Create UIImage with solid color in Swift

Question

Another nice solution, Swift 3.0

    public extension UIImage {
      convenience init?(color: UIColor, size: CGSize = CGSize(width: 1, height: 1)) {
        let rect = CGRect(origin: .zero, size: size)
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(rect.size, false, 0.0)
        color.setFill()
        UIRectFill(rect)
        let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        
        guard let cgImage = image?.cgImage else { return nil }
        self.init(cgImage: cgImage)
      }
    }

Swift 2.2 compatible, is to create another constructor in UIImage, in this way:

    public extension UIImage {
        public convenience init?(color: UIColor, size: CGSize = CGSize(width: 1, height: 1)) {
            let rect = CGRect(origin: .zero, size: size)
            UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(rect.size, false, 0.0)
            color.setFill()
            UIRectFill(rect)
            let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
            UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        
            guard let cgImage = image?.CGImage else { return nil }
            self.init(CGImage: cgImage)
        }  
    }

In this way you can create the custom colored-image in this way:

    let redImage = UIImage(color: .redColor())

Or, optionally, create the image with a custom size:

    let redImage200x200 = UIImage(color: .redColor(), size: CGSize(width: 200, height: 200))

Swift 4 version:

extension UIColor {
    func image(_ size: CGSize = CGSize(width: 1, height: 1)) -> UIImage {
        return UIGraphicsImageRenderer(size: size).image { rendererContext in
            self.setFill()
            rendererContext.fill(CGRect(origin: .zero, size: size))
        }
    }
}

Usage:

let image0 = UIColor.orange.image(CGSize(width: 128, height: 128))
let image1 = UIColor.yellow.image()

Here's another option. I believe you wanted an exact UIImage object.

func getImageWithColor(color: UIColor, size: CGSize) -> UIImage {
    let rect = CGRectMake(0, 0, size.width, size.height)
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, 0)
    color.setFill()
    UIRectFill(rect)
    let image: UIImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    return image
}

Stick this in your Swift code and call it

Swift 3.1:

func getImageWithColor(color: UIColor, size: CGSize) -> UIImage {
    let rect = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: size.width, height: size.height)
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, 0)
    color.setFill()
    UIRectFill(rect)
    let image: UIImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    return image
}

A cleaner approach would be to encapsulate the logic inside an UIImage extension:

import UIKit

extension UIImage {
  class func imageWithColor(color: UIColor) -> UIImage {
    let rect: CGRect = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 1, height: 1)
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(CGSizeMake(1, 1), false, 0)
    color.setFill()
    UIRectFill(rect)
    let image: UIImage? = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    return image!
  }
}

Now the consumer can call, UIImage.imageWithColor(UIColor.blackColor()) to create an image with black background.

A minor tweak to @neoneye's excellent answer, allowing the calling code not to need to create the CGSize, and altered the name to not collide with numerous others:

Swift 4

extension UIColor {
    func imageWithColor(width: Int, height: Int) -> UIImage {
        let size = CGSize(width: width, height: height)
        return UIGraphicsImageRenderer(size: size).image { rendererContext in
            self.setFill()
            rendererContext.fill(CGRect(origin: .zero, size: size))
        }
    }
}