Capacitor Camera Preview

@capacitor-community/camera-preview

CAPACITOR 5

Capacitor plugin that allows camera interaction from Javascript and HTML
(based on cordova-plugin-camera-preview).

Version 6 of this plugin requires Capacitor 6.

If you are using Capacitor 5, use version 5

If you are using Capacitor 4, use version 4

If you are using Capacitor 3, use version 3

If you are using Capacitor 2, use version 1

PR's are greatly appreciated.

-- @arielhernandezmusa and @pbowyer, current maintainers

Installation

yarn add @capacitor-community/camera-preview

or

npm install @capacitor-community/camera-preview

Then run

npx cap sync

Extra Android installation steps

Important camera-preview 3+ requires Gradle 7. If you are using Gradle 4, please use version 2 of this plugin.

Open android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml and above the closing </manifest> tag add this line to request the CAMERA permission:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />

For more help consult the Capacitor docs.

Variables

This plugin will use the following project variables (defined in your app's variables.gradle file):

• androidxExifInterfaceVersion: version of androidx.exifinterface:exifinterface (default: 1.3.6)

Extra iOS installation steps

You will need to add two permissions to Info.plist. Follow the Capacitor docs and add permissions with the raw keys NSCameraUsageDescription and NSMicrophoneUsageDescription. NSMicrophoneUsageDescription is only required, if audio will be used. Otherwise set the disableAudio option to true, which also disables the microphone permission request.

Extra Web installation steps

Add import { CameraPreview } from '@capacitor-community/camera-preview'; in the file where you want to use the plugin.

then in html add <div id="cameraPreview"></div>

and CameraPreview.start({ parent: "cameraPreview"}); will work.

Methods

start(options)

Starts the camera preview instance.

Option	values	descriptions
position	front | rear	Show front or rear camera when start the preview. Defaults to front
width	number	(optional) The preview width in pixels, default window.screen.width (applicable to the android and ios platforms only)
height	number	(optional) The preview height in pixels, default window.screen.height (applicable to the android and ios platforms only)
x	number	(optional) The x origin, default 0 (applicable to the android and ios platforms only)
y	number	(optional) The y origin, default 0 (applicable to the android and ios platforms only)
toBack	boolean	(optional) Brings your html in front of your preview, default false (applicable to the android and ios platforms only)
paddingBottom	number	(optional) The preview bottom padding in pixes. Useful to keep the appropriate preview sizes when orientation changes (applicable to the android and ios platforms only)
rotateWhenOrientationChanged	boolean	(optional) Rotate preview when orientation changes (applicable to the ios platforms only; default value is true)
storeToFile	boolean	(optional) Capture images to a file and return back the file path instead of returning base64 encoded data, default false.
disableExifHeaderStripping	boolean	(optional) Disable automatic rotation of the image, and let the browser deal with it, default true (applicable to the android and ios platforms only)
enableHighResolution	boolean	(optional) Defaults to false - iOS only - Activate high resolution image capture so that output images are from the highest resolution possible on the device
disableAudio	boolean	(optional) Disables audio stream to prevent permission requests, default false. (applicable to web and iOS only)
lockAndroidOrientation	boolean	(optional) Locks device orientation when camera is showing, default false. (applicable to Android only)
enableOpacity	boolean	(optional) Make the camera preview see-through. Ideal for augmented reality uses. Default false (applicable to Android and web only)
enableZoom	boolean	(optional) Set if you can pinch to zoom. Default false (applicable to the android and ios platforms only)
mirrorVideo	boolean	(optional) Set if the video should be mirrored to match the preview. Defaults to false (applicable to the iOS platform only)

import { CameraPreview, CameraPreviewOptions } from '@capacitor-community/camera-preview';

const cameraPreviewOptions: CameraPreviewOptions = {
  position: 'rear',
  height: 1920,
  width: 1080
};
CameraPreview.start(cameraPreviewOptions);

Remember to add the style below on your app's HTML or body element:

ion-content {
  --background: transparent;
}

Take into account that this will make transparent all ion-content on application, if you want to show camera preview only in one page, just add a custom class to your ion-content and make it transparent:

.my-custom-camera-preview-content {
  --background: transparent;
}

If the camera preview is not displaying after applying the above styles, apply transparent background color to the root div element of the parent component Ex: VueJS >> App.vue component

<template>
  <ion-app id="app">
    <ion-router-outlet />
  </ion-app>
</template>

<style>
#app {
  background-color: transparent !important;
}
<style>

stop()

Stops the camera preview instance.

CameraPreview.stop();

resume() ---- iOS only

Resumes the camera preview without having to reinitialize. (in case it was interrupted)

CameraPreview.resume()

flip()

Switch between rear and front camera only for android and ios, web is not supported

CameraPreview.flip()

capture(options)

Option	values	descriptions
quality	number	(optional) The picture quality, 0 - 100, default 85
width	number	(optional) The picture width, default 0 (Device default)
height	number	(optional) The picture height, default 0 (Device default)

import { CameraPreviewPictureOptions } from '@capacitor-community/camera-preview';

const cameraPreviewPictureOptions: CameraPreviewPictureOptions = {
  quality: 50
};

const result = await CameraPreview.capture(cameraPreviewPictureOptions);
const base64PictureData = result.value;

// do sometime with base64PictureData

captureSample(options)

Option	values	descriptions
quality	number	(optional) The picture quality, 0 - 100, default 85

Captures a sample image from the video stream. Only for Android and iOS, web implementation falls back to capture method. This can be used to perform real-time analysis on the current frame in the video. The argument quality defaults to 85 and specifies the quality/compression value: 0=max compression, 100=max quality.

import { CameraSampleOptions } from '@capacitor-community/camera-preview';

const cameraSampleOptions: CameraSampleOptions = {
  quality: 50
};

const result = await CameraPreview.captureSample(cameraSampleOptions);
const base64PictureData = result.value;

// do something with base64PictureData

getSupportedFlashModes()

Get the flash modes supported by the camera device currently started. Returns an array containing supported flash modes. See FLASH_MODE for possible values that can be returned

import { CameraPreviewFlashMode } from '@capacitor-community/camera-preview';

const flashModes = await CameraPreview.getSupportedFlashModes();
const supportedFlashModes: CameraPreviewFlashMode[] = flashModes.result;

setFlashMode(options)

Set the flash mode. See FLASH_MODE for details about the possible values for flashMode.

const CameraPreviewFlashMode: CameraPreviewFlashMode = 'torch';

CameraPreview.setFlashMode(cameraPreviewFlashMode);

startRecordVideo(options) ---- ANDROID and iOS only

Start capturing video

const cameraPreviewOptions: CameraPreviewOptions = {
  position: 'front',
  width: window.screen.width,
  height: window.screen.height,
};

CameraPreview.startRecordVideo(cameraPreviewOptions);

stopRecordVideo() ---- ANDROID and iOS only

Finish capturing a video. The captured video will be returned as a file path and the video format is .mp4

const resultRecordVideo = await CameraPreview.stopRecordVideo();
const videoPath = resultRecordVideo.videoFilePath;

setOpacity(options: CameraOpacityOptions): Promise<{}>; ---- ANDROID only

Set the opacity for the camera preview

const myCamera = CameraPreview.start({enableOpacity: true});
myCamera.setOpacity({opacity: 0.4});

Settings

FLASH_MODE

Flash mode settings:

Name	Type	Default	Note
OFF	string	off
ON	string	on
AUTO	string	auto
RED_EYE	string	red-eye	Android Only
TORCH	string	torch

Demo

A working example can be found at Demo

To run the demo on your local network and access media devices, a secure context is needed. Add an .env file at the root of the demo folder with HTTPS=true to start react with HTTPS.