How to write text on image in Objective-C (iOS)?

Question

I want to make an image like this programmatically:

I have the upper image and text with me. Should I write text on the image?

I want to make it a complete .png image(image + label) and set it as the background of the button.

Answer 1

Considering performance, you should avoid having frequent calls to -drawRect:. Every UIView is backed with a CALayer and images as layer contents remain in memory as long as the CALayer stays in the hierarchy.This means that most of the operations you see in an application, including movement, rotation, and scaling of the view/layer, do not require a redraw.This means you can use add an CATextLayer on UIImageView , If you don't need a image with watermark. https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/qa/qa1708/_index.html

- (void)addText:(NSString *)text inImageView:(UIImageView *)imageView { CATextLayer *textLayer = [CATextLayer layer]; UIFont *font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:14.0f]; CGSize textSize = [text sizeWithAttributes:@{NSFontAttributeName:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:14.0f]}]; textLayer.frame = CGRectMake((imageView.size.width - textSize.width)/2, (imageView.size.height - textSize.height)/2, textSize.width, textSize.height);; textLayer.string = text; textLayer.fontSize = font.pointSize; [imageView.layer addSublayer:textLayer]; }

Answer 2

I have created fully customized extension for UIImage to draw watermark in Swift:

extension UIImage{

    enum WaterMarkCorner{
        case TopLeft
        case TopRight
        case BottomLeft
        case BottomRight
    }

    func waterMarkedImage(#waterMarkText:String, corner:WaterMarkCorner = .BottomRight, margin:CGPoint = CGPoint(x: 20, y: 20), waterMarkTextColor:UIColor = UIColor.whiteColor(), waterMarkTextFont:UIFont = UIFont.systemFontOfSize(20), backgroundColor:UIColor = UIColor.clearColor()) -> UIImage{

        let textAttributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName:waterMarkTextColor, NSFontAttributeName:waterMarkTextFont]
        let textSize = NSString(string: waterMarkText).sizeWithAttributes(textAttributes)
        var textFrame = CGRectMake(0, 0, textSize.width, textSize.height)

        let imageSize = self.size
        switch corner{
        case .TopLeft:
            textFrame.origin = margin
        case .TopRight:
            textFrame.origin = CGPoint(x: imageSize.width - textSize.width - margin.x, y: margin.y)
        case .BottomLeft:
            textFrame.origin = CGPoint(x: margin.x, y: imageSize.height - textSize.height - margin.y)
        case .BottomRight:
            textFrame.origin = CGPoint(x: imageSize.width - textSize.width - margin.x, y: imageSize.height - textSize.height - margin.y)
        }

        /// Start creating the image with water mark
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(imageSize)
        self.drawInRect(CGRectMake(0, 0, imageSize.width, imageSize.height))
        NSString(string: waterMarkText).drawInRect(textFrame, withAttributes: textAttributes)

        let waterMarkedImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

        return waterMarkedImage
    }
}

As you see, I have added some default values for attributes so you can ignore if you don't need to change. Here some examples for how to use it:

let watermark1 = image.waterMarkedImage(waterMarkText: "@yourapp")

let watermark2 = image.waterMarkedImage(waterMarkText: "your app name", corner: .TopRight, margin: CGPoint(x: 5, y: 5), waterMarkTextColor: UIColor.greenColor())

let watermark3 = image.waterMarkedImage(waterMarkText: "appName", waterMarkTextColor: UIColor.blackColor(), waterMarkTextFont: UIFont(name: "Helvatica", size: 25)!)

Swift 4.0 version:

extension UIImage
{

    enum WaterMarkCorner
    {
        case TopLeft
        case TopRight
        case BottomLeft
        case BottomRight
    }

    func waterMarkedImage(text:String, corner:WaterMarkCorner = .BottomRight, margin:CGPoint = CGPoint(x: 20, y: 20), color:UIColor = UIColor.white, font:UIFont = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 20), background:UIColor = UIColor.clear) -> UIImage?
    {
        let attributes = [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: color, NSAttributedStringKey.font:font]
        let textSize = NSString(string: text).size(withAttributes: attributes)
        var frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: textSize.width, height: textSize.height)

        let imageSize = self.size
        switch corner
        {
            case .TopLeft:
                frame.origin = margin
            case .TopRight:
                frame.origin = CGPoint(x: imageSize.width - textSize.width - margin.x, y: margin.y)
            case .BottomLeft:
                frame.origin = CGPoint(x: margin.x, y: imageSize.height - textSize.height - margin.y)
            case .BottomRight:
                frame.origin = CGPoint(x: imageSize.width - textSize.width - margin.x, y: imageSize.height - textSize.height - margin.y)
        }

        // Start creating the image with water mark
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(imageSize)
        self.draw(in: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: imageSize.width, height: imageSize.height))
        NSString(string: text).draw(in: frame, withAttributes: attributes)
        let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return image
    }

}

Answer 3

I did something like this! After browsing and combining some examples.

Puts the text in the midle of the image, resizing the font if needed.

UIImage *myImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"promoicon.png"];
UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(myImage.size);
[myImage drawInRect:CGRectMake(0,0,myImage.size.width,myImage.size.height)];
UITextView *myText = [[UITextView alloc] init];
myText.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"TrebuchetMS-Bold" size:15.0f];
myText.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
myText.text = NSLocalizedString(@"promotionImageText", @"");
myText.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

CGSize maximumLabelSize = CGSizeMake(myImage.size.width,myImage.size.height);
CGSize expectedLabelSize = [myText.text sizeWithFont:myText.font                     
                                          constrainedToSize:maximumLabelSize 
                                              lineBreakMode:UILineBreakModeWordWrap];

myText.frame = CGRectMake((myImage.size.width / 2) - (expectedLabelSize.width / 2),
                                  (myImage.size.height / 2) - (expectedLabelSize.height / 2),
                                  myImage.size.width,
                                  myImage.size.height);

[[UIColor whiteColor] set];
[myText.text drawInRect:myText.frame withFont:myText.font];
UIImage *myNewImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

Answer 4

My contribution to the first answer with iOS 7 support :

+(UIImage*) drawText:(NSString*) text
             inImage:(UIImage*)  image
             atPoint:(CGPoint)   point
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(image.size, YES, 0.0f);
    [image drawInRect:CGRectMake(0,0,image.size.width,image.size.height)];
    CGRect rect = CGRectMake(point.x, point.y, image.size.width, image.size.height);
    [[UIColor whiteColor] set];

    UIFont *font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:12];
    if([text respondsToSelector:@selector(drawInRect:withAttributes:)])
    {
        //iOS 7
        NSDictionary *att = @{NSFontAttributeName:font};
        [text drawInRect:rect withAttributes:att];
    }
    else
    {
        //legacy support
        [text drawInRect:CGRectIntegral(rect) withFont:font];
    }

    UIImage *newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    return newImage;
}

Hope this helps

EDIT: modified the UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions to handle screen scale. Thk @SoftDesigner

Answer 5

In Swift-3 of @Jano Answer :-

func drawText(text:NSString ,image:UIImage ,point:CGPoint ) -> UIImage {

        let font = UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 12)
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(image.size)
        image.draw(in:CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: image.size.width, height: image.size.height) )
            let rect = CGRect(x: point.x, y: point.y, width:image.size.width, height: image.size.height )
        UIColor.white.set()
        text.draw(in: rect.integral, withAttributes: [NSFontAttributeName   : font])
        let image =  UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return image!
    }

Answer 6

iOS7 only.

Watermark in lower right corner.

@interface UIImage (DrawWatermarkText)
-(UIImage*)drawWatermarkText:(NSString*)text;
@end
@implementation UIImage (DrawWatermarkText)
-(UIImage*)drawWatermarkText:(NSString*)text {
    UIColor *textColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.5 alpha:1.0];
    UIFont *font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:50];
    CGFloat paddingX = 20.f;
    CGFloat paddingY = 20.f;

    // Compute rect to draw the text inside
    CGSize imageSize = self.size;
    NSDictionary *attr = @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: textColor, NSFontAttributeName: font};
    CGSize textSize = [text sizeWithAttributes:attr];
    CGRect textRect = CGRectMake(imageSize.width - textSize.width - paddingX, imageSize.height - textSize.height - paddingY, textSize.width, textSize.height);

    // Create the image
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(imageSize);
    [self drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, imageSize.width, imageSize.height)];
    [text drawInRect:CGRectIntegral(textRect) withAttributes:attr];
    UIImage *resultImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return resultImage;
}
@end

Usage:

UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"mona_lisa"];
image = [image drawWatermarkText:@"Leonardo da Vinci"];