Programmatically create a UIView with color gradie

Question

I'm trying to generate a view with a gradient color background (A solid color to transparent) at runtime. Is there a way of doing that?

Answer 1

A Swift Approach

This answer builds on the answers above and provides implementation for dealing with the problem of the gradient not being properly applied during rotation. It satisfies this problem by changing the gradient layer to a square so that rotation in all directions results in a correct gradient. The function signature includes a Swift variadic argument that allows one to pass in as many CGColorRef's (CGColor) as needed (see sample usage). Also provided is an example as a Swift extension so that one can apply a gradient to any UIView.

   func configureGradientBackground(colors:CGColorRef...){

        let gradient: CAGradientLayer = CAGradientLayer()
        let maxWidth = max(self.view.bounds.size.height,self.view.bounds.size.width)
        let squareFrame = CGRect(origin: self.view.bounds.origin, size: CGSizeMake(maxWidth, maxWidth))
        gradient.frame = squareFrame

        gradient.colors = colors
        view.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, atIndex: 0)
    }

To use:

in viewDidLoad...

  override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        configureGradientBackground(UIColor.redColor().CGColor, UIColor.whiteColor().CGColor)
  }

Extension implementation

extension CALayer {


    func configureGradientBackground(colors:CGColorRef...){

        let gradient = CAGradientLayer()

        let maxWidth = max(self.bounds.size.height,self.bounds.size.width)
        let squareFrame = CGRect(origin: self.bounds.origin, size: CGSizeMake(maxWidth, maxWidth))
        gradient.frame = squareFrame

        gradient.colors = colors

        self.insertSublayer(gradient, atIndex: 0)
    }

}

Extension use-case example:

 override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        self.view.layer.configureGradientBackground(UIColor.purpleColor().CGColor, UIColor.blueColor().CGColor, UIColor.whiteColor().CGColor)
 }

Which means the gradient background can now be applied to any UIControl since all controls are UIViews (or a subclass) and all UIViews have CALayers.

Swift 4

Extension implementation

extension CALayer {
    public func configureGradientBackground(_ colors:CGColor...){

        let gradient = CAGradientLayer()

        let maxWidth = max(self.bounds.size.height,self.bounds.size.width)
        let squareFrame = CGRect(origin: self.bounds.origin, size: CGSize(width: maxWidth, height: maxWidth))
        gradient.frame = squareFrame

        gradient.colors = colors

        self.insertSublayer(gradient, at: 0)
    }    
}

Extension use-case example:

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    self.view.layer.configureGradientBackground(UIColor.purple.cgColor, UIColor.blue.cgColor, UIColor.white.cgColor)
}

Answer 2

Since I only needed one type of gradient throughout my app I created a subclass of UIView and preconfigured the gradient layer on initialization with fixed colors. The initializers of UIView call the configureGradientLayer-method, which configures the CAGradientLayer:

DDGradientView.h:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface DDGradientView : UIView {

}
@end

DDGradientView.m:

#import "DDGradientView.h"

@implementation DDGradientView

// Change the views layer class to CAGradientLayer class
+ (Class)layerClass
{
    return [CAGradientLayer class];
}

- (instancetype)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {
    self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
    if(self) {
        [self configureGradientLayer];
    }
    return self;
}

- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if(self) {
        [self configureGradientLayer];
    }
    return self;
}

// Make custom configuration of your gradient here   
- (void)configureGradientLayer {
    CAGradientLayer *gLayer = (CAGradientLayer *)self.layer;
    gLayer.colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:(id)[[UIColor whiteColor] CGColor], (id)[[UIColor lightGrayColor] CGColor], nil];
}
@end

Answer 3

What you are looking for is CAGradientLayer. Every UIView has a layer - into that layer you can add sublayers, just as you can add subviews. One specific type is the CAGradientLayer, where you give it an array of colors to gradiate between.

One example is this simple wrapper for a gradient view:

http://oleb.net/blog/2010/04/obgradientview-a-simple-uiview-wrapper-for-cagradientlayer/

Note that you need to include the QuartZCore framework in order to access all of the layer parts of a UIView.

Answer 4

I have implemented this in my code.

UIView *view1 = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, self.view.frame.size.width, 31.0f)];
view1.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
CAGradientLayer *gradient = [CAGradientLayer layer];
gradient.frame = view1.bounds;
UIColor *topColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:132.0/255.0 green:222.0/255.0 blue:109.0/255.0 alpha:1.0];
UIColor *bottomColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:31.0/255.0 green:150.0/255.0 blue:99.0/255.0 alpha:1.0];
gradient.colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:(id)[topColor CGColor], (id)[bottomColor CGColor], nil];


[view1.layer insertSublayer:gradient atIndex:0];

Now I can see a gradient on my view.

Answer 5

extension UIView {

    func applyGradient(isTopBottom: Bool, colorArray: [UIColor]) {
        if let sublayers = layer.sublayers {
            let _ = sublayers.filter({ $0 is CAGradientLayer }).map({ $0.removeFromSuperlayer() })
        }

        let gradientLayer = CAGradientLayer()
        gradientLayer.colors = colorArray.map({ $0.cgColor })
        if isTopBottom {
            gradientLayer.locations = [0.0, 1.0]
        } else {
            //leftRight
            gradientLayer.startPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.0, y: 0.5)
            gradientLayer.endPoint = CGPoint(x: 1.0, y: 0.5)
        }

        backgroundColor = .clear
        gradientLayer.frame = bounds
        layer.insertSublayer(gradientLayer, at: 0)
    }

}

USAGE

someView.applyGradient(isTopBottom: true, colorArray: [.green, .blue])

Answer 6

Try This it worked like a charm for me,

Objective C

I have set RGB gradient background Color to UIview

   UIView *view = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,320,35)];
   CAGradientLayer *gradient = [CAGradientLayer layer];
   gradient.frame = view.bounds;
   gradient.startPoint = CGPointZero;
   gradient.endPoint = CGPointMake(1, 1);
   gradient.colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:(id)[[UIColor colorWithRed:34.0/255.0 green:211/255.0 blue:198/255.0 alpha:1.0] CGColor],(id)[[UIColor colorWithRed:145/255.0 green:72.0/255.0 blue:203/255.0 alpha:1.0] CGColor], nil];
   [view.layer addSublayer:gradient];

UPDATED :- Swift3 +

Code :-

 var gradientView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 320, height: 35))
 let gradientLayer:CAGradientLayer = CAGradientLayer()
 gradientLayer.frame.size = self.gradientView.frame.size
 gradientLayer.colors = 
 [UIColor.white.cgColor,UIColor.red.withAlphaComponent(1).cgColor] 
//Use diffrent colors
 gradientView.layer.addSublayer(gradientLayer)

You can add starting and end point of gradient color.

  gradientLayer.startPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.0, y: 1.0)
  gradientLayer.endPoint = CGPoint(x: 1.0, y: 1.0)

For more details description refer CAGradientLayer Doc

Hope this is help for some one .