How to change the selection color of text in IText using FabricJS?

In this tutorial, we are going to learn about how to change the selection color of text in IText using FabricJS. The IText class was introduced in FabricJS version 1.4, extends fabric.Text and is used to create IText instances. An IText instance gives us the freedom to select, cut, paste or add new text without additional configurations. There are also various supported key combinations and mouse/touch combinations which make text interactive which are not provided in Text.

Textbox, however, which is based on IText allows us to resize the text rectangle and wraps lines automatically. This is not true for IText as height is not adjusted based on the wrapping of lines. We can manipulate our IText object by using various properties. Likewise, we can change the colour of the selection by using the selectionColor property.

Syntax

new fabric.IText( text: String, { selectionColor: String }: Object)

Parameters

text − This parameter accepts a String which is the text string that we want to display as our text.
options (optional) − This parameter is an Object which provides additional customizations to our IText object. Using this parameter colour, cursor, stroke width and a lot of other properties can be changed related to the IText object of which selectionColor is a property.

Options Keys

selectionColor − This property accepts a String value which determines the colour of text selection. The default value is rgba(17, 119, 255, 0.3).

Example 1

Default appearance of IText object

Let’s see a code example to see the default appearance of IText object when the selectionColor property is not used. As we have not specified anything, the selection colour is rgba(17, 119, 255, 0.3) which is the default value.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <!-- Adding the Fabric JS Library-->
   <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/fabric.js/510/fabric.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
   <h2>Default appearance of IText object</h2>
   <p>You can click on the IText object and select the text to see the selection colour </p>
   <canvas id="canvas"></canvas>
   
   <script>
      // Initiate a canvas instance
      var canvas = new fabric.Canvas("canvas");
      canvas.setWidth(document.body.scrollWidth);
      canvas.setHeight(250);

      // Initiate an itext object
      var itext = new fabric.IText("Add sample text here.", {
         width: 300,
         left: 60,
         top: 70,
         fill: "red",
      });

      // Add it to the canvas
      canvas.add(itext);
   </script>
</body>
</html>

Example 2

Passing the selectionColor property as key with a custom value

In this example we have passed the selectionColor property as key with the value as rgba(0,0,255,0.5) which is the colour blue with 0.5 opacity.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <!-- Adding the Fabric JS Library-->
   <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/fabric.js/510/fabric.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
   <h2>Passing the selectionColor property as key with a custom value</h2>
   <p>You can click on the IText object and select the text to see the selection colour is blue</p>
   <canvas id="canvas"></canvas>

   <script>
      // Initiate a canvas instance
      var canvas = new fabric.Canvas("canvas");
      canvas.setWidth(document.body.scrollWidth);
      canvas.setHeight(250);

      // Initiate an itext object
      var itext = new fabric.IText("Add sample text here.", {
         width: 300,
         left: 60,
         top: 70,
         fill: "red",
         selectionColor: "rgba(0,0,255,0.5)",
      });

      // Add it to the canvas
      canvas.add(itext);
   </script>
</body>
</html>