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The new Google docs uses a canvas. The feature is not rolled out fully yet but there is a demo document attached to the announcement. The canvas demo document is fully selectable, it feels native. I assume it works as you described, so it's possible to make it feel right, with enough effort to detail.

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By placing the right elements at the right place, you can have native input and text selection, but that’s not just WebGL anymore; That’s a regular (but transparent) webpage with a WebGL background that mimics your input. It takes quite a bit of effort to emulate that effectively since there’s no guarantee that the visible text rendered by WebGL renders with what the browser renders outside it. Probably the 80/20 rule applies here.

I inspected the DOM while selecting and I didn't find the hidden text element. Perhaps it was there and I didn't know how to find it.

Is this a more likely approach than just drawing the selection highlight and emulating the whole thing in canvas?

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