What is P5JS?

Surfing the web in 2019 has become as normal to society as walking down the street. One could compare it to walking down a main street in a town. There are lots of colors lights and other attractions to behold. It’s not often one stops to think about what is under the hood to make these websites a reality. While answering that question might not be able to fit in a blog post, here’s a cool sneak peek into what developers use to make things happen.

So as with most technology there is code that runs behind the scenes. Something as simple as drawing a circle has a line of code that draws it. The language mainly used is Javascript. So that’s where P5JS comes in.

P5JS is a Javascript library that follows in the original goal of Processing, a language used for learning how to code based on the visual arts. Using terms such as “Sketchbook” and “Canvas”, P5JS can attract artists and the like to have a more accessible way to learn and use code in today’s web.

(In case you were wondering, after doing some digging p5 was a shorthand for the original domain of Processing “Proce55ing.net”, so thats where the name comes from.)

This video gives a lovely visualization of the power of P5JS and what it might be used for. This will catch your attention once it gets interactive, it’s worth a watch for sure.

One would use P5Js to have a easier time adding some depth to a website and making the web a more intuitive, creative place.