Benchmark: canvas style.left vs translate

HTML Preparation code:

<canvas id="canvas" width="200" height="200" style="position: relative; border: 1px solid red"/>

Script Preparation code:

var canvas  = document.getElementById("canvas");
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

function draw() {
        ctx.beginPath();
				ctx.rect(4, 4, 50, 50);
        ctx.lineWidth = 4
        ctx.fillStyle = "green";
        ctx.strokeStyle = "black";
        ctx.stroke();
        ctx.fill();
}
       
draw();
var x = 0;

Tests:

translate
ctx.clearRect(0, 0, 200, 200); ctx.save(); ctx.translate(x++, 0); draw(); ctx.restore();
left
canvas.style.left = (x++) + 'px';

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
translate
left

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 6 days ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark defined in the provided JSON compares two different approaches to moving an HTML `<canvas>` element: using the CSS `style.left` property versus the Canvas 2D API's `ctx.translate()` method. The key components of the benchmark are as follows:

### Test Cases
1. **Translation with Canvas Context**
   - **Test Name:** `translate`
   - **Benchmark Definition:** 
     ```javascript
     ctx.clearRect(0, 0, 200, 200);
     ctx.save();
     ctx.translate(x++, 0);
     draw();
     ctx.restore();
     ```
   - In this test case, the canvas context is manipulated directly using the API. The `ctx.translate(x++, 0);` moves the drawing context for every frame drawn, incrementally translating it along the x-axis. This method retains the drawing state using `ctx.save()` and resets it with `ctx.restore()`, ensuring that only the current frame is affected by the translation.

2. **Translation using CSS**
   - **Test Name:** `left`
   - **Benchmark Definition:** 
     ```javascript
     canvas.style.left = (x++) + 'px';
     ```
   - This test case modifies the DOM directly by updating the CSS `style.left` property of the canvas element. This means that the entire canvas is moved by changing its CSS property instead of altering the drawing context.

### Performance Results
The benchmark results show significant differences in execution rates:
- For the `style.left` approach, the benchmark reported about **1,408,040 executions per second**.
- For the `ctx.translate` approach, it recorded about **429,984 executions per second**.

### Pros and Cons

#### Using `style.left`
**Pros:**
- Simplicity: Adjusting a CSS property is straightforward and doesn't involve canvas context manipulation.
- Easier to understand and experiment with for those familiar with CSS.

**Cons:**
- Performance: Modifying the style can result in browser reflow and repaint, which may become more expensive as the size of the canvas or number of elements increases.
- Limited control over rendering states; CSS doesn't naturally interact with canvas content.

#### Using `ctx.translate`
**Pros:**
- Fine-grained control over drawing operations; it allows complex transformations and compositional effects without changing the DOM structure.
- Can achieve smoother animations since the drawing occurs in a single context without needing to move the element in the DOM.

**Cons:**
- Slightly more complex to understand, especially for those new to canvas APIs.
- Requires knowledge of the Canvas API and proficiency in managing context states.

### Considerations
- **Animation Performance:** The choice between these methods can greatly affect performance in animated scenarios or games where every frame counts. Using `ctx.translate` might lead to a more fluid experience for drawing operations but can be slower in terms of pure execution rates compared to changing a CSS property.
- **Rendering Strategies:** For performance, it’s crucial to consider how many objects need to be rendered and updated. Using canvas drawing methods for numerous elements might incur additional overhead.

### Alternatives
Other alternatives for moving canvas elements include:
- Using CSS animations or transitions for smoother operational visuals.
- Leveraging CSS `transform: translateX()` for 2D transformations, which may lead to better performance in some browsers as it utilizes hardware acceleration.
- Utilizing requestAnimationFrame for better synchronization with the display refresh rate, especially in animation scenarios.

In conclusion, the choice between using `style.left` and `ctx.translate` can influence both the behavior and performance of applications using the HTML5 canvas. Developers need to assess their use cases, performance needs, and required control over drawing operations when deciding which method to implement.

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 2 days ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 132 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
translate	81819.2 Ops/sec
left	1405123.4 Ops/sec

Related benchmarks:

canvas style.left vs translate (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: translate vs left

Created: 6 days ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

translate

left

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 6 days ago):