Develop Reference

How would I go about implementing a moving origin on zoom on a canvas?

I'm having some issues with implementing a custom zoom.
I have most of the zoom functionality working, however, it zooms "around" the origin, in this case, the top-left corner of the grid. Instead, I want it to zoom in around the cursor.
The canvas is as big as the window (I'll be adding UI on top of the canvas, kinda like photoshop), and I'm drawing a grid to the canvas that is WIDTH x HEIGHT pixels large, "scaled up" by a factor of PIXEL_SIZE.
The important part of this, this event handler right here
const WIDTH = 32;
const HEIGHT = 24;
const PIXEL_SIZE = 10;
...
// controls how big the grid is
let scale = 1.5;
// controls where the grid is drawn,
// starts exactly in the middle of the screen
let originX = canvas.width / 2 - (WIDTH * PIXEL_SIZE * scale) / 2;
let originY = canvas.height / 2 - (HEIGHT * PIXEL_SIZE * scale) / 2;
function zoom(event) {
event.preventDefault();
const wheel = event.deltaY < 0 ? 1 : -1;
const z = Math.exp(wheel * 0.05);
scale *= z;
// this adjusts the scale just fine-ish
// however, the origin needs to move in relation
// to the cursor position
}
window.addEventListener("wheel", zoom, { passive: false });
I've tried a few things, but for some reason, my brain can't do the math at the moment. I've tried using ctx.translate and ctx.scale, but neither of them seems to do what I want to do (though I could be using them wrong).
Here's a JSFiddle with what I've got so far. If someone could take a look, that would be awesome.

Pretty cool code. Zoooming in on a specific point can be tricky and could be done a number of ways. The main problem is where exactly do you want to zoom and at what scale/how fast when nearing the max zoom.
I would suggest starting off with defining an offset
...
// starts exactly in the middle of the screen
let originX = canvas.width / 2 - (WIDTH * PIXEL_SIZE * scale) / 2;
let originY = canvas.height / 2 - (HEIGHT * PIXEL_SIZE * scale) / 2;
let offsetX = originX;
let offsetY = originY;
...
And then computing the offset using event.x and event.y of the MouseEvent in the zoom callback, similar to:
function zoom(event) {
...
// event.x and event.y returns the position relative to ...something
// To properly scale the values, you could get the relative position
// and size of the canvas and find your offset, for example
// (viwportsizeX - canvasSizeX) + event.X / (scaleX) and the same for Y
// when the position is realtive to the viewport
offsetX = event.x;
offsetY = event.y;
}
And of course update the offset in the animation mainloop:
function animate() {
requestAnimationFrame(animate);
ctx.clearRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
bufferCtx.putImageData(data, 0, 0);
ctx.drawImage(
bufferCanvas,
originX - offsetX,
originY - offsetY,
WIDTH * PIXEL_SIZE * scale,
HEIGHT * PIXEL_SIZE * scale
);
}
Zooming in exactly on the point of the cursor is possible by computing the offsets relative to the canvas element being zoomed on.
JSFiddle

Accounting for Canvas Size Differences when Drawing on Image with Stored Coordinates

I'm struggling to find a method/strategy to handle drawing with stored coordinates and the variation in canvas dimensions across various devices and screen sizes for my web app.
Basically I want to display an image on the canvas. The user will mark two points on an area of image and the app records where these markers were placed. The idea is that the user will use the app every odd day, able to see where X amount of previous points were drawn and able to add two new ones to the area mentioned in places not already marked by previous markers. The canvas is currently set up for height = window.innerHeight and width = window.innerWidth/2.
My initial thought was recording the coordinates of each pair of points and retrieving them as required so they can be redrawn. But these coordinates don't match up if the canvas changes size, as discovered when I tested the web page on different devices. How can I record the previous coordinates and use them to mark the same area of the image regardless of canvas dimensions?

Use percentages! Example:
So lets say on Device 1 the canvas size is 150x200,
User puts marker on pixel 25x30. You can do some math to get the percentage.
And then you SAVE that percentage, not the location,
Example:
let userX = 25; //where the user placed a marker
let canvasWidth = 150;
//Use a calculator to verify :D
let percent = 100 / (canvasWidth / userX); //16.666%
And now that you have the percent you can set the marker's location based on that percent.
Example:
let markerX = (canvasWidth * percent) / 100; //24.999
canvasWidth = 400; //Lets change the canvas size!
markerX = (canvasWidth * percent) / 100; //66.664;
And voila :D just grab the canvas size and you can determine marker's location every time.

Virtual Canvas
You must define a virtual canvas. This is the ideal canvas with a predefined size, all coordinates are relative to this canvas. The center of this virtual canvas is coordinate 0,0
When a coordinate is entered it is converted to the virtual coordinates and stored. When rendered they are converted to the device screen coordinates.
Different devices have various aspect ratios, even a single device can be tilted which changes the aspect. That means that the virtual canvas will not exactly fit on all devices. The best you can do is ensure that the whole virtual canvas is visible without stretching it in x, or y directions. this is called scale to fit.
Scale to fit
To render to the device canvas you need to scale the coordinates so that the whole virtual canvas can fit. You use the canvas transform to apply the scaling.
To create the device scale matrix
const vWidth = 1920; // virtual canvas size
const vHeight = 1080;
function scaleToFitMatrix(dWidth, dHeight) {
const scale = Math.min(dWidth / vWidth, dHeight / vHeight);
return [scale, 0, 0, scale, dWidth / 2, dHeight / 2];
}
const scaleMatrix = scaleToFitMatrix(innerWidth, innerHeight);
Scale position not pixels
Point is defined as a position on the virtual canvas. However the transform will also scale the line widths, and feature sizes which you would not want on very low or high res devices.
To keep the same pixels size but still render in features in pixel sizes you use the inverse scale, and reset the transform just before you stroke as follows (4 pixel box centered over point)
const point = {x : 0, y : 0}; // center of virtual canvas
const point1 = {x : -vWidth / 2, y : -vHeight / 2}; // top left of virtual canvas
const point2 = {x : vWidth / 2, y : vHeight / 2}; // bottom right of virtual canvas
function drawPoint(ctx, matrix, vX, vY, pW, pH) { // vX, vY virtual coordinate
const invScale = 1 / matrix[0]; // to scale to pixel size
ctx.setTransform(...matrix);
ctx.lineWidth = 1; // width of line
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.rect(vX - pW * 0.5 * invScale, vY - pH * 0.5 * invScale, pW * invScale, pH * invScale);
ctx.setTransform(1,0,0,1,0,0); // reset transform for line width to be correct
ctx.fill();
ctx.stroke();
}
const ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
drawPoint(ctx, scaleMatrix, point.x, point.y, 4, 4);
Transforming via CPU
To convert a point from the device coordinates to the virtual coordinates you need to apply the inverse matrix to that point. For example you get the pageX, pageY coordinates from a mouse, you convert using the scale matrix as follows
function pointToVirtual(matrix, point) {
point.x = (point.x - matrix[4]) / matrix[0];
point.y = (point.y - matrix[5]) / matrix[3];
return point;
}
To convert from virtual to device
function virtualToPoint(matrix, point) {
point.x = (point.x * matrix[0]) + matrix[4];
point.y = (point.y * matrix[3]) + matrix[5];
return point;
}
Check bounds
There may be an area above/below or left/right of the canvas that is outside the virtual canvas coordinates. To check if inside the virtual canvas call the following
function isInVritual(vPoint) {
return ! (vPoint.x < -vWidth / 2 ||
vPoint.y < -vHeight / 2 ||
vPoint.x >= vWidth / 2 ||
vPoint.y >= vHeight / 2);
}
const dPoint = {x: page.x, y: page.y}; // coordinate in device coords
if (isInVirtual(pointToVirtual(scaleMatrix,dPoint))) {
console.log("Point inside");
} else {
console.log("Point out of bounds.");
}
Extra points
The above assumes that the canvas is aligned to the screen.
Some devices will be zoomed (pinch scaled). You will need to check the device pixel scale for the best results.
It is best to set the virtual canvas size to the max screen resolution you expect.
Always work in virtual coordinates, only convert to device coordinates when you need to render.

Zoom in in a canvas at a certain point

I try to let the user zoom in the canvas with a pinch gesture, it's a Javascript Canvas Game (using Intel XDK)
I got the point coordinates (relativley to the window document, saved in an array) and the scale "strength".
var scale = 1;
function scaleCanvas(sc, point) { //point["x"] == 200
//sc has value like 0.5, 1, 1.5 and so on
x = sc/scale;
scale = sc;
ctx.scale(x, x);
}
I know that I have to translate the canvas to the point coordinates, and then retranslate it again. My problem is, that the canvas is already translated. The translation values are saved in the vars dragOffX and dragOffY. Furthermore, the initial translation may be easy, but when the canvas is already scaled, every coordinate is changed.
This is the translation of the canvas when dragging/shifting the content:
var dragOffX = 0;
var dragOffY = 0;
function dragCanvas(x,y) {
dragOffX = dragOffX + x;
dragOffY = dragOffY + y;
x = x* 1/scale;
y = y* 1/scale;
ctx.translate(x,y);
}
So when the player is dragging the content for e.g. 100px to the right, dragOffX gets the value 100.
How do I translate my canvas to the correct coordinates?

It will probably be easier if you store the transformation matrix and use setTransform each time you change it - that resets the canvas transformation matrix first before applying the new transformation, so that you have easier control over the way that the different transformations accumulate.
var transform = {x: 0, y: 0, scale: 1}
function scaleCanvas(scale, point) {
var oldScale = transform.scale;
transform.scale = scale / transform.scale;
// Re-centre the canvas around the zoom point
// (This may need some adjustment to re-centre correctly)
transform.x += point.x / transform.scale - point.x / oldScale
transform.y += point.y / transform.scale - point.y / oldScale;
setTransform();
}
function dragCanvas(x,y) {
transform.x += x / transform.scale;
transform.y += y / transform.scale;
setTransform();
}
function setTransform() {
ctx.setTransform(transform.scale, 0, 0, transform.scale, transform.x, transform.y);
}
JSFiddle

Simply Use this to scale canvas on pivot point
function scaleCanvasOnPivotPoint(s, p_x , p_y) {
ctx.translate(p_x, p_y);
ctx.scale(s);
ctx.translate( -p_x, -p_y);
}

Rotating canvas around a point and getting new x,y offest

I am writing a multitouch jigsaw puzzle using html5 canvas in which you can rotate the pieces around a point. Each piece has their own canvas the size of their bounding box. When the rotation occurs, the canvas size must change, which I am able to calculate and is working. What I can't figure out, is how to find the new x,y offsets if I am to have this appear to be rotating around the pivot (first touch point).
Here is an image to better explain what I'm trying to achieve. Note the pivot point is not always the center, otherwise I could just halve the difference between the new bounds and the old.
So I know the original x, y, width, height, rotation angle, new bounds(rotatedWidth, rotatedHeight), and the pivot X,Y relating to original object. What I can't figure out how to get is the x/y offset for the new bounds (to make it appear that the object rotated around the pivot point)
Thanks in advance!

First we need to find the distance from pivot point to the corner.
Then calculate the angle between pivot and corner
Then calculate the absolute angle based on previous angle + new angle.
And finally calculate the new corner.
Snapshot from demo below showing a line from pivot to corner.
The red dot is calculated while the rectangle is rotated using
translations.
Here is an example using an absolute angle, but you can easily convert this into converting the difference between old and new angle for example. I kept the angles as degrees rather than radians for simplicity.
The demo first uses canvas' internal translation and rotation to rotate the rectangle. Then we use pure math to get to the same point as evidence that we have calculated the correct new x and y point for corner.
/// find distance from pivot to corner
diffX = rect[0] - mx; /// mx/my = center of rectangle (in demo of canvas)
diffY = rect[1] - my;
dist = Math.sqrt(diffX * diffX + diffY * diffY); /// Pythagoras
/// find angle from pivot to corner
ca = Math.atan2(diffY, diffX) * 180 / Math.PI; /// convert to degrees for demo
/// get new angle based on old + current delta angle
na = ((ca + angle) % 360) * Math.PI / 180; /// convert to radians for function
/// get new x and y and round it off to integer
x = (mx + dist * Math.cos(na) + 0.5)|0;
y = (my + dist * Math.sin(na) + 0.5)|0;
Initially you can verify the printed x and y by seeing that the they are exact the same value as the initial corner defined for the rectangle (50, 100).
UPDATE
It seems as I missed the word in: offset for the new bounds... sorry about that, but what you can do instead is to calculate the distance to each corner instead.
That will give you the outer limits of the bound and you just "mix and match" the corner base on those distance values using min and max.
New Live demo here
The new parts consist of a function that will give you the x and y of a corner:
///mx, my = pivot, cx, cy = corner, angle in degrees
function getPoint(mx, my, cx, cy, angle) {
var x, y, dist, diffX, diffY, ca, na;
/// get distance from center to point
diffX = cx - mx;
diffY = cy - my;
dist = Math.sqrt(diffX * diffX + diffY * diffY);
/// find angle from pivot to corner
ca = Math.atan2(diffY, diffX) * 180 / Math.PI;
/// get new angle based on old + current delta angle
na = ((ca + angle) % 360) * Math.PI / 180;
/// get new x and y and round it off to integer
x = (mx + dist * Math.cos(na) + 0.5)|0;
y = (my + dist * Math.sin(na) + 0.5)|0;
return {x:x, y:y};
}
Now it's just to run the function for each corner and then do a min/max to find the bounds:
/// offsets
c2 = getPoint(mx, my, rect[0], rect[1], angle);
c2 = getPoint(mx, my, rect[0] + rect[2], rect[1], angle);
c3 = getPoint(mx, my, rect[0] + rect[2], rect[1] + rect[3], angle);
c4 = getPoint(mx, my, rect[0], rect[1] + rect[3], angle);
/// bounds
bx1 = Math.min(c1.x, c2.x, c3.x, c4.x);
by1 = Math.min(c1.y, c2.y, c3.y, c4.y);
bx2 = Math.max(c1.x, c2.x, c3.x, c4.x);
by2 = Math.max(c1.y, c2.y, c3.y, c4.y);

to rotate around the centre point of the canvas you can use this function:
function rotate(context, rotation, canvasWidth, canvasHeight) {
// Move registration point to the center of the canvas
context.translate(canvasWidth / 2, canvasHeight/ 2);
// Rotate 1 degree
context.rotate((rotation * Math.PI) / 180);
// Move registration point back to the top left corner of canvas
context.translate(-canvasWidth / 2, -canvasHeight/ 2);
}

Here is the way that worked best for me. First I calculate what is the new width and height of that image, then I translate it by half of that amount, then I apply the rotation and finally I go back by the original width and height amount to re center the image.
var canvas = document.getElementById("canvas")
const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d')
drawRectangle(30,30,40,40,30,"black")
function drawRectangle(x,y,width,height, angle,color) {
drawRotated(x,y,width,height,angle,ctx =>{
ctx.fillStyle = color
ctx.fillRect(0,0,width,height)
})
}
function drawRotated(x,y,width,height, angle,callback)
{
angle = angle * Math.PI / 180
const newWidth = Math.abs(width * Math.cos(angle)) + Math.abs(height * Math.sin(angle));
const newHeight = Math.abs(width * Math.sin(angle)) + Math.abs(height * Math.cos(angle));
var surface = document.createElement('canvas')
var sctx = surface.getContext('2d')
surface.width = newWidth
surface.height = newHeight
// START debug magenta square
sctx.fillStyle = "magenta"
sctx.fillRect(0,0,newWidth,newHeight)
// END
sctx.translate(newWidth/2,newHeight/2)
sctx.rotate(angle)
sctx.translate(-width/2,-height/2)
callback(sctx)
ctx.drawImage(surface,x-newWidth/2,y-newHeight/2)
}
#canvas{
border:1px solid black
}
<canvas id="canvas">
</canvas>

Move HTML5 Canvas with a background image

I want to visualize a huge diagram that is drawn in a HTML5 canvas. As depicted below, let’s imagine the world map, it’s impossible to visualize it all at the same time with a “decent” detail. Therefore, in my canvas I would like to be able to pan over it using the mouse to see the other countries that are not visible.
Does anyone know how to implement this sort of panning in a HTML5 canvas? Another feature would be the zoom in and out.
I've seen a few examples but I couldn't get them working nor they seam to address my question.
Thanks in advance!

To achieve a panning functionality with a peep-hole it's simply a matter of two draw operations, one full and one clipped.
To get this result you can do the following (see full code here):
Setup variables:
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d'),
ix = 0, iy = 0, /// image position
offsetX = 0, offsetY = 0, /// current offsets
deltaX, deltaY, /// deltas from mouse down
mouseDown = false, /// in mouse drag
img = null, /// background
rect, /// rect position
rectW = 200, rectH = 150; /// size of highlight area
Set up the main functions that you use to set size according to window size (including on resize):
/// calc canvas w/h in relation to window as well as
/// setting rectangle in center with the pre-defined
/// width and height
function setSize() {
canvas.width = window.innerWidth;
canvas.height = window.innerHeight;
rect = [canvas.width * 0.5 - rectW * 0.5,
canvas.height * 0.5 - rectH * 0.5,
rectW, rectH]
update();
}
/// window resize so recalc canvas and rect
window.onresize = setSize;
The main function in this is the draw function. Here we draw the image on the position calculated by mouse moving (see next section).
First step to get that washed-out look is to set alpha down to about 0.2 (you could also draw a transparent rectangle on top but this is more efficient).
Then draw the complete image.
Reset alpha
Draw the peep-hole using clipping with corrected offsets for the source.
-
/// main draw
function update() {
if (img === null) return;
/// limit x/y as drawImage cannot draw with negative
/// offsets for clipping
if (ix + offsetX > rect[0]) ix = rect[0] - offsetX;
if (iy + offsetY > rect[1]) iy = rect[1] - offsetY;
/// clear background to clear off garbage
ctx.clearRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
/// make everything transparent
ctx.globalAlpha = 0.2;
/// draw complete background
ctx.drawImage(img, ix + offsetX, iy + offsetY);
/// reset alpha as we need opacity for next draw
ctx.globalAlpha = 1;
/// draw a clipped version of the background and
/// adjust for offset and image position
ctx.drawImage(img, -ix - offsetX + rect[0], /// sx
-iy - offsetY + rect[1], /// sy
rect[2], rect[3], /// sw/h
/// destination
rect[0], rect[1], rect[2], rect[3]);
/// make a nice sharp border by offsetting it half pixel
ctx.strokeRect(rect[0] + 0.5, rect[1] + 0.5, rect[2], rect[3]);
}
Now it's a matter of handling mouse down, move and up and calculate the offsets -
In the mouse down we store current mouse positions that we'll use for calculating deltas on mouse move:
canvas.onmousedown = function(e) {
/// don't do anything until we have an image
if (img === null) return;
/// correct mouse pos
var coords = getPos(e),
x = coords[0],
y = coords[1];
/// store current position to calc deltas
deltaX = x;
deltaY = y;
/// here we go..
mouseDown = true;
}
Here we use the deltas to avoid image jumping setting the corner to mouse position. The deltas are transferred as offsets to the update function:
canvas.onmousemove = function(e) {
/// in a drag?
if (mouseDown === true) {
var coords = getPos(e),
x = coords[0],
y = coords[1];
/// offset = current - original position
offsetX = x - deltaX;
offsetY = y - deltaY;
/// redraw what we have so far
update();
}
}
And finally on mouse up we make the offsets a permanent part of the image position:
document.onmouseup = function(e) {
/// was in a drag?
if (mouseDown === true) {
/// not any more!!!
mouseDown = false;
/// make image pos. permanent
ix += offsetX;
iy += offsetY;
/// so we need to reset offsets as well
offsetX = offsetY = 0;
}
}
For zooming the canvas I believe this is already answered in this post - you should be able to merge this with the answer given here:
Zoom Canvas to Mouse Cursor

To do something like you have requested, it is just a case of having 2 canvases, each with different z-index. one canvas smaller than the other and position set to the x and y of the mouse.
Then you just display on the small canvas the correct image based on the position of the x and y on the small canvas in relation to the larger canvas.
However your question is asking for a specific solution, which unless someone has done and they are willing to just dump their code, you're going to find it hard to get a complete answer. I hope it goes well though.