When to Use SVG vs. When to Use Canvas
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
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