arguments as drawImage but requires that its first argument be a Canvas.

Bugfixes

• Regions erased using [clearRect()][mdn_clearRect] are now properly antialiased
• The [clip()][mdn_clip] method now interprets the current translate/scale/rotate state correctly when combining clipping masks

Misc. Improvements

• Upgraded Skia to milestone 97

📦 ⟩ [v0.9.28] ⟩ Jan 12, 2022

New Features

• Added TypeScript definitions for extensions to the DOM spec (contributed by @cprecioso)
• Added 3D-perspective transformations via the new [createProjection()][createProjection()] context method
• Colors can now use the hwb() model

Breaking Changes

• The Canvas [.async][async_depr] property has been deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
  • The saveAs, toBuffer, and toDataURL methods will now be async-only (likewise the [shorthand properties][shorthands]).
  • Use their synchronous counterparts (saveAsSync, toBufferSync, and toDataURLSync) if you want to block execution while exporting images.
• The ImageData constructor now orders its arguments properly: the optional buffer/array argument now comes first

Bugfixes

• Fixed a stack overflow that was occurring when images became too deeply nested for the default deallocator to handle (primarily due to many thousands of image exports from the same canvas)
• The source-in, source-out, destination-atop, and copy composite operations now work correctly for paths rather than rendering shapes without color (contributed by @meihuanyu)
• Shape primitives now behave consistently with browsers when being added to a non-empty path:
  • rect() now issues an initial moveTo rather than extending the path, then leaves the ‘current’ point in its upper left corner
  • ellipse() extends the current path rather than implicitly closing it (contributed by @meihuanyu)
  • arc() also extends the current path rather than closing it

Misc. Improvements

• Upgraded Skia to milestone 96
• Added workflow for creating docker build environments

📦 ⟩ [v0.9.27] ⟩ Oct 23, 2021

New Features

• Added pre-compiled binaries for Alpine Linux using the musl C library