html2canvas vs html-to-image vs dom-to-image vs screenshot-desktop
Web and Desktop Screenshot Tools Comparison
3 Years
html2canvashtml-to-imagedom-to-imagescreenshot-desktopSimilar Packages:
What's Web and Desktop Screenshot Tools?

Web and Desktop Screenshot Tools are libraries or tools that allow developers to capture screenshots of web pages or desktop applications programmatically. These tools can be used for various purposes, such as generating image previews, creating visual documentation, or capturing content for testing and analysis. They typically provide APIs to capture specific elements, entire pages, or desktop screens, and may offer features like customization, annotation, and support for different image formats.

Package Weekly Downloads Trend
Github Stars Ranking
Stat Detail
Package
Downloads
Stars
Size
Issues
Publish
License
html2canvas4,036,517
31,5023.38 MB1,038-MIT
html-to-image965,449
6,641315 kB1836 months agoMIT
dom-to-image235,046
10,679-3338 years agoMIT
screenshot-desktop44,502
47742 kB2213 days agoMIT
Feature Comparison: html2canvas vs html-to-image vs dom-to-image vs screenshot-desktop

Capture Method

  • html2canvas:

    html2canvas captures screenshots by rendering the DOM as a canvas element. It supports complex layouts, including nested elements and CSS styles, providing detailed and accurate screenshots.

  • html-to-image:

    html-to-image converts HTML elements to images using a simple API. It supports multiple formats and is designed for easy integration, focusing on capturing the visual representation of elements.

  • dom-to-image:

    dom-to-image captures images of specific DOM elements by rendering them into a canvas. It supports capturing styles, images, and SVG content, making it versatile for element-level screenshots.

  • screenshot-desktop:

    screenshot-desktop captures the entire desktop screen or a specific region. It is a platform-independent solution that provides high-quality screenshots of the user's desktop environment.

Customization

  • html2canvas:

    html2canvas provides extensive customization options, including setting the canvas size, background color, and element clipping. It also allows for more control over how elements are rendered, making it highly configurable.

  • html-to-image:

    html-to-image offers customization options for image generation, including setting background colors and supporting transparent images. It is designed to be flexible while maintaining simplicity.

  • dom-to-image:

    dom-to-image allows for some customization, such as setting background colors, hiding elements, and specifying image formats. However, it is primarily focused on capturing DOM elements as they are.

  • screenshot-desktop:

    screenshot-desktop allows for basic customization, such as capturing specific regions of the screen. However, it is limited compared to the other libraries, as it primarily focuses on desktop screen capture.

Browser Support

  • html2canvas:

    html2canvas supports a wide range of browsers, including modern and older versions. It is known for its compatibility, but some features may not work perfectly in all browsers due to differences in rendering.

  • html-to-image:

    html-to-image is designed for modern browsers and provides good compatibility with most web environments. It may not fully support older browsers, but it works well in contemporary web applications.

  • dom-to-image:

    dom-to-image supports modern browsers and is compatible with Internet Explorer 11. It works well across different platforms, making it reliable for web applications.

  • screenshot-desktop:

    screenshot-desktop is a Node.js library that does not rely on browser compatibility. It works across different operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it versatile for desktop applications.

Use Case Example

  • html2canvas:

    Use html2canvas to capture a screenshot of an entire webpage or a specific section, including all styles and images. This is ideal for creating visual documentation or testing layouts.

  • html-to-image:

    Use html-to-image to convert a user profile card or any HTML element into an image for sharing or saving. Its simple API makes it easy to integrate into web applications.

  • dom-to-image:

    Use dom-to-image to capture an image of a specific button or section on a webpage, including its styles and content. This is useful for generating previews or sharing visual snippets.

  • screenshot-desktop:

    Use screenshot-desktop to capture the user's desktop screen for a support application or to create tutorials. It provides a quick way to get high-quality images of the desktop environment.

Ease of Use: Code Examples

  • html2canvas:

    Capture a screenshot of a webpage section using html2canvas

    import html2canvas from 'html2canvas';
    const element = document.getElementById('myElement');
    html2canvas(element)
      .then((canvas) => {
        document.body.appendChild(canvas);
      })
      .catch((error) => {
        console.error('Error capturing screenshot:', error);
      });
    
  • html-to-image:

    Capture an image of an HTML element using html-to-image

    import { toPng } from 'html-to-image';
    const node = document.getElementById('myElement');
    toPng(node)
      .then((dataUrl) => {
        const img = new Image();
        img.src = dataUrl;
        document.body.appendChild(img);
      })
      .catch((error) => {
        console.error('Error capturing image:', error);
      });
    
  • dom-to-image:

    Capture an image of a DOM element using dom-to-image

    import { toPng } from 'dom-to-image';
    const node = document.getElementById('myElement');
    toPng(node)
      .then((dataUrl) => {
        const img = new Image();
        img.src = dataUrl;
        document.body.appendChild(img);
      })
      .catch((error) => {
        console.error('Error capturing image:', error);
      });
    
  • screenshot-desktop:

    Capture a screenshot of the desktop using screenshot-desktop

    const screenshot = require('screenshot-desktop');
    screenshot()
      .then((img) => {
        const imgElement = document.createElement('img');
        imgElement.src = img;
        document.body.appendChild(imgElement);
      })
      .catch((err) => {
        console.error('Error taking screenshot:', err);
      });
    
How to Choose: html2canvas vs html-to-image vs dom-to-image vs screenshot-desktop
  • html2canvas:

    Choose html2canvas if you need to capture screenshots of entire web pages or specific elements, including their styles. It renders the DOM as a canvas and supports complex layouts, making it suitable for detailed screenshots.

  • html-to-image:

    Choose html-to-image if you want a simple and modern API for converting HTML elements to images. It supports various formats and is designed to be easy to integrate into your projects.

  • dom-to-image:

    Choose dom-to-image if you need to capture images of specific DOM elements, including their styles and SVG content. It is lightweight and easy to use, making it ideal for capturing small parts of a webpage.

  • screenshot-desktop:

    Choose screenshot-desktop if you need to capture screenshots of the user's desktop environment. It is a Node.js library that works across platforms and is useful for applications that require desktop screen capture.

README for html2canvas

html2canvas

Homepage | Downloads | Questions

Gitter CI NPM Downloads NPM Version

JavaScript HTML renderer

The script allows you to take "screenshots" of webpages or parts of it, directly on the users browser. The screenshot is based on the DOM and as such may not be 100% accurate to the real representation as it does not make an actual screenshot, but builds the screenshot based on the information available on the page.

How does it work?

The script renders the current page as a canvas image, by reading the DOM and the different styles applied to the elements.

It does not require any rendering from the server, as the whole image is created on the client's browser. However, as it is heavily dependent on the browser, this library is not suitable to be used in nodejs. It doesn't magically circumvent any browser content policy restrictions either, so rendering cross-origin content will require a proxy to get the content to the same origin.

The script is still in a very experimental state, so I don't recommend using it in a production environment nor start building applications with it yet, as there will be still major changes made.

Browser compatibility

The library should work fine on the following browsers (with Promise polyfill):

  • Firefox 3.5+
  • Google Chrome
  • Opera 12+
  • IE9+
  • Safari 6+

As each CSS property needs to be manually built to be supported, there are a number of properties that are not yet supported.

Usage

The html2canvas library utilizes Promises and expects them to be available in the global context. If you wish to support older browsers that do not natively support Promises, please include a polyfill such as es6-promise before including html2canvas.

To render an element with html2canvas, simply call: html2canvas(element[, options]);

The function returns a Promise containing the <canvas> element. Simply add a promise fulfillment handler to the promise using then:

html2canvas(document.body).then(function(canvas) {
    document.body.appendChild(canvas);
});

Building

You can download ready builds here.

Clone git repository:

$ git clone git://github.com/niklasvh/html2canvas.git

Install dependencies:

$ npm install

Build browser bundle

$ npm run build

Examples

For more information and examples, please visit the homepage or try the test console.

Contributing

If you wish to contribute to the project, please send the pull requests to the develop branch. Before submitting any changes, try and test that the changes work with all the support browsers. If some CSS property isn't supported or is incomplete, please create appropriate tests for it as well before submitting any code changes.