Dragon fractal
World's simplest fractal tool
This utility lets you draw custom and colorful Heighway fractals. You can adjust the size of the fractal, the number of its iterations, and pick the colors for the background and curve line. You can also specify the fractal's thickness, padding, and set the direction of the dragon's head. Fun fact – the dragon fractal can be created from a strip of paper by cleverly folding, unfolding and rotating it. Fractabulous!
announcement
heads up!
We just launched a new site – Online String Tools – a collection of string processing utilities. Check it out!
fullscreen
fullscreen_exit
A link to this tool, including input, options and all chained tools.
Can't convert.
Dragon fractal tool
What is a dragon fractal?
This online browser-based tool allows you to draw a personalized dragon fractal. It's also sometimes called Harter-Heighway dragon or simply Heighway dragon. This name comes from physicists John Heighway and William Harter. The dragon fractal is an example of a self-similar curve. The fractal consists of one continuous line and it never intersects. This fractal is one of the few fractals that can be folded from a strip of paper iteratively. To do this, first bend the paper strip in half, then open it at 90-degree angle, rotate it 45 degrees, and bend it again in half. Then repeat this same procedure again. The size of each dragon formed this way in every next iteration is √2 smaller than the previous one. You can also put two dragons back to back and create a Heighway twins fractal. Mind boggling and cool at the same time, or as we love to say – fractabulous!
Dragon fractal examples
Click to use
Detailed Dragon Fractal
This example draws a detailed Heighway dragon fractal of depth twelve. It uses the ultramarine color for the line, sets it 4 pixels thick and uses an area of 600 by 900 pixels to paint it.
Required options
Dragon's head direction.
Iterative depth of the fractal.
Fractal width.
Fractal height.
Heighway dragon line color.
Heighway dragon line width.
Heighway dragon fill color.
Drawing indent (in pixels).
Line-filled Heighway Dragon
In this example, we generate the Heighway fractal at the 15th iteration step. We're using 3 pixels for line thickness and because the lines are drawn very close together, they fill the shape of the fractal. We use a golden-fizz color for the line and resolution-blue color for the background.
Required options
Dragon's head direction.
Iterative depth of the fractal.
Fractal width.
Fractal height.
Heighway dragon line color.
Heighway dragon line width.
Heighway dragon fill color.
Drawing indent (in pixels).
Bright Heighway Fractal
This example creates a bright-pink dragon fractal on a yellow background. It runs the fractal algorithm for 17 steps and paints it on an 800- by 1200-pixel canvas with indentation of 15 pixels around the canvas edges.
Required options
Dragon's head direction.
Iterative depth of the fractal.
Fractal width.
Fractal height.
Heighway dragon line color.
Heighway dragon line width.
Heighway dragon fill color.
Drawing indent (in pixels).
Pro tips
Master online fractal tools
You can pass options to this tool using their codes as query arguments and it will automatically compute output. To get the code of an option, just hover over its icon. Here's how to type it in your browser's address bar. Click to try!
https://onlinefractaltools.com/draw-heighway-fractal?&width=600&height=900&iterations=13&background-color=%23befeff&line-segment-color=%230a0e91&line-width=4&padding=10&direction=down
All fractal tools
Quickly draw a custom McWorter dendrite fractal.
Quickly draw a custom canopy tree fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Gosper fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Z-order fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Hilbert fractal.
Quickly draw a custom binary v-fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Peano fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Heighway dragon fractal.
Quickly draw a custom twin dragon Heighway fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Heighway nonadragon fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Koch fractal.
Quickly draw a custom triflake fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Sierpinski triangle fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Sierpinski pentagon fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Sierpinski hexagon fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Sierpinski polygon fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Moore fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Cantor comb fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Cantor dust fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Levy fractal curve.
Quickly draw a custom ice fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Pythagoras tree fractal.
Quickly draw a custom t-square fractal.
Quickly draw a custom Hausdorff tree fractal.
Coming soon
These fractal tools are on the way
Generate a Hilbert Sequence
Walk the Hilbert fractal and enumerate its coordinates.
Generate a Peano Sequence
Walk the Peano fractal and enumerate its coordinates.
Generate a Moore Sequence
Walk the Moore fractal and enumerate its coordinates.
Generate a Cantor String
Encode the Cantor set as a string.
Mandelbrot Tree
Generate a Mandelbrot tree fractal.
Barnsey's Tree
Generate a Barnsley's tree fractal.
Barnsey's Fern
Generate a Barnsley's fern fractal.
Binary Fractal Tree
Generate a binary tree fractal.
Ternary Fractal Tree
Generate a ternary tree fractal.
Dragon Fractal Tree
Generate a dragon tree fractal.
De Rham Fractal
Generate a de Rham curve.
Takagi Fractal
Generate a Takagi-Landsberg fractal curve.
Peano Pentagon
Generate a Peano pentagon fractal curve.
Tridendrite Fractal
Generate a tridendrite fractal curve.
McWorter's Pentigree
Generate a Pentigree fractal curve.
McWorter's Lucky Seven
Generate a lucky seven fractal curve.
Eisenstein Fractions
Generate an Eisenstein fractions fractal curve.
Bagula Double V
Generate a Bagula double five fractal curve.
Julia Set
Generate a Julia fractal set.
Mandelbrot Set
Generate a Mandelbrot fractal set.
Toothpick Fractal
Generate a toothpick sequence fractal.
Ulam-Warburton Fractal
Generate an Ulam-Warburton fractal curve.
Subscribe!
Never miss an update
Cool!
Notifications
We'll let you know when we add this tool
Cool!
Feedback
got anything to say?
Created with love by 
We're Browserling — a friendly and fun cross-browser testing company powered by alien technology. At Browserling we love to make developers' lives easier, so we created this collection of online fractal tools. Unlike many other tools, we made our tools free, without ads, and with the simplest possible user interface. Our online fractal tools are actually powered by our programming tools that we created over the last couple of years. Check them out!
Secret message
If you love our tools, then we love you, too! Use coupon code FRACTALLING to get a discount at Browserling.
Privacy Policy
we don't log data!
All conversions and calculations are done in your browser using JavaScript. We don't send a single bit about your input data to our servers. There is no server-side processing at all. We use Google Analytics and StatCounter for site usage analytics. Your IP address is saved on our web server, but it's not associated with any personally identifiable information. We don't use cookies and don't store session information in cookies. We use your browser's local storage to save tools' input. It stays on your computer.
Terms of Service
the legal stuff
By using Online Fractal Tools you agree to our Terms of Service. TLDR: You don't need an account to use our tools. All tools are free of charge and you can use them as much as you want. You can't do illegal or shady things with our tools. We may block your access to tools, if we find out you're doing something bad. We're not liable for your actions and we offer no warranty. We may revise our terms at any time.