I've always been fascinated by web editors like Figma, Webflow, and Framer. Each of these tools has a unique way of rendering content—Webflow uses iframes for its HTML and CSS, Figma is built on C++, and WordPress works with PHP. However, I'm really curious about Framer and how it manages to render React webpages on an infinite canvas. I have a guess that they might have created their own graphics engine using C++, but I'm hoping someone can shed some light on the actual process they use to make this happen. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
1 Answer
Essentially, Framer uses React for its editor UI, but the infinite canvas operates on a different rendering surface. This canvas keeps a scene graph, only drawing what's visible while panning or zooming involves matrix transformations. Hit-testing maps clicks to layers using a spatial index. Heavy tasks like image processing can occur in a Web Worker with OffscreenCanvas, while drawing can be done via DOM for simple elements, Canvas2D for larger ones, or using WebGL for extensive graphics. The preview of your page runs in an iframe, keeping its structure synced with the canvas without directly rendering React on the canvas.
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