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Anytime you draw something in Skia, you specify painting attributes like color, blend mode, or style. These attributes control how shapes, text, and images appear on the canvas.

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Applying Paint Attributes

Paint attributes can be applied in three ways:
  1. As properties on drawing components or groups
  2. As children of drawing components or groups
  3. Via Paint component reference for manual assignment

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Property-Based Attributes

These attributes can be set directly as props:

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Child-Based Attributes

These attributes are applied as children:

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Fills and Strokes

In Skia, paint has a style property indicating whether it’s a fill or stroke. You can apply multiple paints to a single shape: 
import { Canvas, Circle, Paint, vec } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const width = 256;
const height = 256;

const PaintDemo = () => {
  const strokeWidth = 10;
  const c = vec(width / 2, height / 2);
  const r = (width - strokeWidth) / 2;
  
  return (
    <Canvas style={{ width, height }}>
      <Circle c={c} r={r}>
        <Paint color="lightblue" />
        <Paint color="#adbce6" style="stroke" strokeWidth={strokeWidth} />
        <Paint color="#ade6d8" style="stroke" strokeWidth={strokeWidth / 2} />
      </Circle>
    </Canvas>
  );
};
This circle has:
  • One light blue fill
  • Two different stroke paints with different colors and widths

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Inheritance

Descendants inherit paint attributes from their ancestors: 
import { Canvas, Circle, Group } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const width = 256;
const height = 256;

const PaintDemo = () => {
  const r = width / 6;
  
  return (
    <Canvas style={{ width, height }}>
      <Group color="lightblue">
        <Circle cx={r} cy={r} r={r} />
        <Group style="stroke" strokeWidth={10}>
          <Circle cx={3 * r} cy={3 * r} r={r} />
        </Group>
      </Group>
    </Canvas>
  );
};
  • The first circle inherits the lightblue color as a fill
  • The second circle inherits both the color and the stroke styling

​
Complex Paint Attributes

Shaders and filters are passed as children: 
import { Canvas, Circle, LinearGradient, vec } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const width = 256;
const height = 256;

const PaintDemo = () => {
  const r = width / 2;
  
  return (
    <Canvas style={{ width, height }}>
      <Circle cx={r} cy={r} r={r}>
        <LinearGradient
          start={vec(0, 0)}
          end={vec(2 * r, 2 * r)}
          colors={["#00ff87", "#60efff"]}
        />
      </Circle>
    </Canvas>
  );
};

​
Inherited Complex Attributes

Complex attributes also inherit: 
import { Canvas, Circle, Group, LinearGradient, vec } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const width = 256;
const height = 256;

const PaintDemo = () => {
  const r = width / 2;
  
  return (
    <Canvas style={{ width, height }}>
      <Group>
        <LinearGradient
          start={vec(0, 0)}
          end={vec(2 * r, 2 * r)}
          colors={["#0061ff", "#60efff"]}
        />
        <Circle cx={r} cy={r} r={r} />
        <Circle cx={3 * r} cy={r} r={r / 2} />
      </Group>
    </Canvas>
  );
};

​
Manual Paint Assignment

For advanced use cases, create paint instances manually: 
import { Canvas, Circle, Skia } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const width = 256;
const height = 256;
const r = width / 2;

// Create paint instance
const paint = Skia.Paint();
paint.setColor(Skia.Color("lightblue"));
paint.setAntiAlias(true);

const PaintDemo = () => {
  return (
    <Canvas style={{ flex: 1 }}>
      <Circle paint={paint} cx={r} cy={r} r={r} />
    </Canvas>
  );
};

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Common Patterns

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Multiple Fills with Opacity

import { Canvas, Rect, Paint } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const LayeredFills = () => (
  <Canvas style={{ width: 256, height: 256 }}>
    <Rect x={50} y={50} width={156} height={156}>
      <Paint color="red" opacity={0.5} />
      <Paint color="blue" opacity={0.5} />
    </Rect>
  </Canvas>
);

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Stroke Over Fill

import { Canvas, Circle, Paint } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const StrokedCircle = () => (
  <Canvas style={{ width: 256, height: 256 }}>
    <Circle cx={128} cy={128} r={100}>
      <Paint color="#e3f2fd" />
      <Paint color="#2196f3" style="stroke" strokeWidth={4} />
    </Circle>
  </Canvas>
);

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Gradient with Stroke

import { Canvas, Rect, Paint, LinearGradient, vec } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const GradientRect = () => (
  <Canvas style={{ width: 256, height: 256 }}>
    <Rect x={50} y={50} width={156} height={156}>
      <LinearGradient
        start={vec(50, 50)}
        end={vec(206, 206)}
        colors={["#667eea", "#764ba2"]}
      />
      <Paint style="stroke" strokeWidth={2} color="white" />
    </Rect>
  </Canvas>
);

​
Multiple Strokes

import { Canvas, Circle, Paint } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const MultiStroke = () => (
  <Canvas style={{ width: 256, height: 256 }}>
    <Circle cx={128} cy={128} r={100}>
      <Paint color="white" />
      <Paint color="#000" style="stroke" strokeWidth={10} />
      <Paint color="#fff" style="stroke" strokeWidth={6} />
      <Paint color="#000" style="stroke" strokeWidth={2} />
    </Circle>
  </Canvas>
);

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Paint Priority

When multiple paint attributes are specified:
  1. Direct props on the component have highest priority
  2. Paint children are applied in order
  3. Inherited attributes from parent groups apply if not overridden
import { Canvas, Circle, Group, Paint } from "@shopify/react-native-skia";

const PaintPriority = () => (
  <Canvas style={{ width: 256, height: 256 }}>
    <Group color="red">
      <Circle cx={64} cy={128} r={50} /> {/* Red (inherited) */}
      <Circle cx={128} cy={128} r={50} color="blue" /> {/* Blue (prop) */}
      <Circle cx={192} cy={128} r={50}>
        <Paint color="green" /> {/* Green (child) */}
      </Circle>
    </Group>
  </Canvas>
);

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Performance Tips

  • Reuse paint instances when possible
  • Use groups to apply common attributes to multiple shapes
  • Avoid creating new paint objects every render
  • Cache color values that don’t change
  • Use simple blend modes for better performance

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See Also

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