how to draw smooth curve through N points using javascript HTML5 canvas?
For a drawing application, I'm saving the mouse movement coordinates to an array then drawing them with lineTo. The resulting line is not smooth. How can I produce a single curve between all the gathered points?
I've googled but I have only found 3 functions for drawing lines: For 2 sample points, simply use lineTo. For 3 sample points quadraticCurveTo, for 4 sample points, bezierCurveTo.
(I tried drawing a bezierCurveTo for every 4 points in the array, but this leads to kinks every 4 sample points, instead of a continuous smooth curve.)
How do I write a function to draw a smooth curve with 5 sample points and beyond?
Solution 1:
The problem with joining subsequent sample points together with disjoint "curveTo" type functions, is that where the curves meet is not smooth. This is because the two curves share an end point but are influenced by completely disjoint control points. One solution is to "curve to" the midpoints between the next 2 subsequent sample points. Joining the curves using these new interpolated points gives a smooth transition at the end points (what is an end point for one iteration becomes a control point for the next iteration.) In other words the two disjointed curves have much more in common now.
This solution was extracted out of the book "Foundation ActionScript 3.0 Animation: Making things move". p.95 - rendering techniques: creating multiple curves.
Note: this solution does not actually draw through each of the points, which was the title of my question (rather it approximates the curve through the sample points but never goes through the sample points), but for my purposes (a drawing application), it's good enough for me and visually you can't tell the difference. There is a solution to go through all the sample points, but it is much more complicated (see http://www.cartogrammar.com/blog/actionscript-curves-update/)
Here is the the drawing code for the approximation method:
// move to the first point
ctx.moveTo(points[0].x, points[0].y);
for (i = 1; i < points.length - 2; i ++)
{
var xc = (points[i].x + points[i + 1].x) / 2;
var yc = (points[i].y + points[i + 1].y) / 2;
ctx.quadraticCurveTo(points[i].x, points[i].y, xc, yc);
}
// curve through the last two points
ctx.quadraticCurveTo(points[i].x, points[i].y, points[i+1].x,points[i+1].y);
Solution 2:
A bit late, but for the record.
You can achieve smooth lines by using cardinal splines (aka canonical spline) to draw smooth curves that goes through the points.
I made this function for canvas - it's split into three function to increase versatility. The main wrapper function looks like this:
function drawCurve(ctx, ptsa, tension, isClosed, numOfSegments, showPoints) {
showPoints = showPoints ? showPoints : false;
ctx.beginPath();
drawLines(ctx, getCurvePoints(ptsa, tension, isClosed, numOfSegments));
if (showPoints) {
ctx.stroke();
ctx.beginPath();
for(var i=0;i<ptsa.length-1;i+=2)
ctx.rect(ptsa[i] - 2, ptsa[i+1] - 2, 4, 4);
}
}
To draw a curve have an array with x, y points in the order: x1,y1, x2,y2, ...xn,yn.
Use it like this:
var myPoints = [10,10, 40,30, 100,10]; //minimum two points
var tension = 1;
drawCurve(ctx, myPoints); //default tension=0.5
drawCurve(ctx, myPoints, tension);
The function above calls two sub-functions, one to calculate the smoothed points. This returns an array with new points - this is the core function which calculates the smoothed points:
function getCurvePoints(pts, tension, isClosed, numOfSegments) {
// use input value if provided, or use a default value
tension = (typeof tension != 'undefined') ? tension : 0.5;
isClosed = isClosed ? isClosed : false;
numOfSegments = numOfSegments ? numOfSegments : 16;
var _pts = [], res = [], // clone array
x, y, // our x,y coords
t1x, t2x, t1y, t2y, // tension vectors
c1, c2, c3, c4, // cardinal points
st, t, i; // steps based on num. of segments
// clone array so we don't change the original
//
_pts = pts.slice(0);
// The algorithm require a previous and next point to the actual point array.
// Check if we will draw closed or open curve.
// If closed, copy end points to beginning and first points to end
// If open, duplicate first points to befinning, end points to end
if (isClosed) {
_pts.unshift(pts[pts.length - 1]);
_pts.unshift(pts[pts.length - 2]);
_pts.unshift(pts[pts.length - 1]);
_pts.unshift(pts[pts.length - 2]);
_pts.push(pts[0]);
_pts.push(pts[1]);
}
else {
_pts.unshift(pts[1]); //copy 1. point and insert at beginning
_pts.unshift(pts[0]);
_pts.push(pts[pts.length - 2]); //copy last point and append
_pts.push(pts[pts.length - 1]);
}
// ok, lets start..
// 1. loop goes through point array
// 2. loop goes through each segment between the 2 pts + 1e point before and after
for (i=2; i < (_pts.length - 4); i+=2) {
for (t=0; t <= numOfSegments; t++) {
// calc tension vectors
t1x = (_pts[i+2] - _pts[i-2]) * tension;
t2x = (_pts[i+4] - _pts[i]) * tension;
t1y = (_pts[i+3] - _pts[i-1]) * tension;
t2y = (_pts[i+5] - _pts[i+1]) * tension;
// calc step
st = t / numOfSegments;
// calc cardinals
c1 = 2 * Math.pow(st, 3) - 3 * Math.pow(st, 2) + 1;
c2 = -(2 * Math.pow(st, 3)) + 3 * Math.pow(st, 2);
c3 = Math.pow(st, 3) - 2 * Math.pow(st, 2) + st;
c4 = Math.pow(st, 3) - Math.pow(st, 2);
// calc x and y cords with common control vectors
x = c1 * _pts[i] + c2 * _pts[i+2] + c3 * t1x + c4 * t2x;
y = c1 * _pts[i+1] + c2 * _pts[i+3] + c3 * t1y + c4 * t2y;
//store points in array
res.push(x);
res.push(y);
}
}
return res;
}
And to actually draw the points as a smoothed curve (or any other segmented lines as long as you have an x,y array):
function drawLines(ctx, pts) {
ctx.moveTo(pts[0], pts[1]);
for(i=2;i<pts.length-1;i+=2) ctx.lineTo(pts[i], pts[i+1]);
}
var ctx = document.getElementById("c").getContext("2d");
function drawCurve(ctx, ptsa, tension, isClosed, numOfSegments, showPoints) {
ctx.beginPath();
drawLines(ctx, getCurvePoints(ptsa, tension, isClosed, numOfSegments));
if (showPoints) {
ctx.beginPath();
for(var i=0;i<ptsa.length-1;i+=2)
ctx.rect(ptsa[i] - 2, ptsa[i+1] - 2, 4, 4);
}
ctx.stroke();
}
var myPoints = [10,10, 40,30, 100,10, 200, 100, 200, 50, 250, 120]; //minimum two points
var tension = 1;
drawCurve(ctx, myPoints); //default tension=0.5
drawCurve(ctx, myPoints, tension);
function getCurvePoints(pts, tension, isClosed, numOfSegments) {
// use input value if provided, or use a default value
tension = (typeof tension != 'undefined') ? tension : 0.5;
isClosed = isClosed ? isClosed : false;
numOfSegments = numOfSegments ? numOfSegments : 16;
var _pts = [], res = [], // clone array
x, y, // our x,y coords
t1x, t2x, t1y, t2y, // tension vectors
c1, c2, c3, c4, // cardinal points
st, t, i; // steps based on num. of segments
// clone array so we don't change the original
//
_pts = pts.slice(0);
// The algorithm require a previous and next point to the actual point array.
// Check if we will draw closed or open curve.
// If closed, copy end points to beginning and first points to end
// If open, duplicate first points to befinning, end points to end
if (isClosed) {
_pts.unshift(pts[pts.length - 1]);
_pts.unshift(pts[pts.length - 2]);
_pts.unshift(pts[pts.length - 1]);
_pts.unshift(pts[pts.length - 2]);
_pts.push(pts[0]);
_pts.push(pts[1]);
}
else {
_pts.unshift(pts[1]); //copy 1. point and insert at beginning
_pts.unshift(pts[0]);
_pts.push(pts[pts.length - 2]); //copy last point and append
_pts.push(pts[pts.length - 1]);
}
// ok, lets start..
// 1. loop goes through point array
// 2. loop goes through each segment between the 2 pts + 1e point before and after
for (i=2; i < (_pts.length - 4); i+=2) {
for (t=0; t <= numOfSegments; t++) {
// calc tension vectors
t1x = (_pts[i+2] - _pts[i-2]) * tension;
t2x = (_pts[i+4] - _pts[i]) * tension;
t1y = (_pts[i+3] - _pts[i-1]) * tension;
t2y = (_pts[i+5] - _pts[i+1]) * tension;
// calc step
st = t / numOfSegments;
// calc cardinals
c1 = 2 * Math.pow(st, 3) - 3 * Math.pow(st, 2) + 1;
c2 = -(2 * Math.pow(st, 3)) + 3 * Math.pow(st, 2);
c3 = Math.pow(st, 3) - 2 * Math.pow(st, 2) + st;
c4 = Math.pow(st, 3) - Math.pow(st, 2);
// calc x and y cords with common control vectors
x = c1 * _pts[i] + c2 * _pts[i+2] + c3 * t1x + c4 * t2x;
y = c1 * _pts[i+1] + c2 * _pts[i+3] + c3 * t1y + c4 * t2y;
//store points in array
res.push(x);
res.push(y);
}
}
return res;
}
function drawLines(ctx, pts) {
ctx.moveTo(pts[0], pts[1]);
for(i=2;i<pts.length-1;i+=2) ctx.lineTo(pts[i], pts[i+1]);
}canvas { border: 1px solid red; }<canvas id="c"><canvas>This results in this:
You can easily extend the canvas so you can call it like this instead:
ctx.drawCurve(myPoints);
Add the following to the javascript:
if (CanvasRenderingContext2D != 'undefined') {
CanvasRenderingContext2D.prototype.drawCurve =
function(pts, tension, isClosed, numOfSegments, showPoints) {
drawCurve(this, pts, tension, isClosed, numOfSegments, showPoints)}
}
You can find a more optimized version of this on NPM (npm i cardinal-spline-js) or on GitLab.
Solution 3:
The first answer will not pass through all the points. This graph will exactly pass through all the points and will be a perfect curve with the points as [{x:,y:}] n such points.
var points = [{x:1,y:1},{x:2,y:3},{x:3,y:4},{x:4,y:2},{x:5,y:6}] //took 5 example points
ctx.moveTo((points[0].x), points[0].y);
for(var i = 0; i < points.length-1; i ++)
{
var x_mid = (points[i].x + points[i+1].x) / 2;
var y_mid = (points[i].y + points[i+1].y) / 2;
var cp_x1 = (x_mid + points[i].x) / 2;
var cp_x2 = (x_mid + points[i+1].x) / 2;
ctx.quadraticCurveTo(cp_x1,points[i].y ,x_mid, y_mid);
ctx.quadraticCurveTo(cp_x2,points[i+1].y ,points[i+1].x,points[i+1].y);
}