konva vs fabric
Canvas Libraries for Web Development Comparison
1 Year
konvafabric
What's Canvas Libraries for Web Development?

Canvas libraries are essential tools for creating rich graphics and interactive applications on the web. They provide developers with the ability to manipulate images, create animations, and handle user interactions with ease. Fabric.js and Konva.js are two popular libraries that facilitate working with HTML5 canvas, each offering unique features and capabilities tailored to different use cases. Fabric.js is particularly known for its object-oriented approach, making it easier to manage complex scenes, while Konva.js excels in performance and is optimized for high-frequency animations and transitions, making it ideal for game development and dynamic visualizations.

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konva507,07812,6361.42 MB2918 days agoMIT
fabric253,18529,86224.9 MB4767 days agoMIT
Feature Comparison: konva vs fabric

Performance

  • konva:

    Konva.js is optimized for performance, particularly in scenarios involving frequent animations and updates. It uses a virtual DOM-like structure to minimize redraws and efficiently manage layers, making it ideal for applications that require high frame rates and smooth interactions.

  • fabric:

    Fabric.js is designed for ease of use and provides a comprehensive set of features, but it may not be as performant as Konva.js in scenarios requiring high-frequency updates or animations. It is suitable for applications where complex object manipulation is more important than raw rendering speed.

Object Management

  • konva:

    Konva.js also supports object management but focuses more on performance than the extensive feature set of Fabric.js. It allows for layering and grouping of shapes, but its primary strength lies in handling high-performance rendering rather than complex object manipulation.

  • fabric:

    Fabric.js provides a robust object model that allows developers to create, manipulate, and manage canvas objects easily. It supports features like grouping, transformations, and event handling, making it suitable for applications that require complex scene management.

Ease of Use

  • konva:

    Konva.js, while also user-friendly, may require a bit more understanding of performance optimization techniques. Its API is straightforward, but developers may need to consider performance implications when designing their applications, especially for animations.

  • fabric:

    Fabric.js is known for its user-friendly API and extensive documentation, making it easier for beginners to get started with canvas programming. It abstracts many complexities associated with canvas manipulation, allowing developers to focus on building applications rather than dealing with low-level canvas APIs.

Animation Support

  • konva:

    Konva.js excels in animation support, providing a powerful API for creating smooth and high-performance animations. It is designed to handle complex animations efficiently, making it ideal for applications that require real-time updates and interactions.

  • fabric:

    Fabric.js supports basic animations through its built-in methods, but it may not be as optimized for high-frequency animations compared to Konva.js. It is suitable for applications that require simple animations and transitions without heavy performance demands.

Community and Ecosystem

  • konva:

    Konva.js also has a growing community and offers various resources, but it may not have as extensive a plugin ecosystem as Fabric.js. However, its focus on performance and simplicity has garnered a dedicated user base.

  • fabric:

    Fabric.js has a strong community and a variety of plugins available, which can enhance its functionality and ease of use. The community support and documentation make it a reliable choice for developers looking for resources and examples.

How to Choose: konva vs fabric
  • konva:

    Choose Konva.js if your project demands high performance for animations and frequent updates to the canvas. It is optimized for speed and efficiency, making it ideal for applications like games or real-time visualizations where rendering performance is critical.

  • fabric:

    Choose Fabric.js if you need a library that provides a high-level API for creating and manipulating canvas elements with an object-oriented approach. It is suitable for applications that require complex shapes, image manipulation, and a rich set of features for building interactive applications.

README for konva

Konva logo

Konva

Financial Contributors on Open Collective npm version Build Status Build StatusCDNJS version

Konva is an HTML5 Canvas JavaScript framework that enables high performance animations, transitions, node nesting, layering, filtering, caching, event handling for desktop and mobile applications, and much more.

You can draw things onto the stage, add event listeners to them, move them, scale them, and rotate them independently from other shapes to support high performance animations, even if your application uses thousands of shapes. Served hot with a side of awesomeness.

This repository began as a GitHub fork of ericdrowell/KineticJS.

Quick Look

<script src="https://unpkg.com/konva@9/konva.min.js"></script>
<div id="container"></div>
<script>
  var stage = new Konva.Stage({
    container: 'container',
    width: window.innerWidth,
    height: window.innerHeight,
  });

  // add canvas element
  var layer = new Konva.Layer();
  stage.add(layer);

  // create shape
  var box = new Konva.Rect({
    x: 50,
    y: 50,
    width: 100,
    height: 50,
    fill: '#00D2FF',
    stroke: 'black',
    strokeWidth: 4,
    draggable: true,
  });
  layer.add(box);

  // add cursor styling
  box.on('mouseover', function () {
    document.body.style.cursor = 'pointer';
  });
  box.on('mouseout', function () {
    document.body.style.cursor = 'default';
  });
</script>

Browsers support

Konva works in all modern mobile and desktop browsers. A browser need to be capable to run javascript code from ES2015 spec. For older browsers you may need polyfills for missing functions.

At the current moment Konva doesn't work in IE11 directly. To make it work you just need to provide some polyfills such as Array.prototype.find, String.prototype.trimLeft, String.prototype.trimRight, Array.from.

Debugging

The Chrome inspector simply shows the canvas element. To see the Konva objects and their details, install the konva-dev extension at https://github.com/konvajs/konva-devtool.

Loading and installing Konva

Konva supports UMD loading. So you can use all possible variants to load the framework into your project:

Load Konva via classical <script> tag from CDN:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/konva@9/konva.min.js"></script>

Install with npm:

npm install konva --save
// The modern way (e.g. an ES6-style import for webpack, parcel)
import Konva from 'konva';

Typescript usage

Add DOM definitions into your tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "lib": [
        "es6",
        "dom"
    ]
  }
}

3 Minimal bundle

import Konva from 'konva/lib/Core';
// Now you have a Konva object with Stage, Layer, FastLayer, Group, Shape and some additional utils function.
// Also core currently already have support for drag&drop and animations.
// BUT there are no shapes (rect, circle, etc), no filters.

// but you can simply add anything you need:
import { Rect } from 'konva/lib/shapes/Rect';
// importing a shape will automatically inject it into Konva object

var rect1 = new Rect();
// or:
var shape = new Konva.Rect();

// for filters you can use this:
import { Blur } from 'konva/lib/filters/Blur';

4 NodeJS env

In order to run konva in nodejs environment you also need to install canvas package manually. Konva will use it for 2d canvas API.

npm install konva canvas

Then you can use the same Konva API and all Konva demos will work just fine. You just don't need to use container attribute in your stage.

import Konva from 'konva';

const stage = new Konva.Stage({
  width: 500,
  height: 500,
});
// then all regular Konva code will work

Backers

https://simpleshow.com https://www.notably.ai/

Change log

See CHANGELOG.md.

Building the Konva Framework

To make a full build run npm run build. The command will compile all typescript files, combine then into one bundle and run minifier.

Testing

Konva uses Mocha for testing.

  • If you need run test only one time run npm run test.
  • While developing it is easy to use npm start. Just run it and go to http://localhost:1234/unit-tests.html. The watcher will rebuild the bundle on any change.

Konva is covered with hundreds of tests and well over a thousand assertions. Konva uses TDD (test driven development) which means that every new feature or bug fix is accompanied with at least one new test.

Generate documentation

Run npx gulp api which will build the documentation files and place them in the api folder.

Pull Requests

I'd be happy to review any pull requests that may better the Konva project, in particular if you have a bug fix, enhancement, or a new shape (see src/shapes for examples). Before doing so, please first make sure that all of the tests pass (npm run test).

Contributors

Financial Contributors

Become a financial contributor and help us sustain our community. [Contribute]

Individuals

Organizations

Support this project with your organization. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. [Contribute]