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

SWIFT 3

To add a gradient layer on your view

• Bind your view outlet

  @IBOutlet var YOURVIEW : UIView!
  

• Define the CAGradientLayer()

  var gradient = CAGradientLayer()
  

• Here is the code you have to write in your viewDidLoad

  YOURVIEW.layoutIfNeeded()

  gradient.startPoint = CGPoint(x: CGFloat(0), y: CGFloat(1)) gradient.endPoint = CGPoint(x: CGFloat(1), y: CGFloat(0)) gradient.frame = YOURVIEW.bounds gradient.colors = [UIColor.red.cgColor, UIColor.green.cgColor] gradient.colors = [ UIColor(red: 255.0/255.0, green: 56.0/255.0, blue: 224.0/255.0, alpha: 1.0).cgColor,UIColor(red: 86.0/255.0, green: 13.0/255.0, blue: 232.0/255.0, alpha: 1.0).cgColor,UIColor(red: 16.0/255.0, green: 173.0/255.0, blue: 245.0/255.0, alpha: 1.0).cgColor] gradient.locations = [0.0 ,0.6 ,1.0] YOURVIEW.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, at: 0)

Answer 2

To give gradient color to UIView (swift 4.2)

func makeGradientLayer(`for` object : UIView, startPoint : CGPoint, endPoint : CGPoint, gradientColors : [Any]) -> CAGradientLayer {
        let gradient: CAGradientLayer = CAGradientLayer()
        gradient.colors = gradientColors
        gradient.locations = [0.0 , 1.0]
        gradient.startPoint = startPoint
        gradient.endPoint = endPoint
        gradient.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, w: object.frame.size.width, h: object.frame.size.height)
        return gradient
    }

How to use

let start : CGPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.0, y: 1.0)
let end : CGPoint = CGPoint(x: 1.0, y: 1.0)

let gradient: CAGradientLayer = makeGradientLayer(for: cell, startPoint: start, endPoint: end, gradientColors: [
                    UIColor(red:0.92, green:0.07, blue:0.4, alpha:1).cgColor,
                    UIColor(red:0.93, green:0.11, blue:0.14, alpha:1).cgColor
                    ])

self.vwTemp.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, at: 0)

Answer 3

Objective-C:

UIView *view = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 50)];
CAGradientLayer *gradient = [CAGradientLayer layer];

gradient.frame = view.bounds;
gradient.colors = @[(id)[UIColor whiteColor].CGColor, (id)[UIColor blackColor].CGColor];

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

Swift:

let view = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 320, height: 50))
let gradient = CAGradientLayer()

gradient.frame = view.bounds
gradient.colors = [UIColor.white.cgColor, UIColor.black.cgColor]

view.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, at: 0)

Info: use startPoint and endPoint to change direction of gradient.

If there are any other views added onto this UIView (such as a UILabel), you may want to consider setting the background color of those UIView’s to [UIColor clearColor] so the gradient view is presented instead of the background color for sub views. Using clearColor has a slight performance hit.

Answer 4

I've extended the accepted answer a little using Swift's extension functionality as well as an enum.

Oh and if you are using Storyboard like I do, make sure to call gradientBackground(from:to:direction:) in viewDidLayoutSubviews() or later.

Swift 3

enum GradientDirection {
    case leftToRight
    case rightToLeft
    case topToBottom
    case bottomToTop
}

extension UIView {
    func gradientBackground(from color1: UIColor, to color2: UIColor, direction: GradientDirection) {
        let gradient = CAGradientLayer()
        gradient.frame = self.bounds
        gradient.colors = [color1.cgColor, color2.cgColor]

        switch direction {
        case .leftToRight:
            gradient.startPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.0, y: 0.5)
            gradient.endPoint = CGPoint(x: 1.0, y: 0.5)
        case .rightToLeft:
            gradient.startPoint = CGPoint(x: 1.0, y: 0.5)
            gradient.endPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.0, y: 0.5)
        case .bottomToTop:
            gradient.startPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.5, y: 1.0)
            gradient.endPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.5, y: 0.0)
        default:
            break
        }

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

Answer 5

Its a good idea to call the solutions above to update layer on the

viewDidLayoutSubviews 

to get the views updated correctly

Answer 6

I have implemented this in swift with an extension:

Swift 3

extension UIView {
    func addGradientWithColor(color: UIColor) {
        let gradient = CAGradientLayer()
        gradient.frame = self.bounds
        gradient.colors = [UIColor.clear.cgColor, color.cgColor]

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

Swift 2.2

extension UIView {
    func addGradientWithColor(color: UIColor) {
        let gradient = CAGradientLayer()
        gradient.frame = self.bounds
        gradient.colors = [UIColor.clearColor().CGColor, color.CGColor]

        self.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, atIndex: 0)
    }
}

No I can set a gradient on every view like this:

myImageView.addGradientWithColor(UIColor.blue)