How to set the opacity/alpha of a UIImage?

Question

I know you can do this with a UIImageView, but can it be done to a UIImage? I want to have the animation images array property of a UIImageView to be an array of the same image but with different opacities. Thoughts?

Answer 1

Based on Alexey Ishkov's answer, but in Swift

I used an extension of the UIImage class.

Swift 2:

UIImage Extension:

extension UIImage {
    func imageWithAlpha(alpha: CGFloat) -> UIImage {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, scale)
        drawAtPoint(CGPointZero, blendMode: .Normal, alpha: alpha)
        let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return newImage
    }
}

To use:

let image = UIImage(named: "my_image")
let transparentImage = image.imageWithAlpha(0.5)

Swift 3 / Swift 4:

Note that this implementation returns an optional UIImage. This is because in Swift 3 UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext now returns an optional. This value could be nil if the context is nil or what not created with UIGraphicsBeginImageContext.

UIImage Extension:

extension UIImage {
    func image(alpha: CGFloat) -> UIImage? {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, scale)
        draw(at: .zero, blendMode: .normal, alpha: alpha)
        let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return newImage
    }
}

To use:

let image = UIImage(named: "my_image")
let transparentImage = image?.image(alpha: 0.5)

Answer 2

Hey hey thanks from Xamarin user! :) Here it goes translated to c#

//***************************************************************************
public static class ImageExtensions
//***************************************************************************
{
    //-------------------------------------------------------------
    public static UIImage WithAlpha(this UIImage image, float alpha)  
    //-------------------------------------------------------------
        {
        UIGraphics.BeginImageContextWithOptions(image.Size,false,image.CurrentScale);
        image.Draw(CGPoint.Empty, CGBlendMode.Normal, alpha);
        var newImage = UIGraphics.GetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
        UIGraphics.EndImageContext();
        return newImage;
        }

}

Usage example:

var MySupaImage = UIImage.FromBundle("opaquestuff.png").WithAlpha(0.15f);

Answer 3

Set the opacity of its view it is showed in.

UIImageView *imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageWithName:@"SomeName.png"]];
imageView.alpha = 0.5; //Alpha runs from 0.0 to 1.0

Use this in an animation. You can change the alpha in an animation for an duration.

[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:1.0];
//Set alpha
[UIView commitAnimations];

Answer 4

there is much easier solution:

- (UIImage *)tranlucentWithAlpha:(CGFloat)alpha
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.size, NO, self.scale);
    [self drawAtPoint:CGPointZero blendMode:kCGBlendModeNormal alpha:alpha];
    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return image;
}

Answer 5

I realize this is quite late, but I needed something like this so I whipped up a quick and dirty method to do this.

+ (UIImage *) image:(UIImage *)image withAlpha:(CGFloat)alpha{

    // Create a pixel buffer in an easy to use format
    CGImageRef imageRef = [image CGImage];
    NSUInteger width = CGImageGetWidth(imageRef);
    NSUInteger height = CGImageGetHeight(imageRef);
    CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();

    UInt8 * m_PixelBuf = malloc(sizeof(UInt8) * height * width * 4);

    NSUInteger bytesPerPixel = 4;
    NSUInteger bytesPerRow = bytesPerPixel * width;
    NSUInteger bitsPerComponent = 8;
    CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(m_PixelBuf, width, height,
                                                 bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow, colorSpace,
                                                 kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big);

    CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height), imageRef);
    CGContextRelease(context);

    //alter the alpha
    int length = height * width * 4;
    for (int i=0; i<length; i+=4)
    {
        m_PixelBuf[i+3] =  255*alpha;
    }


    //create a new image
    CGContextRef ctx = CGBitmapContextCreate(m_PixelBuf, width, height,
                                                 bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow, colorSpace,
                                                 kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big);

    CGImageRef newImgRef = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(ctx);  
    CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
    CGContextRelease(ctx);  
    free(m_PixelBuf);

    UIImage *finalImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:newImgRef];
    CGImageRelease(newImgRef);  

    return finalImage;
}

Answer 6

I just needed to do this, but thought Steven's solution would be slow. This should hopefully use graphics HW. Create a category on UIImage:

- (UIImage *)imageByApplyingAlpha:(CGFloat) alpha {
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.size, NO, 0.0f);

    CGContextRef ctx = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
    CGRect area = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.size.width, self.size.height);

    CGContextScaleCTM(ctx, 1, -1);
    CGContextTranslateCTM(ctx, 0, -area.size.height);

    CGContextSetBlendMode(ctx, kCGBlendModeMultiply);

    CGContextSetAlpha(ctx, alpha);

    CGContextDrawImage(ctx, area, self.CGImage);

    UIImage *newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();

    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    return newImage;
}