A Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/m1erickson/4fX5D/
It’s fairly easy to create a gradient that changes along the path:
It’s more difficult to create a gradient that changes across the path:
To create a gradient across the path you draw many gradient lines tangent to the path:
If you draw enough tangent lines then the eye sees the curve as a gradient across the path.
Note: Jaggies can occur on the outsides of the path-gradient. That’s because the gradient is really made up of hundreds of tangent lines. But you can smooth out the jaggies by drawing a line on either side of the gradient using the appropriate colors (here the anti-jaggy lines are red on the top side and purple on the bottom side).
Here are the steps to creating a gradient across the path:
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Plot hundreds of points along the path.
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Calculate the angle of the path at those points.
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At each point, create a linear gradient and draw a gradient stroked line across the tangent of that point. Yes, you will have to create a new gradient for each point because the linear gradient must match the angle of the line tangent to that point.
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To reduce the jaggy effect caused by drawing many individual lines, you can draw a smooth path along the top and bottom side of the gradient path to overwrite the jaggies.
Here is annotated code:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24027087/css/reset.css" /> <!-- reset css -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery.min.js"></script>
<style>
body{ background-color: ivory; }
#canvas{border:1px solid red;}
</style>
<script>
$(function(){
// canvas related variables
var canvas=document.getElementById("canvas");
var ctx=canvas.getContext("2d");
// variables defining a cubic bezier curve
var PI2=Math.PI*2;
var s={x:20,y:30};
var c1={x:200,y:40};
var c2={x:40,y:200};
var e={x:270,y:220};
// an array of points plotted along the bezier curve
var points=[];
// we use PI often so put it in a variable
var PI=Math.PI;
// plot 400 points along the curve
// and also calculate the angle of the curve at that point
for(var t=0;t<=100;t+=0.25){
var T=t/100;
// plot a point on the curve
var pos=getCubicBezierXYatT(s,c1,c2,e,T);
// calculate the tangent angle of the curve at that point
var tx = bezierTangent(s.x,c1.x,c2.x,e.x,T);
var ty = bezierTangent(s.y,c1.y,c2.y,e.y,T);
var a = Math.atan2(ty, tx)-PI/2;
// save the x/y position of the point and the tangent angle
// in the points array
points.push({
x:pos.x,
y:pos.y,
angle:a
});
}
// Note: increase the lineWidth if
// the gradient has noticable gaps
ctx.lineWidth=2;
// draw a gradient-stroked line tangent to each point on the curve
for(var i=0;i<points.length;i++){
// calc the topside and bottomside points of the tangent line
var offX1=points[i].x+20*Math.cos(points[i].angle);
var offY1=points[i].y+20*Math.sin(points[i].angle);
var offX2=points[i].x+20*Math.cos(points[i].angle-PI);
var offY2=points[i].y+20*Math.sin(points[i].angle-PI);
// create a gradient stretching between
// the calculated top & bottom points
var gradient=ctx.createLinearGradient(offX1,offY1,offX2,offY2);
gradient.addColorStop(0.00, 'red');
gradient.addColorStop(1/6, 'orange');
gradient.addColorStop(2/6, 'yellow');
gradient.addColorStop(3/6, 'green')
gradient.addColorStop(4/6, 'aqua');
gradient.addColorStop(5/6, 'blue');
gradient.addColorStop(1.00, 'purple');
// draw the gradient-stroked line at this point
ctx.strokeStyle=gradient;
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.moveTo(offX1,offY1);
ctx.lineTo(offX2,offY2);
ctx.stroke();
}
// draw a top stroke to cover jaggies
// on the top of the gradient curve
var offX1=points[0].x+20*Math.cos(points[0].angle);
var offY1=points[0].y+20*Math.sin(points[0].angle);
ctx.strokeStyle="red";
// Note: increase the lineWidth if this outside of the
// gradient still has jaggies
ctx.lineWidth=1.5;
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.moveTo(offX1,offY1);
for(var i=1;i<points.length;i++){
var offX1=points[i].x+20*Math.cos(points[i].angle);
var offY1=points[i].y+20*Math.sin(points[i].angle);
ctx.lineTo(offX1,offY1);
}
ctx.stroke();
// draw a bottom stroke to cover jaggies
// on the bottom of the gradient
var offX2=points[0].x+20*Math.cos(points[0].angle+PI);
var offY2=points[0].y+20*Math.sin(points[0].angle+PI);
ctx.strokeStyle="purple";
// Note: increase the lineWidth if this outside of the
// gradient still has jaggies
ctx.lineWidth=1.5;
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.moveTo(offX2,offY2);
for(var i=0;i<points.length;i++){
var offX2=points[i].x+20*Math.cos(points[i].angle+PI);
var offY2=points[i].y+20*Math.sin(points[i].angle+PI);
ctx.lineTo(offX2,offY2);
}
ctx.stroke();
//////////////////////////////////////////
// helper functions
//////////////////////////////////////////
// calculate one XY point along Cubic Bezier at interval T
// (where T==0.00 at the start of the curve and T==1.00 at the end)
function getCubicBezierXYatT(startPt,controlPt1,controlPt2,endPt,T){
var x=CubicN(T,startPt.x,controlPt1.x,controlPt2.x,endPt.x);
var y=CubicN(T,startPt.y,controlPt1.y,controlPt2.y,endPt.y);
return({x:x,y:y});
}
// cubic helper formula at T distance
function CubicN(T, a,b,c,d) {
var t2 = T * T;
var t3 = t2 * T;
return a + (-a * 3 + T * (3 * a - a * T)) * T
+ (3 * b + T * (-6 * b + b * 3 * T)) * T
+ (c * 3 - c * 3 * T) * t2
+ d * t3;
}
// calculate the tangent angle at interval T on the curve
function bezierTangent(a, b, c, d, t) {
return (3 * t * t * (-a + 3 * b - 3 * c + d) + 6 * t * (a - 2 * b + c) + 3 * (-a + b));
};
}); // end $(function(){});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<canvas id="canvas" width=300 height=300></canvas>
</body>
</html>