How to Take Screenshots with html2canvas (Browser, Cropping, CORS, and Full-Page Fixes)

Install html2canvas, select the element you want, and await the Promise it returns. The Promise resolves to a <canvas> that you can download as PNG, JPEG, or another browser-supported format. This is a browser-side DOM reconstruction—not a pixel-perfect monitor capture—so CSS support, cross-origin images, and very large pages require planning.

What html2canvas actually captures

The html2canvas project describes its script as allowing you to take “screenshots” of webpages or parts of them directly in the user’s browser. It walks the DOM, reads supported styles, and redraws the result on a canvas. It does not ask the operating system for a bitmap of the browser window. Unsupported CSS, browser rendering differences, plugins, cross-origin restrictions, and dynamic content can therefore make the canvas differ from what a user sees.

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The library is intended for client-side browser code. For server-side generation, the project FAQ recommends driving a headless browser with Puppeteer or Playwright instead. For browser extensions, the FAQ recommends the browser’s native extension screenshot API rather than html2canvas.

Install and capture an element

Install with npm, Yarn, or pnpm

npm install html2canvas

# or
yarn add html2canvas

# or
pnpm add html2canvas

Import the package in your application, then call it after the target element has rendered. The selector must resolve to an element; wait for fonts, images, and application data if they arrive asynchronously.

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import html2canvas from 'html2canvas';

const element = document.querySelector('#capture');
if (!element) throw new Error('Missing #capture element');

const canvas = await html2canvas(element);

const link = document.createElement('a');
link.download = 'screenshot.png';
link.href = canvas.toDataURL('image/png');
link.click();

The same API works when the library is loaded from a built browser release: pass an element and an options object, and handle the returned Promise.

A complete button example

<button id="save-shot" type="button">Save card</button>
<article id="capture">
  <h1>Release summary</h1>
  <p>This entire article will be rendered to an image.</p>
</article>

<script type="module">
  import html2canvas from 'html2canvas';

  document.querySelector('#save-shot').addEventListener('click', async () => {
    const target = document.querySelector('#capture');
    const canvas = await html2canvas(target);
    const link = document.createElement('a');
    link.download = 'release-summary.png';
    link.href = canvas.toDataURL('image/png');
    link.click();
  });
</script>

Choose output format, density, and background

PNG is lossless and is the format used by the project’s download example. JPEG is smaller for photographic content but does not preserve transparency. WebP support depends on the browser. Pass the MIME type and optional quality to toDataURL:

const png = canvas.toDataURL('image/png');
const jpeg = canvas.toDataURL('image/jpeg', 0.85);
const webp = canvas.toDataURL('image/webp', 0.85);

By default, scale follows window.devicePixelRatio. A high-density display can therefore produce a large canvas. Lower it to reduce memory and output size, or raise it for sharper text when the target remains within canvas limits.

const canvas = await html2canvas(target, {
  scale: 1,                 // predictable, smaller output
  backgroundColor: '#ffffff'
});

const transparent = await html2canvas(target, {
  backgroundColor: null
});

Capture a crop or a specific region

Use x, y, width, and height to define the rendered crop. Coordinates are relative to the element being rendered. This is useful when a card contains controls that should not appear in the exported image.

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const canvas = await html2canvas(document.querySelector('#capture'), {
  x: 20,
  y: 10,
  width: 640,
  height: 360,
  scale: 2
});

For an element that is partly outside the viewport, set the viewport dimensions used during rendering. Media queries are evaluated against these values.

const target = document.querySelector('#capture');
const canvas = await html2canvas(target, {
  windowWidth: target.scrollWidth,
  windowHeight: target.scrollHeight
});

scrollX and scrollY let you control scroll offsets, including the position of fixed elements. Test fixed headers and sticky controls because their appearance depends on the simulated scroll position.

Exclude buttons, menus, and other UI

Add data-html2canvas-ignore to markup that should never be rendered:

<button data-html2canvas-ignore>Delete</button>

For conditional rules, provide ignoreElements. The predicate receives each element while html2canvas traverses the cloned document.

const canvas = await html2canvas(document.querySelector('#capture'), {
  ignoreElements: element =>
    element.matches('.print-only-off, [aria-hidden="true"]')
});

Make cross-origin images work

Images hosted on another origin are constrained by browser security. With the default allowTaint: false, resources that would taint the canvas may be skipped. Setting useCORS: true only requests the image with CORS; the image server must return an appropriate Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. It is not a way to bypass policy.

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const canvas = await html2canvas(document.querySelector('#capture'), {
  useCORS: true
});

If you control the application, configure the image host to allow the requesting origin and ensure the image URL is cacheable without redirecting to a host that omits CORS headers. If you cannot change the remote server, the documented alternative is a proxy URL:

const canvas = await html2canvas(target, {
  proxy: 'https://your.example/proxy'
});

The proxy must fetch the asset and return it in a way the browser can use. A canvas containing disallowed cross-origin pixels cannot be safely read or exported with toDataURL.

Full-page and long-element captures

There is no unlimited canvas. Browser and platform limits vary, and an oversized canvas can be blank or partially rendered without a useful exception. The project FAQ gives approximate examples observed in current browsers: Chrome/Chromium and Firefox around 32,767 pixels for a maximum dimension, with approximate area limits of 268 megapixels and 472 megapixels respectively; desktop Safari is also around 32,767 pixels. iOS Safari is lower and depends on device memory. Treat these as rough, variable examples, not guarantees.

For a document or component that is clipped, render using its scroll dimensions:

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const target = document.querySelector('#long-report');
const canvas = await html2canvas(target, {
  windowWidth: target.scrollWidth,
  windowHeight: target.scrollHeight,
  width: target.scrollWidth,
  height: target.scrollHeight
});

Reduce scale, split a long report into sections, or capture pages separately when memory usage is high. Test on every browser and device class you support. A blank result can be a size-limit failure rather than a selector bug.

Adjust the cloned document before rendering

The onclone callback receives the cloned document used for the capture. You can temporarily remove animations, reveal content, or change styles without altering the live page.

const canvas = await html2canvas(target, {
  onclone: clonedDocument => {
    clonedDocument.querySelectorAll('.loading, .live-cursor')
      .forEach(node => node.remove());
    clonedDocument.querySelectorAll('*').forEach(node => {
      node.style.animation = 'none';
      node.style.transition = 'none';
    });
  }
});

Use this for deterministic output, but keep the callback fast. It modifies only the clone, so application state remains unchanged.

Common failures and precise fixes

When html2canvas is the wrong tool

Or skip the browser setup

For automated website screenshots, ScreenshotNeo provides a GET API and an MCP server for AI agents. It removes cookie/consent banners, newsletter popups, and chat widgets before capture; bot checks, blank pages, failed loads, timeouts, and cache hits are not billed, with the result identified by X-Page-Verdict and X-Billed headers. Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients can use take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf.

See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for all options, including full-page lazy-image loading, CSS-selector element capture, device presets, retina scale, PDF settings, custom CSS and JavaScript, click and wait actions, request blocking, headers, cookies, user agents, authorization, timezone and geolocation, transparent backgrounds, resizing, TTL caching, signed links, webhooks, bulk capture, usage, and OpenAPI compatibility.

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curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webp

import requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)

const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);

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Performance and reliability checklist

• Capture only the element or crop you need.
• Use a deliberate scale; higher density consumes more memory.
• Wait for application data, fonts, and images before calling html2canvas.
• Disable animations in onclone for repeatable output.
• Set viewport and scroll dimensions for off-screen content.
• Use CORS headers or a proxy for remote images.
• Split very long documents and test low-memory mobile devices.
• Catch rejected Promises and report a useful retry path to users.

FAQ

Can html2canvas capture an iframe?

Only content the page is permitted to read can be reconstructed. A cross-origin iframe remains protected by the browser’s origin rules; capture the framed application itself or use a browser-level screenshot method.

Does html2canvas capture a video frame?

Video and other complex browser-managed content may not reproduce reliably because the library redraws supported DOM and CSS rather than taking a compositor screenshot. Test the exact browser and content, or use a browser screenshot API.

Can I use it in a browser extension?

The project FAQ says not to use html2canvas in an extension and recommends the browser’s native extension screenshot API.