Installation Windows

Dependencies

Building the node-canvas module requires:

1. A global installation of node-gyp, which requires:

• Python 2.7 for Windows
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 or later

2. GTK 2
3. For optional JPEG support (pending #458): libjpeg-turbo

1. Installing node-gyp

• Run the latest 2.7.x Python installer (v3.x.x is not supported).
• Install Visual Studio. Community and Express are both free. Community is a bigger installation but provides more features; Express is sufficient. When installing, ensure that you select the option for C++ support. You can also try the C++ Build Tools as described here.
• Install node-gyp globally with npm install -g node-gyp.

Notes:

• We've tested Visual Studio 2010, 2013 and 2015, x86 and x64.
• Ensure the Python directory (e.g C:\Program Files\Python) is available in PATH.
• You can force gyp to use a specific edition of VS, by providing a --msvs_version=2013 hint to npm install canvas (if you're installing from scratch) or node-gyp rebuild (if you're building node-canvas).
• If anything goes wrong, please refer to the node-gyp documentation.

2. Installing GTK 2

You will need the cairo library which is bundled in GTK. Download the GTK 2 bundle for Win32 or Win64. Unzip the contents in C:\GTK.

Notes:

• Both GTK and Node.js need either be 64bit or 32bit to compile successfully.
• Download GTK 2, not GTK 3, which is missing the required libpng. If you get linker errors you've most likely picked the wrong bundle.
• If you use a different location than C:\GTK, add a GTK_Root argument to npm install or node-gyp rebuild. For example: node-gyp rebuild --GTK_Root=C:\somewhere\GTK.

3. Installing libjpeg-turbo

Download the latest libjpeg-turbo SDK for Visual C++ (currently libjpeg-turbo-1.4.0-vc.exe) and install to its default location (C:\libjpeg-turbo if 32bit or C:\libjpeg-turbo64 if 64bit).

Notes:

• Both libjpeg-turbo and Node.js need either be 64bit or 32bit to compile successfully.
• If you use a different location, add jpeg_root and with_jpeg arguments to npm install or node-gyp rebuild. For example: node-gyp rebuild --jpeg_root=c:\somewhere\libjpeg-turbo --with_jpeg=true.

Build instructions

In the root of the node-canvas module you may use node-gyp to build the native module:

node-gyp rebuild