Viewport vs canvas in the w3c specification?

Question

I am reading a w3c specification and trying to understand the difference between the canvas and the viewport.

They say:

The canvas is the space where the formatting structure is rendered.

And at the same time they say:

Viewport is a window or other viewing area on the screen

These two definitions don't clarify what is the canvas and what is the viewport. Can anyone give a clear or explanatory definition of those?

Answer 1

The viewport is the visible box between the inner borders of your browser;
The canvas is the box containing the whole document. A part of the canvas may be invisible if it does not fit in the viewport.

In other words:

• The viewport is the allocated area on the screen for displaying the web page. This box is of a fixed size, and can only be changed when the user resizes the window.
• The canvas can be bigger than the viewport. In this case, scrollbars may appear.