Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

D3.js VS FabricJS

Compare D3.js VS FabricJS and see what are their differences

D3.js logo D3.js

D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS.

FabricJS logo FabricJS

Fabric.js is a powerful and simple Javascript HTML5 canvas library,
  • D3.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-11

D3 allows you to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. For example, you can use D3 to generate an HTML table from an array of numbers. Or, use the same data to create an interactive SVG bar chart with smooth transitions and interaction.

D3 is not a monolithic framework that seeks to provide every conceivable feature. Instead, D3 solves the crux of the problem: efficient manipulation of documents based on data. This avoids proprietary representation and affords extraordinary flexibility, exposing the full capabilities of web standards such as HTML, SVG, and CSS. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, supporting large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation. D3’s functional style allows code reuse through a diverse collection of official and community-developed modules.

  • FabricJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-20

D3.js features and specs

  • Powerful Visualization
    D3.js allows for the creation of highly customized and interactive data visualizations, harnessing the full power of web standards like SVG, Canvas, and HTML.
  • Data Binding
    It offers robust support for data-driven transformations and binding, enabling intuitive connections between data sets and DOM elements.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    A large and active community contributes to tutorials, plugins, and tools, which can significantly simplify the development process.
  • Flexibility
    D3.js is highly flexible, providing low-level manipulation capabilities without being tied to any specific chart types or patterns.
  • Performance
    It is highly optimized for performance, allowing for efficient rendering of complex visualizations even with large data sets.

Possible disadvantages of D3.js

  • Steep Learning Curve
    D3.js has a steep learning curve due to its low-level nature and requires a solid understanding of JavaScript, DOM manipulation, and data concepts.
  • Complexity
    Creating complex visualizations can be time-consuming and require a significant amount of custom code, making it less approachable for quick, simple tasks.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Although widely supported, some D3.js features may have inconsistent behavior across different browsers, requiring additional testing and debugging.
  • Documentation
    While extensive, D3.js documentation can be challenging for beginners to navigate and understand, causing misunderstandings and slower development times.
  • Dependency Management
    The library itself is modular, but managing dependencies and integrating D3.js with other JavaScript frameworks or libraries can sometimes be problematic.

FabricJS features and specs

  • Canvas Manipulation
    FabricJS provides a powerful and easy-to-use API for canvas manipulation, allowing users to create, modify, and interact with complex canvas elements with ease.
  • Object Model
    It offers a rich object model that includes shapes, images, and text elements that can be easily manipulated on the HTML5 canvas.
  • Cross-browser Compatibility
    FabricJS is designed to work across all major modern browsers, ensuring consistent behavior and appearance of canvas applications.
  • Extensibility
    Developers can extend FabricJS functionality by adding custom shapes, objects, and handlers, which allows for a tailored interaction experience.
  • Animation Support
    The library includes built-in animation capabilities, which help create dynamic, engaging user interactions without needing additional frameworks.

Possible disadvantages of FabricJS

  • Performance
    For very large or complex scenes, FabricJS can experience performance issues, leading to slower rendering times.
  • Learning Curve
    While the API is powerful, new users may find there is a steep learning curve, especially those unfamiliar with canvas-based programming.
  • Large File Size
    FabricJS can be relatively large compared to simpler libraries, which may impact initial load times, especially on slower networks.
  • Limited 3D Capabilities
    FabricJS is primarily 2D focused and does not inherently support complex 3D operations, limiting its use for advanced graphics applications.
  • Complexity in Advanced Features
    Implementing advanced features, such as custom hit detection or event processing, can be complex and may require a deep understanding of the library’s internals.

D3.js videos

Data Visualization with D3.js - Full Tutorial Course

More videos:

  • Review - Let's learn D3.js - D3 for data visualization (full course)

FabricJS videos

T-shirt design using fabric js and three.js

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to D3.js and FabricJS)
Charting Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Javascript UI Libraries
83 83%
17% 17
Data Visualization
100 100%
0% 0
Flowcharts
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare D3.js and FabricJS

D3.js Reviews

6 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Powerful Data Visualizations in 2023
Depending on your requirements, the best JavaScript library is D3.js, as it’s by far the most customizable. However, it’s also really complex and difficult to master. Plus, it’s not as compatible with TypeScript as it is with JavaScript, which can be off-putting for some developers. If you’d prefer a less complex library that you can use with TypeScript, ECharts, and...
Source: embeddable.com
15 JavaScript Libraries for Creating Beautiful Charts
When we think of charting today, D3.js is the first name that comes up. Being an open source project, D3.js definitely brings many powerful features that were missing in most of the existing libraries. Features like dynamic properties, Enter and Exit, powerful transitions, and syntax familiarity with jQuery make it one the best JavaScript libraries for charting. Charts in...
Top 20 Javascript Libraries
D3 stands for Data-Driven Documents. With D3, you can apply data-driven transformations to DOM objects. The keyword with D3 is ‘data-driven,’ which means documents are manipulated depending on the data received. Data can be received in any format and bound with DOM objects. D3 is very fast and supports dynamic behavior for animation and interactions. There are plenty of...
Source: hackr.io
20+ JavaScript libraries to draw your own diagrams (2022 edition)
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Right now, I would say is the most popular library of its kind.
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Another open source tool, D3.js is a JavaScript library for creating custom data visualizations in a web browser. Commonly known as D3, which stands for Data-Driven Documents, it uses web standards, such as HTML, Scalable Vector Graphics and CSS, instead of its own graphical vocabulary. D3's developers describe it as a dynamic and flexible tool that requires a minimum amount...

FabricJS Reviews

We have no reviews of FabricJS yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, D3.js should be more popular than FabricJS. It has been mentiond 167 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

D3.js mentions (167)

  • IO Devices and Latency
    Do you mean something for data visualization, or tricks condensing large data sets with cursors? https://d3js.org/ Best of luck =3. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • 2024 Nuxt3 Annual Ecosystem Summary🚀
    Document address: D3.js Official Document. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    D3.js: One of the most popular JavaScript visualization libraries. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • What are npm Peer Dependencies and how to use them?
    A Dependency is an npm package that our code depends on in order to be able to run. Some popular packages that can be added as dependencies are lodash, D3, and chartjs. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Introducing RacingBars 📊
    RacingBars is an open-source, light-weight (~45kb gzipped), easy-to-use, and feature-rich javascript library for bar chart race, based on D3.js. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
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FabricJS mentions (33)

  • Canva API: A Comprehensive Guide
    Open Source Alternatives - For those who prefer open-source tools, Libraries like SVG.js and Fabric.js offer customizable, canvas-based design functionality that can be integrated into web applications. These tools are free to use, offering high flexibility, though they may require significant development effort. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Ask HN: Framework for Quick Python or Java and Web UIs?
    I hope I'm understanding this right: You're trying to build a web UI that can let you overlay and position a QR code on top of another image? If so, I think rather than trying to build your own CLI to do this and refresh the image every time, you can do it entirely clientside with something like https://konvajs.org/docs/react/Intro.html or https://fabricjs.com/, storing the QR overlay position and alpha in state.... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • When You Need More Power Than a Lambda Provides
    In a publishing project, we utilized Fabric.js—a JavaScript HTML5 canvas library—to manage complex metadata and content layers. These complexities included spreads, pages, and templates, each embedded with fonts, text attributes, shapes, and images. As the content evolved, teams were tasked with updates, necessitating the creation of a publisher-quality PDF after each update. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Fun, Beautiful, Printable 'Story Cards' for Kids with Cloudflare AI
    This AI-powered Story Card Maker is built as a SvelteKit application with Typescript. Using Flowbite Svelte component library, the whole application was laid out. The layout for the Story Card (emulating the size of a postcard - 4" x 3") is created as an HTML Canvas using Fabric.js. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • JSON Canvas – An open file format for infinite canvas data
    The canvas in Obsidian is as the whole app very well made. I wondered what they are using as well. My guess is https://www.xyflow.com/, which is for drawing nodes. More general purpose would be http://fabricjs.com/. Or very low level https://pixijs.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing D3.js and FabricJS, you can also consider the following products

Chart.js - Easy, object oriented client side graphs for designers and developers.

Konva - Konva is 2d Canvas JavaScript framework for drawings shapes, animations, node nesting, layering, filtering, event handling, drag and drop and much more.

Highcharts - A charting library written in pure JavaScript, offering an easy way of adding interactive charts to your web site or web application

Paper.js - Open source vector graphics scripting framework that runs on top of the HTML5 Canvas.

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps

GoJS - GoJS is a JavaScript library for building interactive diagrams on HTML web pages. Build apps with flowcharts, org charts, BPMN, UML, modeling, and other visual graph types.