javascript - In a 2D canvas, is there a way to give a sprite an outline?

Question

I'd like to give a sprite an outline when the character gets healed/damaged/whatever but I can't think of a way to code this using the 2d canvas. If it were possible, I'd think it would be a global composite operation, but I can't think of a way to achieve it with one of them.

I did find this stackoverflow answer that recommends creating a fatter, solid color version of the original and put the original on top of it. That would give it an outline, but it seems like a lot of extra work especially considering I'm using placeholder art. Is there an easier way?

This question is different from the one linked because this is specifically about the HTML5 2D canvas. It may have a solution not available to the other question.

For what it's worth, I don't mind if the outline creates a wider border or keeps the sprite the same size, I just want the outline look.

Answer 1

• Just draw your original image in 8 position around the original image
• Change composite mode to source-in and fill with the outline color
• Change composite mode back to source-over and draw in the original image at correct location

This will create a clean sharp outline with equal border thickness on every side. It is not so suited for thick outlines however. Image drawing is fast, especially when image is not scaled so performance is not an issues unless you need to draw a bunch (which in that case you would cache the drawings or use a sprite-sheet anyways).

Example:

var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d'),
    img = new Image;

img.onload = draw;
img.src = "http://i.stack.imgur.com/UFBxY.png";

function draw() {

  var dArr = [-1,-1, 0,-1, 1,-1, -1,0, 1,0, -1,1, 0,1, 1,1], // offset array
      s = 2,  // scale
      i = 0,  // iterator
      x = 5,  // final position
      y = 5;
  
  // draw images at offsets from the array scaled by s
  for(; i < dArr.length; i += 2)
    ctx.drawImage(img, x + dArr[i]*s, y + dArr[i+1]*s);
  
  // fill with color
  ctx.globalCompositeOperation = "source-in";
  ctx.fillStyle = "red";
  ctx.fillRect(0,0,canvas.width, canvas.height);
  
  // draw original image in normal mode
  ctx.globalCompositeOperation = "source-over";
  ctx.drawImage(img, x, y);
}

<canvas id=canvas width=500 height=500></canvas>