HTMLCanvasElement.toBlob()

The HTMLCanvasElement.toBlob() method creates a Blob object representing the image contained in the canvas; this file may be cached on the disk or stored in memory at the discretion of the user agent. If type is not specified, the image type is image/png. The created image is in a resolution of 96dpi.
The third argument is used with image/jpeg images to specify the quality of the output.

Syntax

void canvas.toBlob(callback, mimeType, qualityArgument);

Parameters

callback
A callback function with the resulting Blob object as a single argument.
mimeType Optional
A DOMString indicating the image format. The default type is image/png.
qualityArgument Optional
A Number between 0 and 1 indicating image quality if the requested type is image/jpeg or image/webp. If this argument is anything else, the default value for image quality is used. Other arguments are ignored.

Return value

None.

Examples

Getting a file representing the canvas

Once you have drawn content into a canvas, you can convert it into a file of any supported image format. The code snippet below, for example, takes the image in the <canvas> element whose ID is "canvas", obtains a copy of it as a PNG image, then appends a new <img> element to the document, whose source image is the one created using the canvas.

var canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");

canvas.toBlob(function(blob) {
  var newImg = document.createElement("img"),
      url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);

  newImg.onload = function() {
    // no longer need to read the blob so it's revoked
    URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
  };

  newImg.src = url;
  document.body.appendChild(newImg);
});

Note that here we're creating a PNG image; if you add a second parameter to the toBlob() call, you can specify the image type. For example, to get the image in JPEG format:

 canvas.toBlob(function(blob){...}, "image/jpeg", 0.95); // JPEG at 95% quality

A way to convert a canvas to an ico (Mozilla only)

This uses -moz-parse to convert the canvas to ico. Windows XP doesn't support converting from PNG to ico, so it uses bmp instead. A download link is created by setting the download attribute. The value of the download attribute is the name it will use as the file name.

var canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
var d = canvas.width;
ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.moveTo(d / 2, 0);
ctx.lineTo(d, d);
ctx.lineTo(0, d);
ctx.closePath();
ctx.fillStyle = "yellow";
ctx.fill();

function blobCallback(iconName) {
  return function(b) {
    var a = document.createElement("a");
    a.textContent = "Download";
    document.body.appendChild(a);
    a.style.display = "block";
    a.download = iconName + ".ico";
    a.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(b);
  }
}
canvas.toBlob(blobCallback('passThisString'), 'image/vnd.microsoft.icon', 
              '-moz-parse-options:format=bmp;bpp=32');

Save toBlob to disk with OS.File (chrome/add-on context only)

This technique saves it to the desktop and is only useful in Firefox chrome context or add-on code as OS APIs are not present on web sites.

var canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
var d = canvas.width;
ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.moveTo(d / 2, 0);
ctx.lineTo(d, d);
ctx.lineTo(0, d);
ctx.closePath();
ctx.fillStyle = "yellow";
ctx.fill();

function blobCallback(iconName) {
  return function(b) {
    var r = new FileReader();
    r.onloadend = function () {
    // r.result contains the ArrayBuffer.
    Cu.import('resource://gre/modules/osfile.jsm');
    var writePath = OS.Path.join(OS.Constants.Path.desktopDir, 
                                 iconName + '.ico');
    var promise = OS.File.writeAtomic(writePath, new Uint8Array(r.result), 
                                      {tmpPath:writePath + '.tmp'});
    promise.then(
      function() {
        console.log('successfully wrote file');
      },
      function() {
        console.log('failure writing file')
      }
    );
  };
  r.readAsArrayBuffer(b);
  }
}

canvas.toBlob(blobCallback('passThisString'), 'image/vnd.microsoft.icon',
              '-moz-parse-options:format=bmp;bpp=32');

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard
The definition of 'HTMLCanvasElement.toBlob' in that specification.
Living Standard No change since the latest snapshot, HTML5
HTML5.1
The definition of 'HTMLCanvasElement.toBlob' in that specification.
Working Draft No change
HTML5
The definition of 'HTMLCanvasElement.toBlob' in that specification.
Recommendation Snapshot of the WHATWG HTML Living Standard containing the initial definition.

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 50 19 (19) 10ms No support No support[1]
Image quality parameter 50 25 (25) No support No support No support
Feature Android Android Webview Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile Chrome for Android
Basic support No support 50 19.0 (19) ? No support ? 50
Image quality parameter No support 50 25.0 (25) ? No support ? 50

[1] WebKit does not implement this feature yet. See WebKit bug 71270.

Polyfill

A low performance polyfill based on toDataURL.

if (!HTMLCanvasElement.prototype.toBlob) {
 Object.defineProperty(HTMLCanvasElement.prototype, 'toBlob', {
  value: function (callback, type, quality) {

    var binStr = atob( this.toDataURL(type, quality).split(',')[1] ),
        len = binStr.length,
        arr = new Uint8Array(len);

    for (var i=0; i<len; i++ ) {
     arr[i] = binStr.charCodeAt(i);
    }

    callback( new Blob( [arr], {type: type || 'image/png'} ) );
  }
 });
}

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Contributors to this page: jpmedley, paul.irish, Sebastianz, fscholz, Nexii, adria
 Last updated by: jpmedley,