What's the differences with the line, path, and shape classes in KonvaJS?

Question

I'm a big fan of PaperJS, however, the library doesn't see much activity so we're looking at other tools, like KonvaJS, Fabric, and Pixi. We'd like to replicate the example here:

http://paperjs.org/examples/path-simplification/

in KonvaJS but we're not sure which class is the most appropriate? Should we use the line, which is described as a collection of points with tension, the path tool which is what we use in Paper, or the shape class? Does KonvaJS offer the same type of access to the bezier curve tools and shape border, blue line, found in the above-mentioned paper example?

Answer 1

Konva.Line requires a list of x & y passed into its points property as a simple array, then draws straight lines connecting those points. The tension property can be used to make the straight line joins more curvy.

Konva.Path expects you to provide a data property that is more like a list of SVG drawing instructions, so move, lineto, arc, etc. (See supported instructions list in Konva docs for Konva.Path.data here)

There is no built-in equivalent path-editing features to those in the demo you linked to - so no automatic anchors on the path control points and no Bezier handles. You would have to DIY those. Having said that, it would all be achievable - what I mean is the drawing of the control anchors and lines, the listening for mouse and drag events, and the final passing back of the SVG drawing data to the Konva.Path shape when the path's edit mode ends are all well supported in Konva.

As at May 2022, the Konva lib is well supported, with appropriately frequent (as Goldilocks would want - not too many and not too few), no ill-thought-out breaking changes, issues are responded to, SO posts replied to, and there is a busy Discord channel.