CanvasRenderingContext2D.font

The CanvasRenderingContext2D.font property of the Canvas 2D API specifies the current text style being used when drawing text. This string uses the same syntax as the CSS font specifier. The default font is 10px sans-serif.

Syntax

ctx.font = value;

Options

value

A DOMString parsed as CSS font value. The default font is 10px sans-serif.

Examples

Using the font property

This is just a simple code snippet using the font property to set a different font size and font family.

HTML

<canvas id="canvas"></canvas>

JavaScript

var canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
ctx.font = '48px serif';
ctx.strokeText('Hello world', 50, 100);

Edit the code below and see your changes update live in the canvas:

<canvas id="canvas" width="400" height="200" class="playable-canvas"></canvas>
<div class="playable-buttons">
  <input id="edit" type="button" value="Edit" />
  <input id="reset" type="button" value="Reset" />
</div>
<textarea id="code" class="playable-code">
ctx.font = '48px serif';
ctx.strokeText('Hello world', 50, 100);</textarea>

var canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
var textarea = document.getElementById('code');
var reset = document.getElementById('reset');
var edit = document.getElementById('edit');
var code = textarea.value;
function drawCanvas() {
  ctx.clearRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
  eval(textarea.value);
}
reset.addEventListener('click', function() {
  textarea.value = code;
  drawCanvas();
});
edit.addEventListener('click', function() {
  textarea.focus();
})
textarea.addEventListener('input', drawCanvas);
window.addEventListener('load', drawCanvas);

Loading fonts with the CSS Font Loading API

With the help of the FontFace API, you can explicitly load fonts before using it in canvas.

var f = new FontFace('test', 'url(x)');
f.load().then(function() {
  // Ready to use the font in a canvas context
});

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Gecko-specific notes

• In Gecko-based browsers, such as Firefox, a non-standard and deprecated property ctx.mozTextStyle is implemented besides this property. Don't use it.

See also

• The interface defining it, CanvasRenderingContext2D