Being a cutting-edge technique and hot topic in human-computer interaction, the haptic rendering provides bidirectional information and energy communication between human operators and the virtual environment ( VE) , which effectively enhances the level of reality and immersion and operating efficiency of virtual reality applications. This article proposes a novel two-dimensional (2D) haptic interface through electromagnetic force control, which consists of the two-dimensional background electromagnetic field generation and control module, fingertip-mounted permanent magnet, position tracking module, and central control module. The optimized parameter configuration for the electromagnetic coils and fingertip magnet is obtained with the ANSYS-based finite element analysis, which further reveals the relationship between the electromagnetic force, the driving currents for the 2D background magnetic field, and the position of the fingertip magnet. With the offline data for this relationship, a real-time interpolation-based force generation method is proposed for this 2D haptic rendering. Based on the proposed haptic interface prototype system, several experiments are carried out, including the force perception threshold experiment, and virtual object recognition experiment. Experimental results verify the efficacy of the proposed 2D haptic interface with the success rates for the two virtual object recognition experiments being 85. 7% and 71. 4% , respectively.