Canvas Editor — Build a Design Editor with JavaScript and HTML5 Canvas
A canvas editor lets users create and manipulate visual designs directly in the browser — think Canva-style tools for social media graphics, presentations, marketing materials, and more. Building one from scratch requires handling object selection, drag-and-drop, transformations, text editing, image placement, layering, undo/redo, and export.
This demo shows a fully working canvas editor built with Konva.js and Polotno SDK. Polotno handles the high-level editor logic (toolbars, panels, templates, export) while Konva powers the underlying canvas rendering.
What you can do with a canvas editor
A canvas editor typically supports drag-and-drop objects onto the canvas, resize and rotate with transform handles, add and style text with fonts and colors, insert and crop images, layer management (bring to front, send to back), undo/redo history, and export to PNG, JPEG, or PDF.
Building all of this on raw HTML5 Canvas is a significant engineering effort. Konva.js provides the foundation — an object model on top of Canvas with built-in hit detection, events, drag-and-drop, and transformations. For a complete, ready-to-integrate editor UI, Polotno SDK adds the full editor experience on top of Konva.
Live demo
Try the editor below — add text, images, and shapes, then rearrange and export your design.
For the best experience, open the editor in a new window.
Build your own canvas editor
If you need a canvas editor in your web application, you have two paths:
Use Polotno SDK for a ready-made solution. Polotno gives you a complete design editor component that you can integrate into any React app with just a few lines of code. It includes a toolbar, side panels, templates, export, and all the editing features users expect. Learn more at polotno.com or check the Polotno documentation.
Build from scratch with Konva.js if you need full control over every aspect of the editor. Start with the Konva.js getting started guide, use Transformers for selection and resize, and explore the sandbox demos for patterns like free drawing, image crop, and image export.
This demo is powered by Polotno SDK — a JavaScript framework for building design editors on the web, built on top of Konva.js and React.