Benchmark: rgb vs rgba (1 & 0.5) vs hex canvas

HTML Preparation code:

<canvas id="canvasOne" width="400" height="400"></canvas>
<canvas id="canvasTwo" width="400" height="400"></canvas>
<canvas id="canvasThr" width="400" height="400"></canvas>
<canvas id="canvasFour" width="400" height="400"></canvas>

Script Preparation code:

var canvasOne = document.getElementById("canvasOne");
var ctxOne = canvasOne.getContext("2d");

var canvasTwo = document.getElementById("canvasTwo");
var ctxTwo = canvasTwo.getContext("2d");

var canvasThr = document.getElementById("canvasThr");
var ctxThr = canvasThr.getContext("2d");

var canvasFour = document.getElementById("canvasThr");
var ctxFour = canvasFour.getContext("2d");

Tests:

alpha 1
ctxOne.clearRect(0, 0, 400, 400); ctxOne.beginPath(); ctxOne.fillStyle = 'rgba(231, 76, 60, 1)'; ctxOne.arc(200, 200, 100, 0, Math.PI * 2, true); ctxOne.fill();
no alpha
ctxTwo.clearRect(0, 0, 400, 400); ctxTwo.beginPath(); ctxTwo.fillStyle = 'rgb(249, 206, 201)'; ctxTwo.arc(200, 200, 100, 0, Math.PI * 2, true); ctxTwo.fill();
hex
ctxThr.clearRect(0, 0, 400, 400); ctxThr.beginPath(); ctxThr.fillStyle = '#f9cec9'; ctxThr.arc(200, 200, 100, 0, Math.PI * 2, true); ctxThr.fill();
apha 0.5
ctxOne.clearRect(0, 0, 400, 400); ctxOne.beginPath(); ctxOne.fillStyle = 'rgba(231, 76, 60, 0.5)'; ctxOne.arc(200, 200, 100, 0, Math.PI * 2, true); ctxOne.fill();

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
alpha 1
no alpha
hex
apha 0.5

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 9 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Iron Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 131 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
alpha 1	1790317.2 Ops/sec
no alpha	1786672.1 Ops/sec
hex	1821118.8 Ops/sec
apha 0.5	1764681.5 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the world of JavaScript microbenchmarks.

**What is tested?**

MeasureThat.net tests the performance of different color representations in the Canvas API. Specifically, it compares:

1. `rgba` (alpha) vs
2. `rgb` (no alpha) vs
3. `hex` (hexadecimal color codes)

These tests are designed to measure how quickly a browser can execute drawing operations using these different color formats.

**Options compared**

The three options being tested are:

1. **`rgba`**: uses an alpha channel (transparency) value, which allows for more precise control over the opacity of the drawn shape.
2. **`rgb`**: uses a solid color without an alpha channel, resulting in no transparency or opacity.
3. **`hex`**: uses a hexadecimal color code, which is a compact representation of a color.

**Pros and cons**

Here's a brief summary of each option:

* **`rgba`**:
	+ Pros: provides precise control over opacity, faster rendering (due to less data).
	+ Cons: requires more processing power due to the alpha channel.
* **`rgb`**:
	+ Pros: simpler, faster rendering (less data required), and less processing power-intensive.
	+ Cons: lacks transparency or opacity.
* **`hex`**:
	+ Pros: compact representation of a color, easier to read and write.
	+ Cons: may not be as efficient in terms of rendering performance.

**Library**

The `rgba()` and `rgb()` functions are part of the Canvas API, which is a JavaScript library for creating 2D graphics. The `getContext` method returns a 2D drawing context object that provides access to various methods for manipulating graphics on the canvas.

**Special JS feature or syntax**

There doesn't appear to be any special JavaScript features or syntax being used in this benchmark. The tests are purely focused on comparing different color representations and measuring their performance.

**Other alternatives**

If you were to implement similar benchmarks, you might consider using other color representation formats, such as:

* `hsl` (Hue-Saturation-Lightness)
* `hsv` (Hue-Saturation-Value)
* Custom RGB or RGBA values

Keep in mind that the performance differences between these alternatives may be negligible or dependent on specific use cases.

I hope this explanation has helped you understand the JavaScript microbenchmark being tested!

Related benchmarks:

rgb vs rgba (1 & 0.5) vs hex canvas (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: alpha 1 vs no alpha vs hex vs apha 0.5

Created: 6 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

alpha 1

no alpha

hex

apha 0.5

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):