--- title: CSS Painting API slug: Web/API/CSS_Painting_API tags: - API - CSS - CSS Paint API - Houdini - NeedsTranslation - Painting - Reference - TopicStub translation_of: Web/API/CSS_Painting_API ---

The CSS Painting API — part of the CSS Houdini umbrella of APIs — allows developers to write JavaScript functions that can draw directly into an element's background, border, or content.

Concepts and usage

Essentially, the CSS Painting API contains functionality allowing developers to create custom values for {{cssxref('paint', 'paint()')}}, a CSS <image> function. You can then apply these values to properties like {{cssxref("background-image")}} to set complex custom backgrounds on an element.

For example:

aside {
  background-image: paint(myPaintedImage);
}

The API defines {{domxref('PaintWorklet')}}, a {{domxref('worklet')}} that can be used to programmatically generate an image that responds to computed style changes. To find out more about how this is used, consult Using the CSS Painting API.

Interfaces

{{domxref('PaintWorklet')}}: Programmatically generates an image where a CSS property expects a file. Access this interface through CSS.paintWorklet.
{{domxref('PaintWorkletGlobalScope')}}: The global execution context of the paintWorklet.
{{domxref('PaintRenderingContext2D')}}: Implements a subset of the CanvasRenderingContext2D API. It has an output bitmap that is the size of the object it is rendering to.
{{domxref('PaintSize')}}: Returns the read-only values of the output bitmap's width and height.

Dictionaries

{{domxref('PaintRenderingContext2DSettings')}}: A dictionary providing a subset of CanvasRenderingContext2D settings.

Examples

To draw directly into an element's background using JavaScript in our CSS, we define a paint worklet using the registerPaint() function, tell the document to include the worklet using the paintWorklet addModule() method, then include the image we created using the CSS paint() function.

We create our PaintWorklet called 'hollowHighlights' using the registerPaint() function:

registerPaint('hollowHighlights', class {

  static get inputProperties() { return ['--boxColor']; }

  static get inputArguments() { return ['*','<length>']; }

  static get contextOptions() { return {alpha: true}; }

  paint(ctx, size, props, args) {
		const x = 0;
		const y = size.height * 0.3;
		const blockWidth = size.width * 0.33;
		const blockHeight = size.height * 0.85;

		const theColor = props.get( '--boxColor' );
		const strokeType = args[0].toString();
		const strokeWidth = parseInt(args[1]);

		console.log(theColor);

		if ( strokeWidth ) {
			ctx.lineWidth = strokeWidth;
		} else {
			ctx.lineWidth = 1.0;
		}

		if ( strokeType === 'stroke' ) {
			ctx.fillStyle = 'transparent';
			ctx.strokeStyle = theColor;
		} else if ( strokeType === 'filled' ) {
			ctx.fillStyle = theColor;
			ctx.strokeStyle = theColor;
		} else {
			ctx.fillStyle = 'none';
			ctx.strokeStyle = 'none';
		}


		ctx.beginPath();
		ctx.moveTo( x, y );
		ctx.lineTo( blockWidth, y );
		ctx.lineTo( blockWidth + blockHeight, blockHeight );
		ctx.lineTo( x, blockHeight );
		ctx.lineTo( x, y );
		ctx.closePath();
		ctx.fill();
		ctx.stroke();

		for (let i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
			let start = i * 2;
			ctx.beginPath();
			ctx.moveTo( blockWidth + (start * 10) + 10, y);
			ctx.lineTo( blockWidth + (start * 10) + 20, y);
			ctx.lineTo( blockWidth + (start * 10) + 20 + blockHeight, blockHeight);
			ctx.lineTo( blockWidth + (start * 10) + 10 + blockHeight, blockHeight);
			ctx.lineTo( blockWidth + (start * 10) + 10, y);
			ctx.closePath();
			ctx.fill();
			ctx.stroke();
		}
  }
});

We then include the paintWorklet:

<ul>
    <li>item 1</li>
    <li>item 2</li>
    <li>item 3</li>
    <li>item 4</li>
    <li>item 5</li>
    <li>item 6</li>
    <li>item 7</li>
    <li>item 8</li>
    <li>item 9</li>
    <li>item 10</li>
    <li>item 11</li>
    <li>item 12</li>
    <li>item 13</li>
    <li>item 14</li>
    <li>item 15</li>
    <li>item 16</li>
    <li>item 17</li>
    <li>item 18</li>
    <li>item 19</li>
    <li>item 20</li>
</ul>

  CSS.paintWorklet.addModule('https://mdn.github.io/houdini-examples/cssPaint/intro/worklets/hilite.js');

Then we can use the {{cssxref('<image>')}} with the CSS {{cssxref('paint()')}} function:

li {
   --boxColor: hsla(55, 90%, 60%, 1.0);
   background-image: paint(hollowHighlights, stroke, 2px);
}

li:nth-of-type(3n) {
   --boxColor: hsla(155, 90%, 60%, 1.0);
   background-image: paint(hollowHighlights, filled,  3px);
}

li:nth-of-type(3n+1) {
   --boxColor: hsla(255, 90%, 60%, 1.0);
   background-image: paint(hollowHighlights, stroke, 1px);
}

We've included a custom property in the selector block defining a boxColor. Custom properties are accessible to the PaintWorklet.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
{{SpecName('CSS Painting API')}}	{{Spec2('CSS Painting API')}}	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility