react-signature-canvas vs react-signature-pad-wrapper vs react-canvas-draw vs react-signature-pad
React Drawing Libraries Comparison
1 Year
react-signature-canvasreact-signature-pad-wrapperreact-canvas-drawreact-signature-pad
What's React Drawing Libraries?

These libraries provide tools for creating drawing and signature functionalities in React applications. They enable users to draw on a canvas, capture signatures, and manipulate drawings with various features. Each library has its unique approach and set of functionalities, catering to different use cases and developer preferences.

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react-signature-canvas303,01055542 kB87 days agoApache-2.0
react-signature-pad-wrapper35,16522017.4 kB03 months agoMIT
react-canvas-draw23,503911-513 years agoMIT
react-signature-pad4,053160-118 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: react-signature-canvas vs react-signature-pad-wrapper vs react-canvas-draw vs react-signature-pad

Drawing Capabilities

  • react-signature-canvas:

    react-signature-canvas focuses on signature capture, allowing users to draw their signatures with a smooth experience. It includes features for clearing the canvas and saving the signature as a PNG image, making it ideal for applications requiring user consent or verification.

  • react-signature-pad-wrapper:

    react-signature-pad-wrapper simplifies the integration of the signature pad into React applications, allowing for easy management of the signature state and events. It enhances the user experience by providing a more React-centric approach to handling signatures.

  • react-canvas-draw:

    react-canvas-draw provides a straightforward drawing interface with basic tools like freehand drawing, erasing, and undo/redo functionality. It supports saving drawings as images and allows for easy integration into forms or applications needing simple drawing features.

  • react-signature-pad:

    react-signature-pad offers a customizable signature pad with options for adjusting stroke width, color, and background. It supports pressure sensitivity for touch devices, providing a more natural drawing experience, which is beneficial for applications needing detailed signature capture.

Customization

  • react-signature-canvas:

    react-signature-canvas allows for some customization of the canvas size and background color, but it is primarily focused on signature capture rather than extensive drawing features, making it less customizable than other options.

  • react-signature-pad-wrapper:

    react-signature-pad-wrapper inherits the customization features of react-signature-pad while providing a more convenient API for managing state and events, making it easier to implement custom designs.

  • react-canvas-draw:

    Customization options in react-canvas-draw are limited to basic drawing settings like color and line width. It is designed for simplicity and ease of use, making it less flexible for complex requirements.

  • react-signature-pad:

    react-signature-pad excels in customization, offering a wide range of options for styling the signature pad, including stroke color, width, and background. This makes it suitable for applications that require specific visual designs.

Integration Ease

  • react-signature-canvas:

    react-signature-canvas is also easy to integrate, requiring only a few lines of code to set up. Its simple API allows developers to quickly add signature capture functionality to forms or applications.

  • react-signature-pad-wrapper:

    react-signature-pad-wrapper simplifies integration by providing a more React-friendly API, making it easier to manage state and events related to the signature pad, thus enhancing the overall developer experience.

  • react-canvas-draw:

    Integration of react-canvas-draw is straightforward, with minimal setup required. It can be easily added to existing React applications without extensive modifications, making it a good choice for quick implementations.

  • react-signature-pad:

    react-signature-pad may require more setup due to its extensive customization options, but it is still manageable for developers familiar with React. It offers flexibility at the cost of a slightly steeper learning curve.

Performance

  • react-signature-canvas:

    react-signature-canvas is optimized for capturing signatures, providing a smooth experience even on touch devices. It handles performance well for typical use cases involving signature capture.

  • react-signature-pad-wrapper:

    react-signature-pad-wrapper maintains the performance benefits of react-signature-pad while providing a more efficient way to handle state and events, ensuring that performance remains optimal even with complex integrations.

  • react-canvas-draw:

    react-canvas-draw performs well for basic drawing tasks, but may experience performance issues with very large drawings or complex interactions due to its reliance on the HTML canvas element.

  • react-signature-pad:

    react-signature-pad is designed for performance, especially with pressure-sensitive devices, ensuring a responsive experience while drawing. It efficiently manages rendering and updates, making it suitable for detailed signature capture.

Community and Support

  • react-signature-canvas:

    react-signature-canvas benefits from a solid community and good documentation, making it easy for developers to find support and examples for implementation.

  • react-signature-pad-wrapper:

    react-signature-pad-wrapper, being a wrapper, relies on the community and support of react-signature-pad. It benefits from the same resources, ensuring that developers have access to ample support.

  • react-canvas-draw:

    react-canvas-draw has a growing community and is actively maintained, providing a decent level of support through GitHub issues and discussions. However, it may not have as extensive documentation as some other libraries.

  • react-signature-pad:

    react-signature-pad has a robust community with extensive resources and documentation available. It is well-supported, making it a reliable choice for developers seeking help or examples.

How to Choose: react-signature-canvas vs react-signature-pad-wrapper vs react-canvas-draw vs react-signature-pad
  • react-signature-canvas:

    Opt for react-signature-canvas if your primary goal is to capture user signatures. This library provides a clean and easy-to-use interface for signature capture, along with options for clearing and saving the signature as an image. It's best suited for forms and applications that require user authentication or agreement.

  • react-signature-pad-wrapper:

    Use react-signature-pad-wrapper if you want a wrapper around the signature pad that simplifies integration with React. This library is useful for developers who want to manage the signature pad's state and events more easily, providing a more React-friendly API.

  • react-canvas-draw:

    Choose react-canvas-draw if you need a simple and effective way to create drawings on a canvas with features like undo/redo and saving drawings as images. It's ideal for applications that require a straightforward drawing interface without complex configurations.

  • react-signature-pad:

    Select react-signature-pad if you need a more customizable signature capture solution. It offers extensive options for styling and configuring the signature pad, making it ideal for applications that require specific design requirements or additional features like pressure sensitivity.

README for react-signature-canvas

react-signature-canvas

package-json releases commits
dt dy dm dw
typings build status code coverage

A React wrapper component around signature_pad.

Originally, this was just an unopinionated fork of react-signature-pad that did not impose any styling or wrap any other unwanted elements around your canvas -- it's just a wrapper around a single canvas element! Hence the naming difference. Nowadays, this repo / library has significantly evolved, introducing new features, fixing various bugs, and now wrapping the upstream signature_pad to have its updates and bugfixes baked in.

This fork also allows you to directly pass props to the underlying canvas element, has new, documented API methods you can use, has new, documented props you can pass to it, has a live demo, has a CodeSandbox playground, has 100% test coverage, and is written in TypeScript.

Installation

npm i -S react-signature-canvas

Usage

import React from 'react'
import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client'
import SignatureCanvas from 'react-signature-canvas'

createRoot(
  document.getElementById('my-react-container')
).render(
  <SignatureCanvas penColor='green'
    canvasProps={{width: 500, height: 200, className: 'sigCanvas'}} />,
)

Props

The props of SignatureCanvas mainly control the properties of the pen stroke used in drawing. All props are optional.

  • velocityFilterWeight : number, default: 0.7
  • minWidth : number, default: 0.5
  • maxWidth : number, default: 2.5
  • minDistance: number, default: 5
  • dotSize : number or function, default: () => (this.minWidth + this.maxWidth) / 2
  • penColor : string, default: 'black'
  • throttle: number, default: 16

There are also two callbacks that will be called when a stroke ends and one begins, respectively.

  • onEnd : function
  • onBegin : function

Additional props are used to control the canvas element.

  • canvasProps: object
    • directly passed to the underlying <canvas /> element
  • backgroundColor : string, default: 'rgba(0,0,0,0)'
    • used in the API's clear convenience method (which itself is called internally during resizes)
  • clearOnResize: bool, default: true
    • whether or not the canvas should be cleared when the window resizes

Of these props, all, except for canvasProps and clearOnResize, are passed through to signature_pad as its options. signature_pad's internal state is automatically kept in sync with prop updates for you (via a componentDidUpdate hook).

API

All API methods require a ref to the SignatureCanvas in order to use and are instance methods of the ref.

import React, { useRef } from 'react'
import SignatureCanvas from 'react-signature-canvas'

function MyApp() {
  const sigCanvas = useRef(null);

  return <SignatureCanvas ref={sigCanvas} />
}
  • isEmpty() : boolean, self-explanatory
  • clear() : void, clears the canvas using the backgroundColor prop
  • fromDataURL(base64String, options) : void, writes a base64 image to canvas
  • toDataURL(mimetype, encoderOptions): base64string, returns the signature image as a data URL
  • fromData(pointGroupArray): void, draws signature image from an array of point groups
  • toData(): pointGroupArray, returns signature image as an array of point groups
  • off(): void, unbinds all event handlers
  • on(): void, rebinds all event handlers
  • getCanvas(): canvas, returns the underlying canvas ref. Allows you to modify the canvas however you want or call methods such as toDataURL()
  • getTrimmedCanvas(): canvas, creates a copy of the canvas and returns a trimmed version of it, with all whitespace removed.
  • getSignaturePad(): SignaturePad, returns the underlying SignaturePad reference.

The API methods are mostly just wrappers around signature_pad's API. on() and off() will, in addition, bind/unbind the window resize event handler. getCanvas(), getTrimmedCanvas(), and getSignaturePad() are new.

Example

You can interact with the example in a few different ways:

  1. Run npm start and navigate to http://localhost:1234/.
    Hosted locally via the example/ directory

  2. View the live demo here.
    Hosted via the gh-pages branch, a standalone version of the code in example/

  3. Play with the CodeSandbox here.
    Hosted via the codesandbox-example branch, a slightly modified version of the above.