Is it possible to accept stylus input on a HTML5 web page

Question

I want to create a web page where the user would be able to write their signature using a stylus (like when you sign for a parcel or package). Does anyone know if this is possible? I'm not sure exactly where to start but I'm guessing that I would have to use the element and javascript?

Answer 1

It's perfectly possible as long as the device your client will be using supports touch input using stylus.

You can see this tutorial to see how to use <canvas> element to create a simple drawing app.

To see which browsers support canvas, see this page.

Answer 2

If you specifically want stylus support, you'll want to support features beyond the typical mouse x,y coordinates.

Currently, only stylus-specific input I know of is the Wacom Web plugin/API. This supports these features like stylus pressure, stylus angle, and multi-touch for the web.

http://www.wacomeng.com/web/

Future considerations for a HTML5's 'pointerevents' API generically supporting pressure, angle and touch events for all tablet types are proposed here.

http://www.w3.org/TR/pointerevents/

Answer 3

There is no API specific to a stylus which supports things like pressure-sensitivity or orientation. But in most cases a stylus can be used as a mouse. In this case it will create normal mouse events like mousedown, mousemove and mouseup. You can add event handlers for these events to your canvas and react to them appropriately.