What is the difference between position and offset in Konva

There are several properties in Konva that looks similar and may lead some confusion but have a different effect and purpose.

In the post I will explain the difference between position (x and y coordinates) and offset (offsetX and offsetY).

So x and y properties define position of Node on canvas. If you set draggable = true property and start dragging, Konva will change x and y properties of the node. That logic will be applied for all nodes (even Konva.Line).

Position of a rectangle shape defines its top-left point. Position of circle defines its center.

Why do we need an offset property?

When you are changing the offset property it may looks like you are changing position of the node. But actually not. You are changing ORIGIN of the shape.

What is it origin? You may think of it as “point from where we start drawing of a shape” or “center of the shape” or “the point around which we rotating a shape”.

Just a small note, long time ago offset property was called “center” in Konva codebase (when it was KineticJS project). But later it was refactored to “offset”.

Take a look into this animation tutorial. All rectangles here have the same y position, but a different offset property.

And you should understand that Konva has two main methods to define origin of the shape.
So “circle-like” shapes have origin at actual center of the shape (Circle, Ellipse, Wedge, Star, Ring ,etc).
When you set {x, y} of a circle you are defining “where will be the center of the circle”.

And “rectangle-like” shapes has origin at TOP LEFT (Rectangle, Sprite, Text, Image, etc)
When you set {x, y} of a rectangle you are defining “where will be the top-left point of the rect”.

So a shape will be rotated around its origin point (around its “center”). So if you set rotation 45 deg of a star it will be rotated around its actual center.

But if you set rotation 45 deg of rectangle, it will be rotated around top-left. But in some cases it is not convenient. Sometimes you may want to rotate the shape around its center.

In this case you can set offset property. By using it we will tell konva: “Hey, use this point as the new origin of the shape”.

How to set rotation point of a shape?

Now let’s think you are placed a 100x100 rectangle in x = 0, y = 0, and now you want to rotate it around its center.

If you are not using offset you have to recalculate position of it’t top left edge (recall you trigonometry lessons from the school).

You can do this by using something like this:

const rotatePoint = ({ x, y }, rad) => {
const rcos = Math.cos(rad);
const rsin = Math.sin(rad);
return { x: x * rcos - y * rsin, y: y * rcos + x * rsin };

// will work for shapes with top-left origin, like rectangle
function rotateAroundCenter(node, rotation) {
//current rotation origin (0, 0) relative to desired origin - center (node.width()/2, node.height()/2)
const topLeft = { x: -node.width() / 2, y: -node.height() / 2 };
const current = rotatePoint(topLeft, Konva.getAngle(node.rotation()));
const rotated = rotatePoint(topLeft, Konva.getAngle(rotation));
const dx = rotated.x - current.x,
dy = rotated.y - current.y;

node.x(node.x() + dx);
node.y(node.y() + dy);

// then use it
rotateAroundCenter(rect, 180);

Or you can set offsetX = width / 2 and offsetY = height / 2. But the rectangle will be moved on the canvas (since you change its origin). So you will need to adjust the position.

Still have a question? Ask in comments.

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