/snapdom

TRANSLATED CONTENT: --- name: snapdom description: snapDOM is a fast, accurate DOM-to-image capture tool that converts HTML elements into scalable SVG images. Use for capturing HTML elements, converting DOM to images (SVG, PNG, JPG, WebP), preserving styles, fonts, and pseudo-elements. ---

SnapDOM Skill

Fast, dependency-free DOM-to-image capture library for converting HTML elements into scalable SVG or raster image formats.

When to Use This Skill

Use SnapDOM when you need to:

• Convert HTML elements to images (SVG, PNG, JPG, WebP)
• Capture styled DOM with pseudo-elements and shadows
• Export elements with embedded fonts and icons
• Create screenshots with custom dimensions or scaling
• Handle CORS-blocked resources using proxy fallback
• Implement custom rendering pipelines with plugins
• Optimize performance on large or complex elements

Key Features

Universal Export Options

• **SVG** - Scalable vector format, embeds all styles
• **PNG, JPG, WebP** - Raster formats with configurable quality
• **Canvas** - Get raw Canvas element for further processing
• **Blob** - Raw binary data for custom handling

Performance

• Ultra-fast capture (1.6ms for small elements, ~171ms for 4000×2000)
• **No dependencies** - Uses standard Web APIs only
• Outperforms html2canvas by 10-40x on complex elements

Style Support

• Embedded fonts (including icon fonts)
• CSS pseudo-elements (::before, ::after)
• CSS counters
• CSS line-clamp
• Transform and shadow effects
• Shadow DOM content

Advanced Capabilities

• Same-origin iframe support
• CORS proxy fallback for blocked assets
• Plugin system for custom transformations
• Straighten transforms (remove rotate/translate)
• Selective element exclusion
• Tight bounding box calculation

Installation

NPM/Yarn

npm install @zumer/snapdom
# or
yarn add @zumer/snapdom

CDN (ES Module)

<script type="module">
  import { snapdom } from "https://unpkg.com/@zumer/snapdom/dist/snapdom.mjs";
</script>

CDN (UMD)

<script src="https://unpkg.com/@zumer/snapdom/dist/snapdom.umd.js"></script>

Quick Start Examples

Basic Reusable Capture

// Create reusable capture object
const result = await snapdom(document.querySelector('#target'));

// Export to different formats
const png = await result.toPng();
const jpg = await result.toJpg();
const svg = await result.toSvg();
const canvas = await result.toCanvas();
const blob = await result.toBlob();

// Use the result
document.body.appendChild(png);

One-Step Export

// Direct export without intermediate object
const png = await snapdom.toPng(document.querySelector('#target'));
const svg = await snapdom.toSvg(element);

Download Element

// Automatically download as file
await snapdom.download(element, 'screenshot.png');
await snapdom.download(element, 'image.svg');

With Options

const result = await snapdom(element, {
  scale: 2,                    // 2x resolution
  width: 800,                  // Custom width
  height: 600,                 // Custom height
  embedFonts: true,            // Include @font-face
  exclude: '.no-capture',      // Hide elements
  useProxy: true,              // Enable CORS proxy
  straighten: true,            // Remove transforms
  noShadows: false             // Keep shadows
});

const png = await result.toPng({ quality: 0.95 });

Essential Options Reference

| Option | Type | Purpose | |--------|------|---------| | `scale` | Number | Scale output (e.g., 2 for 2x resolution) | | `width` | Number | Custom output width in pixels | | `height` | Number | Custom output height in pixels | | `embedFonts` | Boolean | Include non-icon @font-face rules | | `useProxy` | String\|Boolean | Enable CORS proxy (URL or true for default) | | `exclude` | String | CSS selector for elements to hide | | `straighten` | Boolean | Remove translate/rotate transforms | | `noShadows` | Boolean | Strip shadow effects |

Common Patterns

Responsive Screenshots

// Capture at different scales
const mobile = await snapdom.toPng(element, { scale: 1 });
const tablet = await snapdom.toPng(element, { scale: 1.5 });
const desktop = await snapdom.toPng(element, { scale: 2 });

Exclude Elements

// Hide specific elements from capture
const png = await snapdom.toPng(element, {
  exclude: '.controls, .watermark, [data-no-capture]'
});

Fixed Dimensions

// Capture with specific size
const result = await snapdom(element, {
  width: 1200,
  height: 630  // Standard social media size
});

CORS Handling

// Fallback for CORS-blocked resources
const png = await snapdom.toPng(element, {
  useProxy: 'https://cors.example.com/?' // Custom proxy
});

Plugin System (Beta)

// Extend with custom exporters
snapdom.plugins([pluginFactory, { colorOverlay: true }]);

// Hook into lifecycle
defineExports(context) {
  return {
    pdf: async (ctx, opts) => { /* generate PDF */ }
  };
}

// Lifecycle hooks available:
// beforeSnap → beforeClone → afterClone →
// beforeRender → beforeExport → afterExport

Performance Comparison

SnapDOM significantly outperforms html2canvas:

| Scenario | SnapDOM | html2canvas | Improvement | |----------|---------|-------------|-------------| | Small (200×100) | 1.6ms | 68ms | 42x faster | | Medium (800×600) | 12ms | 280ms | 23x faster | | Large (4000×2000) | 171ms | 1,800ms | 10x faster |

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/zumerlab/snapdom.git
cd snapdom
npm install

Build

npm run compile

Testing

npm test

Browser Support

• Chrome/Edge 90+
• Firefox 88+
• Safari 14+
• Mobile browsers (iOS Safari 14+, Chrome Mobile)

Resources

Documentation

• **Official Website:** https://snapdom.dev/
• **GitHub Repository:** https://github.com/zumerlab/snapdom
• **NPM Package:** https://www.npm