Async Clipboard: Read and Write Images

Category: User input
Type: New or changed feature
Status: Enabled by default (Chrome 76)
Intent stage: Prepare to ship

Breaking change: No
Enterprise impact: None
Spec maturity: Incubation
Web Platform Tests: Yes

WPT details: https://wpt.fyi/results/clipboard-apis WPT covers the API surface at a superficial level (idl-harness) and the behavior when permissions are denied. The behavior for when permissions are granted is covered by manual tests that have automated equivalents in Chrome's LayoutTests. Fully automated tests in WPT are blocked on https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt/issues/5671

Summary

Implements programmatic copying and pasting of images for the Async Clipboard API. This change also updates navigator.clipboard.read() and navigator.clipboard.write() to comply with the specification. Programmatic copying and pasting of images is Chromium's top starred bug.

Standards & signals

Specification: https://w3c.github.io/clipboard-apis/#async-clipboard-api
Firefox: No signal
Safari: Shipped/Shipping
Web developers: Strongly positive — The Chrome bug has over 1800 stars, making it the highest-starred bug at the time the feature is launched.
Tracking bug: https://crbug.com/150835

Ecosystem

Web Platform Tests: https://wpt.fyi/results/?q=clipboard-apis
Chrome Platform Showcase: https://chrome-platform-showcase.paulkinlan-ea.deno.net/features
GenDN reference: https://gendn.paulkinlan-ea.deno.net/features
chrome.dev demos search: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Achrome.dev+Async%20Clipboard%3A%20Read%20and%20Write%20Images
MDN Web Docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/search?q=Async%20Clipboard%3A%20Read%20and%20Write%20Images
Baseline status: https://webstatus.dev/?q=Async%20Clipboard%3A%20Read%20and%20Write%20Images

Docs: https://web.dev/async-clipboard/

Explainers: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lpi3-9vBP_1b7hZc2xBs0s_HaACJ6UigZZqHlJSNeJg/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sMcajoYAQ_M_VOIn1RLokG1sVB7skjoeviqt9aZOcDk/

View on chromestatus.com