CanvasRenderingContext2D: beginPath() method

{{APIRef("Canvas API")}}

The CanvasRenderingContext2D.beginPath() method of the Canvas 2D API starts a new path by emptying the list of sub-paths. Call this method when you want to create a new path.

[!NOTE] To create a new sub-path, i.e., one matching the current canvas state, you can use {{domxref("CanvasRenderingContext2D.moveTo()")}}.

Syntax

beginPath()

Parameters

None.

Return value

None ({{jsxref("undefined")}}).

Examples

Creating distinct paths

This example creates two paths, each of which contains a single line.

HTML

<canvas id="canvas"></canvas>

JavaScript

The beginPath() method is called before beginning each line, so that they may be drawn with different colors.

const canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
const ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");

// First path
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.strokeStyle = "blue";
ctx.moveTo(20, 20);
ctx.lineTo(200, 20);
ctx.stroke();

// Second path
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.strokeStyle = "green";
ctx.moveTo(20, 20);
ctx.lineTo(120, 120);
ctx.stroke();

Result

{{ EmbedLiveSample('Creating_distinct_paths', 700, 180) }}

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• The interface defining this method: {{domxref("CanvasRenderingContext2D")}}
• {{domxref("CanvasRenderingContext2D.closePath()")}}