Touch: radiusX property

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

The radiusX read-only property of the Touch interface returns the X radius of the ellipse that most closely circumscribes the area of contact with the touch surface. The value is in CSS pixels of the same scale as Touch.screenX.

This value, in combination with Touch.radiusY and Touch.rotationAngle constructs an ellipse that approximates the size and shape of the area of contact between the user and the screen. This may be a relatively large ellipse representing the contact between a fingertip and the screen or a small area representing the tip of a stylus, for example.

Value

A number.

Examples

This example illustrates using the Touch interface's Touch.radiusX, Touch.radiusX and Touch.rotationAngle properties. The Touch.radiusX property is the radius of the ellipse which most closely circumscribes the touching area (e.g., finger, stylus) along the axis indicated by the touch point's Touch.rotationAngle. Likewise, the Touch.radiusY property is the radius of the ellipse which most closely circumscribes the touching area (e.g., finger, stylus) along the axis perpendicular to that indicated by Touch.rotationAngle. The Touch.rotationAngle is the angle (in degrees) that the ellipse described by radiusX and radiusY is rotated clockwise about its center.

The following simple code snippet, registers a single handler for the touchstart, touchmove and touchend events. When the src element is touched, the element's width and height will be calculate based on the touch point's radiusX and radiusY values and the element will then be rotated using the touch point's rotationAngle.

html
<div id="src">…</div>
js
const src = document.getElementById("src");

src.addEventListener("touchstart", rotate);
src.addEventListener("touchmove", rotate);
src.addEventListener("touchend", rotate);

function rotate(e) {
  const touch = e.changedTouches.item(0);

  // Turn off default event handling
  e.preventDefault();

  // Rotate element 'src'.
  src.style.width = `${touch.radiusX * 2}px`;
  src.style.height = `${touch.radiusY * 2}px`;
  src.style.transform = `rotate(${touch.rotationAngle}deg)`;
}

Specifications

Specification
Touch Events
# dom-touch-radiusx

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
radiusX
Chrome – No support
Chrome 22 – 46 (Release date: 2012-09-25)
prefix
footnote Removed in 47 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 38 (Release date: 2014-10-07)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 79 (Release date: 2020-01-15)
footnote Full support
Firefox – No support
Firefox 18 – 23 (Release date: 2013-01-08)
footnote Removed in 24 and later
footnote Removed in bug 888304 due to web compatibility issues.
Firefox – Partial support
Firefox 52 (Release date: 2017-03-07)
footnote Partial support
footnote This interface is only exposed if a touch input device is detected.
Opera – No support
Opera 15 – 33 (Release date: 2013-07-02)
prefix
footnote Removed in 34 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Opera – Full support
Opera 25 (Release date: 2014-10-15)
footnote Full support
Safari – No support
Safari
footnote No support
Chrome Android – No support
Chrome Android 25 – 46 (Release date: 2013-02-27)
prefix
footnote Removed in 47 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 38 (Release date: 2014-10-08)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 6 (Release date: 2011-08-16)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – No support
Opera Android 14 – 33 (Release date: 2013-05-21)
prefix
footnote Removed in 34 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 25 (Release date: 2014-10-16)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 10 (Release date: 2016-09-13)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – No support
Samsung Internet 1.5 – 4.2 (Release date: 2013-09-25)
prefix
footnote Removed in 5 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 3 (Release date: 2015-04-10)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – No support
WebView Android 4.4 – 46 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
prefix
footnote Removed in 47 and later
prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 38 (Release date: 2014-10-08)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 10 (Release date: 2016-09-13)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support
Partial support
Partial support
No support
No support
Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.
Has more compatibility info.