Creating the Perfect Grid on the Canvas! 🧇
Learn the "behind the scenes" details of the latest tutorial around creating crisp, responsive grids using the HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript.
Hi everybody - even today, drawing on the canvas is still one of the best ways of programmatically turning ideas into pixels. While there are a bunch of Canvas tutorials (and a non-best-selling book 😅) on this site, it’s fun to explore new ways of reinforcing basic concepts.
On that path, below is a video that dives into how to draw the perfect grid:
If reading is more your jig, the article version can be seen here as well.
In this video/article, we not only learn how to create crisp, responsive grids using the HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript, but we also cover all sorts of fun stuff like grid mathematics, DPI handling, and more.
Perfecting the Basics is Underrated
Whether you are a beginner working with the canvas or a seasoned pro, it’s never a good idea to see if you can do better on the basics. One of my core memories growing up is a scene from the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. More specifically, it is the following scene where Jiro’s high expectations have an apprentice spending an extraordinary amount of effort perfecting the (seemingly simple) egg sushi:
While I can’t guarantee that writing the basic boilerplate code for working with the canvas element will improve after 200 attempts, the goal of perfection is admirable. In a world where more and more of our coding is going to be replaced by AI assistants, getting our hands dirty with something as simple as drawing a perfect grid feels refreshing.
Getting back to the Canvas, my plan is to have a series of tutorials that build upon our basic grid example and cover more topics around animation, drawing order, and other fundamental concepts over a period of time. Who knows where this will lead, but it should be a fun trip to follow along…like a good summer tune! 🎶
Till Next Time
I hope you found this quick nod to a newly added tutorial interesting. As always, I like to hear from you on what you like, don’t like, and/or want from Santa. To discuss this further or to contact me, feel free to continue the conversation on my Twitter / X post on this or on the forums.
Cheers,
Kirupa 😀