How to capture UIView to UIImage without loss of q

Question

My code works fine for normal devices but creates blurry images on retina devices.

Does anybody know a solution for my issue?

+ (UIImage *) imageWithView:(UIView *)view
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(view.bounds.size);
    [view.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];

    UIImage * img = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();

    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    return img;
}

Answer 1

Add this to method to UIView Category

- (UIImage*) capture {
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.bounds.size);
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
    [self.layer renderInContext:context];
    UIImage *img = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return img;
}

Answer 2

Drop-in Swift 3.0 extension that supports the new iOS 10.0 API & the previous method.

Note:

• iOS version check
• Note the use of defer to simplify the context cleanup.
• Will also apply the opacity & current scale of the view.
• Nothing is just unwrapped using ! which could cause a crash.

---

extension UIView
{
    public func renderToImage(afterScreenUpdates: Bool = false) -> UIImage?
    {
        if #available(iOS 10.0, *)
        {
            let rendererFormat = UIGraphicsImageRendererFormat.default()
            rendererFormat.scale = self.layer.contentsScale
            rendererFormat.opaque = self.isOpaque
            let renderer = UIGraphicsImageRenderer(size: self.bounds.size, format: rendererFormat)

            return
                renderer.image
                {
                    _ in

                    self.drawHierarchy(in: self.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: afterScreenUpdates)
                }
        }
        else
        {
            UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.bounds.size, self.isOpaque, self.layer.contentsScale)
            defer
            {
                UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
            }

            self.drawHierarchy(in: self.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: afterScreenUpdates)

            return UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

Swift 3

The Swift 3 solution (based on Dima's answer) with UIView extension should be like this:

extension UIView {
    public func getSnapshotImage() -> UIImage {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.bounds.size, self.isOpaque, 0)
        self.drawHierarchy(in: self.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: false)
        let snapshotImage: UIImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return snapshotImage
    }
}

Answer 4

The current accepted answer is now out of date, at least if you are supporting iOS 7.

Here is what you should be using if you are only supporting iOS7+:

+ (UIImage *) imageWithView:(UIView *)view
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(view.bounds.size, view.opaque, 0.0f);
    [view drawViewHierarchyInRect:view.bounds afterScreenUpdates:NO];
    UIImage * snapshotImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return snapshotImage;
}

Swift 4:

func imageWithView(view: UIView) -> UIImage? {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(view.bounds.size, view.isOpaque, 0.0)
        view.drawHierarchy(in: view.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: true)
        let snapshotImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return snapshotImage
    }

As per this article, you can see that the new iOS7 method drawViewHierarchyInRect:afterScreenUpdates: is many times faster than renderInContext:.

Answer 5

Swift 3.0 implementation

extension UIView {
    func getSnapshotImage() -> UIImage {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(bounds.size, isOpaque, 0)
        drawHierarchy(in: bounds, afterScreenUpdates: false)
        let snapshotImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return snapshotImage
    }
}

Answer 6

- (UIImage*)screenshotForView:(UIView *)view
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(view.bounds.size);
    [view.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    // hack, helps w/ our colors when blurring
    NSData *imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 1); // convert to jpeg
    image = [UIImage imageWithData:imageData];

    return image;
}