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Asked: 2026-05-24T21:29:06+00:00

The HTML5 <canvas> element does not accept relative sizes (percent) for its width and

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The HTML5 <canvas> element does not accept relative sizes (percent) for its width and height properties.

What I’m trying to accomplish is to have my canvas sized relative to the window. This is what I’ve come up with so far, but I’m wondering if there is a better way that is:

  1. Simpler
  2. Does not require wrapping the <canvas> in a <div>.
  3. Not dependent on jQuery (I use it to get the width/height of the parent div)
  4. Ideally, doesn’t redraw on browser resize (but I think that might be a requirement)

See below for the code, which draws a circle in the middle of the screen, 40% wide up to a maximum of 400px.

Live demo: http://jsbin.com/elosil/2

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Canvas of relative width</title>
    <style>
        body { margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #ccc; }
        #relative { width: 40%; margin: 100px auto; height: 400px; border: solid 4px #999; background-color: White; }
    </style>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script>
        function draw() {
            // draw a circle in the center of the canvas
            var canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
            var relative = document.getElementById('relative');
            canvas.width = $(relative).width();
            canvas.height = $(relative).height();
            var w = canvas.width;
            var h = canvas.height;
            var size = (w > h) ? h : w; // set the radius of the circle to be the lesser of the width or height;
            var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
            ctx.beginPath();
            ctx.arc(w / 2, h / 2, size/2, 0, Math.PI * 2, false);
            ctx.closePath();
            ctx.fill();
        }

        $(function () {
            $(window).resize(draw);
        });
    </script>
</head>
<body onload="draw()">
    <div id="relative">
        <canvas id="canvas"></canvas>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The canvas width and height attributes are separate from the same canvas’s width and height styles. The width and height attributes are the size of the canvas’s rendering surface, in pixels, whereas its styles choose a location in the document where the browser should draw the content from the rendering surface. It just so happens that the default value for the width and height styles, if they’re not specified, is the rendering surface’s width and height. So you’re right about #1: there’s no reason to wrap it in a div. You can set percentage values for all of the styles on your canvas element, just like any other element.

    For #3, it’s pretty easy (and cross-browser) to get the size of things with clientWidth and clientHeight, as long as you’re not using padding on your canvas element.

    I coded up the slightly simplified version here.

    For #4, you’re right about being out of luck. It’s possible to check before setting width and height and leave the canvas alone if it doesn’t need resizing, which would eliminate some of the redraws, but you can’t get rid of all of them.

    EDIT: Portman pointed out I messed up the centering style. Updated version here.

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