paper.js VS fabric.js

Compare paper.js vs fabric.js and see what are their differences.

paper.js

The Swiss Army Knife of Vector Graphics Scripting – Scriptographer ported to JavaScript and the browser, using HTML5 Canvas. Created by @lehni & @puckey (by paperjs)

fabric.js

Javascript Canvas Library, SVG-to-Canvas (& canvas-to-SVG) Parser (by fabricjs)
Our great sponsors
  • SurveyJS - Open-Source JSON Form Builder to Create Dynamic Forms Right in Your App
  • InfluxDB - Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale
  • WorkOS - The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS
paper.js fabric.js
23 49
14,225 27,470
0.6% 1.5%
3.7 9.3
17 days ago 3 days ago
JavaScript JavaScript
GNU General Public License v3.0 or later GNU General Public License v3.0 or later
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

paper.js

Posts with mentions or reviews of paper.js. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-05-29.
  • How Framer/Figma is built?
    2 projects | /r/webdev | 29 May 2023
    I started with angular and paper.js: http://paperjs.org/
  • Polygon JS libraries
    1 project | /r/p5js | 11 Apr 2023
    In a thread in the Processing forum, Boolean operations in polygons , user ErraticGenerator suggests using g.js or Paper.js.
  • Looking for a javascript library with good wrapping support
    2 projects | /r/gis | 31 Mar 2023
    It is likely that paper.js provides the functionality needed. I will probably investigate it at some point since it appears to be the more popular library Compare paper.js & bezier.js.
  • Making YouTube video with React
    9 projects | dev.to | 25 Feb 2023
    To solve that issue, I searched for some solutions using canvas. I didn’t want to work with pure canvas so after doing some research, I settled with paper.js.
  • The Continuity of Splines – Video Essay by Freya Holmér
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 17 Dec 2022
    Ooh, the Chebyshev basis is neat. I hadn't seen exactly that before. It reminds me a lot of the "shape control" technique[1] which is also similar to a basis function approach but has a bit of linear solving. Essentially, you get one point (usually at t = 0.5), and also the direction but not magnitudes of the tangents at the endpoints (G1, not C1). This is one of the better-performing existing techniques for offset curve, though does have stability problems (in particular, nasty behavior for a symmetric "S" curve).

    Regarding collaboration with Freya, if she is open to it, please get in touch. I do have some ideas.

    [1]: A New Shape Control and Classification for Cubic Bézier Curves, Yang and Huang, 1993, PDF cache: https://github.com/paperjs/paper.js/files/752955/A.New.Shape...

  • which technology or framework is used to create geometry-draggable canvas like this?
    7 projects | /r/Frontend | 23 Oct 2022
    Paper.js - example (not interactive, just code)
  • Animating an svg
    1 project | /r/webdev | 29 Aug 2022
    Just remember you can do some SVG displacement with Paper.JS
  • Writing HTML sucks and No-code doesn't help
    3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 9 May 2022
    > <p>Oh yeah, you reminded me of the template fatigue that was paper.js and it trying to reinvent scripting on the client side with <script type="text/paperscript"> templates that could use templates that could use templates... and so on. [0] I was wondering why people would go to such great lengths just to avoid having to script in the browser.<p>The way I saw it at the time was that I've rediscovered the same mistakes that PHP did back in the days. All the recurs(iv)ed templating problems, all the OOP fatigue that never worked out (magento and zend, anyone?), and all the inheritance based "reinventions" of existing web technologies like OOCSS [1].<p>I mean, at some point every engineer should be wise enough to give up on trying to predict the future. Especially in projects they cannot predict what features are going to be implemented, so I'd naturally assume that modularity and compositional or entity/component aspects will win in later revisions or refactor decisions. But I was wrong with that assumption, I guess :S<p>I also can kinda understand the general bias towards closure among functional folks. I guess that lots of people at the time (or nowadays) had high hopes for it allowing to go more "functional" in its approach, allowing compositional patterns to be useful on the web. But, honestly, JS itself is so flexible and can be used in all kinds of architectural patterns that I think closure's purpose is kind of void by its own concept.<p>When comparing closure with, say, typescript (which I also don't agree with, because "string" and "String" and "any" are pointless from any language design perspective): Typescript at least has the benefit of typed API docs and good IDE integrations (due to LSP) that can be used in large teams to reduce the overhead of getting started with working on foreignly-owned code - whereas closure doesn't have any unique selling point in my opinion. I mean, even scala.js has a unique selling point when being judged like that.<p>[0] <a href="https://github.com/paperjs/paper.js" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/paperjs/paper.js</a><p>[1] <a href="http://oocss.org/" rel="nofollow">http://oocss.org/</a>
  • Diagnosing RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded in React KeyEscapeUtils
    1 project | /r/codehunter | 5 May 2022
    Our webapp is written with React and Redux using the official react-redux bindings. Another primary library used in this web app is PaperJS. We recently transitioned this to being a Redux app, though it has used React for a while.
  • How to upload image into HTML5 canvas
    1 project | /r/codehunter | 23 Apr 2022
    I am currently using http://paperjs.org to create an HTML5 canvas drawing app. I want to let users upload images into the canvas. I know I need to make a login and signup but is there an easier way? I have seen the HTML5 drag and drop upload.

fabric.js

Posts with mentions or reviews of fabric.js. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-12.
  • Fun, Beautiful, Printable 'Story Cards' for Kids with Cloudflare AI
    3 projects | dev.to | 12 Apr 2024
    This AI-powered Story Card Maker is built as a SvelteKit application with Typescript. Using Flowbite Svelte component library, the whole application was laid out. The layout for the Story Card (emulating the size of a postcard - 4" x 3") is created as an HTML Canvas using Fabric.js.
  • JSON Canvas – An open file format for infinite canvas data
    12 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 11 Mar 2024
  • Step by step on how to setup fabric.js in the next.js app
    1 project | dev.to | 30 Sep 2023
    Fabric.js is a powerful and simple Javascript HTML5 canvas library. It provides an interactive object model on top of the canvas element. Fabric also has SVG-to-canvas (and canvas-to-SVG) parser.
  • How I choose Fabric.js again
    2 projects | dev.to | 3 Sep 2023
    Based on this, I found that some of the libraries are dead and no longer have any support. Only two libraries are still alive and have significant amount of stars on GitHub and downloads on NPM. They are Fabric.js and Konva.js.
  • Building application Like Canva in ReactJS
    1 project | /r/react | 29 Jun 2023
    I'm actually in the process of building something similar. It's a React app and I'm using the FabricJs library
  • How can I build a configurator like this ?
    1 project | /r/react | 10 May 2023
    I've played with this tech in early 2010s - they are using HTML5 Canvas tech + something like Fabric.js(http://fabricjs.com/) that controls Canvas objects.
  • Canvas Element with multiple images that can be moved?
    1 project | /r/webdev | 19 Apr 2023
    this library might help you: http://fabricjs.com/
  • How would I wrap an image on an object in web?
    1 project | /r/webdev | 14 Mar 2023
    I did some research and the most promising result was using Fabric.js (http://fabricjs.com/) to put images on products. I may not be experienced enough in JS to understand the full capabilities of this library, but it looks like most of their stuff works on flat surfaces. I am trying to replicate the properly wrapped/textured affect that is achieved in the blanket below.
  • Any ideas on how to build this floating sidebar and how it functions?
    1 project | /r/webdev | 10 Mar 2023
    set up a canvas drawing & rendering framework, for example http://fabricjs.com/
  • Image Manipulation with Fabric.js and Canvas
    1 project | dev.to | 29 Nov 2022
    body{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; align-items:center; }

    Learning Fabric

    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Next, we initiate a Canvas instance in our script tag:

    Syntax

    new fabric.Canvas(element: HTMLElement|String, options: Object)
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    This allows Fabric.js to create this class instance so that we can use the provided methods of Fabric.js:

    const canvas = new fabric.Canvas("canvas", {})
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Now, we’ll go ahead and give our canvas different properties, such as width, height, and background color:

    const canvas = new fabric.Canvas("canvas", {
     width:500,
     height:500,
     backgroundColor:green
    })
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Output

    Creating a Rectangle with Fabric.js

    Now that we’ve initialized a canvas and given it various properties, we’re going to create a rectangle using the Fabric.js object fabric.Rect:

    Syntax

    new fabric.Rect({object})
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Here the object houses the rectangle properties:

    const canvas = new fabric.Canvas("canvas", {
     width:500,
     height:500,
     backgroundColor:green
    });
    
    const rectangle = new fabric.Rect({
     width:200,
     height:200,
     /* fill is used to define the background color*/
        fill:'red'
    })
    /*the add method is used to add objects to the canvas element */
    canvas.add(rectangle)
    /*the renderAll method used to render the canvas*/
    canvas.renderAll();
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    The add() method is used to add objects to the Canvas element. In this case, it adds the rectangle we created to the canvas:

    Output

    Creating a Circle

    In the same way, we’ll create a circle. This time, we’ll use fabric.Circle:

    const canvas = new fabric.Canvas("canvas", {
     width:500,
     height:500,
     backgroundColor:"lightgray"
    });
    
    const circle = new fabric.Circle({
     radius:60,
     fill:"blue"
    })
    canvas.add(circle);
    canvas.renderALl();
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Output

    With the above steps, we created a rectangle and a circle using Fabric.js. Note how interactive the objects are! Next, we’ll discuss images in Fabric.js.

    Images with Fabric

    The Fabric.Image is a Fabric.js object used to render images on a canvas. With Fabric.js, we can interact with the image. Images can be added to our canvas in two ways:

    • Fabric.Image
    • Fabric.Image.fromURL

    Using the Fabric.Image constructor requires us to create an image element in our HTML and then insert it into the constructor:

    Syntax

    fabric.Image(image_element)
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    HTML

    
    
    
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    JS

    const image_element = document.querySelector('#image');
    const image = new fabric.Image(image_element)
    canvas.add(image);
    canvas.renderAll();
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    However, Fabric.Image.fromURL requires only the image URL (the URL can be retrieved from a website or your local folder), and is simpler than the former:

    fabric.Image.fromURL(URL, function());
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    After passing the URL, the callback function after the image is loaded. The first default parameter of the callback function is the fabric.Image object. Now, we can modify the image properties and then add it to the canvas:

    const canvas = new fabric.Canvas("canvas", {
     width:500,
     height:500,
     backgroundColor:"White"
    });
    
    fabric.Image.fromURL('my_image.png',(img) => {
     // the scaleToHeight property is use to set the image height
        img.scaleToHeight(250)
     // scaleToWidth is use to set the image width
        img.scaleToWidth(250)
        canvas.add(img)  
    })
    canvas.renderAll()
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Output

    Editing Images with Fabric.js

    Now that we know how to insert an image into a canvas, we’ll look at other image objects like image filters.

    Image Filters

    Fabric.js provides us with built-in filters:

    • BaseFilter
    • Brightness
    • convolute
    • GradientTransparency
    • Grayscale
    • Invert
    • Mask
    • Noise
    • Pixelate
    • RemoveWhite
    • Sepia
    • Sepia2
    • Tint

    Every instance of fabric.Image has the "filters" property, which is a simple array of filters. We can use the array method to perform any required operation, including removing filters (pop, slice, shift), adding filters (push, unshift, slice), and even combining multiple filters. When we call applyFilters, any filter in the “filters” array will be applied one by one. Let’s use some of these filters:

    Syntax

    new fabric.Image.filters
    // after that you can add any filter of your choice
    // Example 
    new fabric.Image.filters.Grayscale()
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
    fabric.Image.fromURL('my_image.png', (image) => {
          image.scaleToHeight(300)
           image.ScaleToWidth(300)
    
     // Creating filter
     const filter = new fabric.Image.filters.Grayscale()
    
     //push the filter instance to filters
            image.filter.push(filter)
    
     // apply filter
             image.applyFilters()
    
     //add image into canvas (it also re-render the canvas)
             canvas.add(image)
    },{crossOrigin: 'anonymous'});
    canvas.renderAll();
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Output

    Above, we used the Grayscale filter; we can also apply other filters. All we have to do is simply change the filter, as shown in this example:

    fabric.Image.fromURL('my_image.png', (image) => {
          image.scaleToHeight(300)
           image.ScaleToWidth(300)
    
     // creating filter
     const filter = new fabric.Image.filters.Sepia()
    
     //add filter
            image.filter.push(filter)
    
     // apply filter
             image.applyFilters()
    
     //add image into canvas (it also re-render the canvas)
             canvas.add(image)
    },{crossOrigin: 'anonymous'});
    canvas.renderAll();
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Output

    Image Blending

    Blending is mixing two or more images to create a new image. Fabric.js gives us this ability. Here, we’re going to use the image blending filter for our image:

    Syntax

    new fabric.Image.filters.BlendImage({
     // the image that we want to blend
              image:imageA,
     // blend mode (in this case we are using the 'add' mode)
              mode:'add',
    
     alpha:0.5
          });
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
    fabric.Image.fromURL('my_image.png', (imageA) => {
        imageA.scaleToWidth(350)
        imageA.scaleToHeight(350)
        canvas.add(imageA)
    
     // Blending filter
        filter = new fabric.Image.filters.BlendImage({
     image:imageA,
     mode:'add',
     alpha:0.5
          });
    
     //Add the second image  
         fabric.Image.fromURL('my_image2.png',(imageB) => {
               imageB.scaleToHeight(100),
                imageB.scaleToWidth(100),
                canvas.add(imageB)
           }, {crossOrigin:''});
    
         imageA.filters.push(filter);
         imageA.applyFilters(canvas.renderAll.bind(canvas));
    },{crossOrigin:''})
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Output

    Image Clipping

    A very popular effect used today is image clipping, or rather image cropping, which is done to remove parts of an image that we don’t want. With Fabric.js, we can achieve this by using the clipPath method.

    First, we have to create our own clipPath using any Fabric.js object. Then, we’ll assign it to the clipPath property of the object we want to clip. Here, we’ll use a circle object:

    const clipPath = new fabric.Circle({
     radius:150,
     top:200,
     left:250,
     // The originY and originX helps to center the image and the clipPath
        originY:"center",
     originX:"center"
    })
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    After that, we add it to the image that we want to clip using the filter method:

    new fabric.Image.fromURL('my_image.png',(img) => {
      img.scaleToHeight(300)
      img.scaleToWidth(300)
     // positioning the image
      img.scale(o.5).set({top:50,left:100})
     // Clip Path
      clipPath = new fabric.Circle({
     radius:150,
     top:200,
     left:250,
     originY:"center",
     originX:"center"
        })
      canvas.add(img)
      canvas.clipPath = clipPath;
      });
    canvas.renderAll();
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Output

    Image Blurring

    Like other image filters, the blur filter accepts objects because they can be adjusted. A practical example is changing the brightness of an image. You can apply other image filters without any additional configurations (like grayscale, invert, or sepia). Other image filters like brightness, pixelate, tint, and noise all operate in this way, too. However, the difference is that their values are not the same. The brightness filter's actual brightness level ranges from-1 (full black) to 1 (full white). The noise filter's value is between 0 and 1000. For the blur filter, the value ranges from 0 to 10.

    Syntax

    new fabric.Image.filters.Blur(object)
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
    fabric.Image.fromURL('my_image.png', (image) => {
          image.scaleToHeight(300)
           image.ScaleToWidth(300)
    
     // Creating the blur filter
     const filter = new fabric.Image.filters.Blur({
     blur:0.6
           })
    
     //push the filter instance to filters
            image.filter.push(filter)
             image.applyFilters()
             canvas.add(image)
    },{crossOrigin: 'anonymous'});
    canvas.renderAll();
    
    Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

    Output

    Conclusion

    In conclusion, Fabric.js gives us an awesome experience when working with Canvas. It also provides a lot of features, some of which we covered in this article. For full details on some of the Fabric.js objects, you can review its documentation here.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing paper.js and fabric.js you can also consider the following projects:

p5.js - p5.js is a client-side JS platform that empowers artists, designers, students, and anyone to learn to code and express themselves creatively on the web. It is based on the core principles of Processing. http://twitter.com/p5xjs —

two.js - A renderer agnostic two-dimensional drawing api for the web.

three.js - JavaScript 3D Library.

d3 - Bring data to life with SVG, Canvas and HTML. :bar_chart::chart_with_upwards_trend::tada:

Konva - Konva.js is an HTML5 Canvas JavaScript framework that extends the 2d context by enabling canvas interactivity for desktop and mobile applications.

GoJS, a JavaScript Library for HTML Diagrams - JavaScript diagramming library for interactive flowcharts, org charts, design tools, planning tools, visual languages.

Snap.svg - The JavaScript library for modern SVG graphics.

raphael - JavaScript Vector Library