How to Download a File in HTML

Downloading an Image

A kitten. Image credit: blog.feliway.com

To allow download of an image in the browser, we can use the anchor <a> link tag.

HTMLCopy
<a href="/images/kitten.jpg" download>
  <img src="/images/kitten.jpg" alt="kitten">
</a>

Set the href attribute to point to the image. The "download" attribute enables downloading when link is clicked.

Downloading the HTML5 Canvas

The HTML5 canvas allows for dynamic graphics rendering in the browser. We use javascript to apply various drawing methods to the canvas. We can produce 2D shapes, graphics or manipulate and combine bitmap images.

To download an image drawn on the HTML5 canvas, we should extract the canvas image data in a format that can be fed into the anchor tag.

JavaScriptCopy
const dataURL = canvas.toDataURL('image/jpeg', 1.0);

The dataURL is a format designed to enable inclusion of ASCII string encoded data, in-line on web pages.

The dataURL (abbreviated):

javascriptCopy
data:image/jpeg;base64,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

Note the data string is prefixed with data:image/jpeg;base64. This indicates that the data is a JPEG image in base64 binary format.

The dataURL can be used as the href value of the anchor tag.

JavaScriptCopy
anchorTag.href = dataURL

The app below will download a jpeg file from the image drawn to canvas. The images displayed, the kitten and the pink text, will be combined using the canvas drawImage() method.

JavaScriptCopy
canvas2dcontext.drawImage(kitten, 0, 0);
canvas2dcontext.drawImage(textLayer, 0, 0);

The composit image will appear in the areas indicated by the RESULT text, and automatically download. Click the link if you want to examine the app code (view the HTML source).