Web/API/WebGLRenderingContext/canvas

The WebGLRenderingContext.canvas property is a read-only reference to the HTMLCanvasElement or OffscreenCanvas object that is associated with the context. It might be null if it is not associated with a <canvas> element or an OffscreenCanvas object.

Syntax

gl.canvas;

Return value

Either a HTMLCanvasElement or OffscreenCanvas object or null.

Examples

Canvas element

Given this <canvas> element:

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

You can get back a reference to it from the WebGLRenderingContext using the canvas property:

var canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
var gl = canvas.getContext('webgl');
gl.canvas; // HTMLCanvasElement

Offscreen canvas

Example using the experimental OffscreenCanvas object.

var offscreen = new OffscreenCanvas(256, 256);
var gl = offscreen.getContext('webgl');
gl.canvas; // OffscreenCanvas

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
WebGL 1.0The definition of 'WebGLRenderingContext.canvas' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`canvas`	Chrome Full support 9	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 4	IE Full support 11	Opera Full support 12	Safari Full support 5.1	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support 25	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support 12	Safari iOS Full support 8	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.5
`OffscreenCanvas` Experimental'	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 44 Disabled' Full support 44 Disabled' Disabled' From version 44: this feature is behind the `gfx.offscreencanvas.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.': Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
User must explicitly enable this feature.': User must explicitly enable this feature.