You can draw the intersection of 2 shapes using canvas’s globalCompositeOperation
The globalCompositeOperation allows you to control which parts of old and new drawings are shown on the canvas.
You can see examples of each compositing mode here: http://www.html5canvastutorials.com/advanced/html5-canvas-global-composite-operations-tutorial/
We use 2 of these compositing modes to highlight the intersection of your 2 circles:
source-atop
Given that the left circle is already draw, source-atop will draw only the intersecting part of the right circle.
ctx.globalCompositeOperation="source-atop";
ctx.arc(circle2.x,circle2.y,circle2.r, 0, 2*Math.PI, false);
destination-over
Given that the left circle is already draw, destination-over will draw the right circle under the existing left circle.
ctx.globalCompositeOperation="destination-over";
ctx.arc(circle2.x,circle2.y,circle2.r, 0, 2*Math.PI, false);
It’s a lot to take in, so you might comment out all the drawing code and then uncomment it one-opration-at-a-time to see what effect each operation has.
Here’s code and a Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/m1erickson/JGSJ5/
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="css/reset.css" /> <!-- reset css -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery.min.js"></script>
<style>
body{ background-color: ivory; }
canvas{border:1px solid red;}
</style>
<script>
$(function(){
var canvas=document.getElementById("canvas");
var ctx=canvas.getContext("2d");
ctx.fillStyle="yellow";
ctx.strokeStyle="black";
ctx.lineWidth=3;
var circle1={x:100,y:100,r:50};
var circle2={x:140,y:100,r:50};
// draw circle1
ctx.save();
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.arc(circle1.x,circle1.y,circle1.r, 0, 2*Math.PI, false);
ctx.stroke();
ctx.fill();
// composite mode "source-atop" to draw the intersection
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.fillStyle="orange";
ctx.globalCompositeOperation="source-atop";
ctx.arc(circle2.x,circle2.y,circle2.r, 0, 2*Math.PI, false);
ctx.fill();
ctx.stroke();
ctx.restore();
// destination-over to draw fill for circle2 again
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.globalCompositeOperation="destination-over";
ctx.arc(circle2.x,circle2.y,circle2.r, 0, 2*Math.PI, false);
ctx.fill();
// back to normal composite mode (newest drawings on top)
ctx.globalCompositeOperation="source-over";
// draw the stroke for circle1 again
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.arc(circle1.x,circle1.y,circle1.r, 0, 2*Math.PI, false);
ctx.stroke();
// draw the stroke for circle2 again
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.arc(circle2.x,circle2.y,circle2.r, 0, 2*Math.PI, false);
ctx.stroke();
}); // end $(function(){});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<canvas id="canvas" width=300 height=300></canvas>
</body>
</html>
