WebGLRenderingContext: texImage2D() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The WebGLRenderingContext.texImage2D() method of the WebGL API specifies a two-dimensional texture image.

Syntax

js
// WebGL1
texImage2D(target, level, internalformat, width, height, border, format, type, pixels)
texImage2D(target, level, internalformat, format, type, pixels)


// WebGL2
texImage2D(target, level, internalformat, width, height, border, format, type, offset)
texImage2D(target, level, internalformat, width, height, border, format, type, source)
texImage2D(target, level, internalformat, width, height, border, format, type, srcData, srcOffset)

Parameters

target

A GLenum specifying the binding point (target) of the active texture. Possible values:

  • gl.TEXTURE_2D: A two-dimensional texture.
  • gl.TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_POSITIVE_X: Positive X face for a cube-mapped texture.
  • gl.TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_NEGATIVE_X: Negative X face for a cube-mapped texture.
  • gl.TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_POSITIVE_Y: Positive Y face for a cube-mapped texture.
  • gl.TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_NEGATIVE_Y: Negative Y face for a cube-mapped texture.
  • gl.TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_POSITIVE_Z: Positive Z face for a cube-mapped texture.
  • gl.TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_NEGATIVE_Z: Negative Z face for a cube-mapped texture.
level

A GLint specifying the level of detail. Level 0 is the base image level and level n is the n-th mipmap reduction level.

internalformat

A GLenum specifying the color components in the texture.

Possible values in both WebGL1 and WebGL2

Format Type Channels Bytes per pixel
RGBA UNSIGNED_BYTE 4 4
RGB UNSIGNED_BYTE 3 3
RGBA UNSIGNED_SHORT_4_4_4_4 4 2
RGBA UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_5_5_1 4 2
RGB UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_6_5 3 2
LUMINANCE_ALPHA UNSIGNED_BYTE 2 2
LUMINANCE UNSIGNED_BYTE 1 1
ALPHA UNSIGNED_BYTE 1 1

Other possible values in WebGL2 for the versions of texImage2D that take a TypedArray or a DataView, or a GLintptr offset

Sized
Format		 Base
Format		 R
bits		 G
bits		 B
bits		 A
bits		 Shared
bits		 Color
renderable		 Texture
filterable
R8 RED 8 ● ●
R8_SNORM RED s8 ●
RG8 RG 8 8 ● ●
RG8_SNORM RG s8 s8 ●
RGB8 RGB 8 8 8 ● ●
RGB8_SNORM RGB s8 s8 s8 ●
RGB565 RGB 5 6 5 ● ●
RGBA4 RGBA 4 4 4 4 ● ●
RGB5_A1 RGBA 5 5 5 1 ● ●
RGBA8 RGBA 8 8 8 8 ● ●
RGBA8_SNORM RGBA s8 s8 s8 s8 ●
RGB10_A2 RGBA 10 10 10 2 ● ●
RGB10_A2UI RGBA ui10 ui10 ui10 ui2 ●
SRGB8 RGB 8 8 8 ●
SRGB8_ALPHA8 RGBA 8 8 8 8 ● ●
R16F RED f16 ●
RG16F RG f16 f16 ●
RGB16F RGB f16 f16 f16 ●
RGBA16F RGBA f16 f16 f16 f16 ●
R32F RED f32
RG32F RG f32 f32
RGB32F RGB f32 f32 f32
RGBA32F RGBA f32 f32 f32 f32
R11F_G11F_B10F RGB f11 f11 f10 ●
RGB9_E5 RGB 9 9 9 5 ●
R8I RED i8 ●
R8UI RED ui8 ●
R16I RED i16 ●
R16UI RED ui16 ●
R32I RED i32 ●
R32UI RED ui32 ●
RG8I RG i8 i8 ●
RG8UI RG ui8 ui8 ●
RG16I RG i16 i16 ●
RG16UI RG ui16 ui16 ●
RG32I RG i32 i32 ●
RG32UI RG ui32 ui32 ●
RGB8I RGB i8 i8 i8
RGB8UI RGB ui8 ui8 ui8
RGB16I RGB i16 i16 i16
RGB16UI RGB ui16 ui16 ui16
RGB32I RGB i32 i32 i32
RGB32UI RGB ui32 ui32 ui32
RGBA8I RGBA i8 i8 i8 i8 ●
RGBA8UI RGBA ui8 ui8 ui8 ui8 ●
RGBA16I RGBA i16 i16 i16 i16 ●
RGBA16UI RGBA ui16 ui16 ui16 ui16 ●
RGBA32I RGBA i32 i32 i32 i32 ●
RGBA32UI RGBA ui32 ui32 ui32 ui32 ●

Possible values in WebGL2 for the versions of texImage2D that take a texture an HTMLImageElement, HTMLCanvasElement, HTMLVideoElement, ImageBitmap, or ImageData

  • gl.ALPHA: Discards the red, green and blue components and reads the alpha component.
  • gl.RGB: Discards the alpha components and reads the red, green and blue components.
  • gl.RGBA: Red, green, blue and alpha components are read from the color buffer.
  • gl.LUMINANCE: Each color component is a luminance component, alpha is 1.0.
  • gl.LUMINANCE_ALPHA: Each component is a luminance/alpha component.

When using the WEBGL_depth_texture extension:

  • gl.DEPTH_COMPONENT
  • gl.DEPTH_STENCIL

When using the EXT_sRGB extension:

  • ext.SRGB_EXT
  • ext.SRGB_ALPHA_EXT

When using a WebGL 2 context, the following values are available additionally:

  • gl.R8
  • gl.R16F
  • gl.R32F
  • gl.R8UI
  • gl.RG8
  • gl.RG16F
  • gl.RG32F
  • gl.RG8UI
  • gl.RG16UI
  • gl.RG32UI
  • gl.RGB8
  • gl.SRGB8
  • gl.RGB565
  • gl.R11F_G11F_B10F
  • gl.RGB9_E5
  • gl.RGB16F
  • gl.RGB32F
  • gl.RGB8UI
  • gl.RGBA8
  • gl.SRGB8_ALPHA8
  • gl.RGB5_A1
  • gl.RGB10_A2
  • gl.RGBA4
  • gl.RGBA16F
  • gl.RGBA32F
  • gl.RGBA8UI
width

A GLsizei specifying the width of the texture.

height

A GLsizei specifying the height of the texture.

border

A GLint specifying the width of the border. Must be 0.

format

A GLenum specifying the format of the texel data. In WebGL 1, this must be the same as internalformat (see above). in WebGL 2, the combinations are listed in this table.

type

A GLenum specifying the data type of the texel data. Possible values:

  • gl.UNSIGNED_BYTE: 8 bits per channel for gl.RGBA
  • gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_6_5: 5 red bits, 6 green bits, 5 blue bits.
  • gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT_4_4_4_4: 4 red bits, 4 green bits, 4 blue bits, 4 alpha bits.
  • gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_5_5_1: 5 red bits, 5 green bits, 5 blue bits, 1 alpha bit.

When using the WEBGL_depth_texture extension:

  • gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT
  • gl.UNSIGNED_INT
  • ext.UNSIGNED_INT_24_8_WEBGL (constant provided by the extension)
  • When using the OES_texture_float extension:
    • gl.FLOAT

When using the OES_texture_half_float extension:

  • ext.HALF_FLOAT_OES (constant provided by the extension)

When using a WebGL 2 context, the following values are available additionally:

  • gl.BYTE
  • gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT
  • gl.SHORT
  • gl.UNSIGNED_INT
  • gl.INT
  • gl.HALF_FLOAT
  • gl.FLOAT
  • gl.UNSIGNED_INT_2_10_10_10_REV
  • gl.UNSIGNED_INT_10F_11F_11F_REV
  • gl.UNSIGNED_INT_5_9_9_9_REV
  • gl.UNSIGNED_INT_24_8
  • gl.FLOAT_32_UNSIGNED_INT_24_8_REV (pixels must be null)
pixels

The following types can always be used as a pixel source for the texture:

The following types can only be used as a pixel source when width, height, and border are specified:

  • Uint8Array (must be used if type is gl.UNSIGNED_BYTE)
  • Uint16Array (must be used if type is either gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_6_5, gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT_4_4_4_4, gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_5_5_1, gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT or ext.HALF_FLOAT_OES)
  • Uint32Array (must be used if type is gl.UNSIGNED_INT or ext.UNSIGNED_INT_24_8_WEBGL)
  • Float32Array (must be used if type is gl.FLOAT)
offset

(WebGL 2 only) A GLintptr byte offset into the WebGLBuffer's data store. Used to upload data to the currently bound WebGLTexture from the WebGLBuffer bound to the PIXEL_UNPACK_BUFFER target.

Return value

None (undefined).

Examples

js
gl.texImage2D(gl.TEXTURE_2D, 0, gl.RGBA, gl.RGBA, gl.UNSIGNED_BYTE, image);

Specifications

Specification
WebGL Specification
# 5.14.8
WebGL 2.0 Specification
# 3.7.6

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also