HTML Canvas - beginPath() Method

The HTML Canvas beginPath() method of CanvasRenderingContext2D interface creates an empty path in the Canvas element to draw the shapes.

This is only called when a new path is needed on the Canvas context. If the paths to be drawn are multiple, we have to use the same number of beginPath() methods.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of HTML Canvas beginPath() method −

CanvasRenderingContext2D.beginPath();

Parameters

It does not take any parameters as it is a return method only which performs the single task to create an empty path.

Return value

It creates an empty path which can be used to draw various shapes inside the Canvas element. It does not directly return anything rather than provides a path.

Example

In the following example, we use HTML Canvas beginPath() method to create an empty path and draw simple lines on it.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
   <head>
      <title>Reference API</title>
      <style>
         body {
            margin: 10px;
            padding: 10px;
         }
      </style>
   </head>
   <body>
      <canvas id="canvas" width="250" height="200" style="border: 1px solid black;"></canvas>
      <script>
         var canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
         var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
         context.beginPath();
         context.moveTo(150, 50);
         context.lineTo(150, 120);
         context.lineTo(50, 190);
         context.stroke();
      </script>
   </body>
</html>

Output

The output returned by the following code on the webpage as −

Example

The following example draws a right angled triangle using lines inside the Canvas element after creating the path by beginPath() method.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
   <head>
      <title>Reference API</title>
      <style>
         body {
            margin: 10px;
            padding: 10px;
         }
      </style>
   </head>
   <body>
      <canvas id="canvas" width="250" height="200" style="border: 1px solid black;"></canvas>
      <script>
         var canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
         var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
         context.beginPath();
         context.moveTo(50, 50);
         context.lineTo(50, 150);
         context.lineTo(150, 50);
         context.lineTo(50, 50);
         context.stroke();
      </script>
   </body>
</html>

Output

The output returned by the above code on the webpage as −

html_canvas_paths.htm