UIImage masking problems iOS 7

Question

I have heavily borrowed (standard) code which applies a grayscale UIImage mask to a UIImage.

- (void) maskImage:(UIImage *)image withMask:(UIImage *)maskImage {

    CGImageRef imageRef = image.CGImage;  // main UIImage
    CGImageRef maskRef = maskImage.CGImage;  // grayscale UIImage mask

    CGImageRef mask = CGImageMaskCreate(CGImageGetWidth(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetHeight(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetBitsPerComponent(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetBitsPerPixel(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetBytesPerRow(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetDataProvider(maskRef), NULL, false);

    CGImageRef masked = CGImageCreateWithMask(imageRef, mask);

    maskedImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:masked];
    CGImageRelease(mask);
    CGImageRelease(masked);

    imageView.image = maskedImage;

}

I then save the imageView.image to a file. The code works like a charm in iOS 6 and 6.1; the saved image contains the main UIImage with the mask applied. However, I have noticed that this code does not perform in the same way in iOS 7 (iPhone). In iOS 7, the saved image contains only main UIImage without the mask applied. I am not sure whether the problem lies in the CGImageCreateWithMask() method or elsewhere.

Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.

Answer 1

I found this issue on my app too and I solve it by following code.

- (UIImage*)image:(UIImage*)image withMask:(UIImage*)maskImage
{
    CGImageRef maskRef = maskImage.CGImage;
    CGImageRef mask = CGImageMaskCreate(CGImageGetWidth(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetHeight(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetBitsPerComponent(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetBitsPerPixel(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetBytesPerRow(maskRef),
                                    CGImageGetDataProvider(maskRef), NULL, false);

    CGImageRef maskedImageRef = CGImageCreateWithMask([handledImage CGImage], mask);
    CGImageRelease(mask);

    // Under iOS 7, UIImage with mask no longer applied mask when saving it.
    // We draw the image to context and obtain image from context to get the image applied mask
    CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(nil,
                                                 CGImageGetWidth(maskedImageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetHeight(maskedImageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetBitsPerComponent(maskedImageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetBytesPerRow(maskedImageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetColorSpace(maskedImageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetBitmapInfo(maskedImageRef));

    CGRect imageRect = CGRectMake(0, 0, CGImageGetWidth(maskedImageRef), CGImageGetHeight(maskedImageRef));
    CGContextDrawImage(context, imageRect, maskedImageRef);
    CGImageRef imageRef = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);
    UIImage *maskedImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:imageRef];

    CFRelease(imageRef);
    CGContextRelease(context);
    CGImageRelease(maskedImageRef);

    return maskedImage;
}

Answer 2

The above code gives a good idea of how to approach the problem(drawing over a context) but did not work for me. The code below works both on IOS 7 and previous versions(IOS 6.x).

+(UIImage*)maskImageExt:(UIImage *)image withMask:(UIImage *)maskImage {
    CGImageRef maskRef = maskImage.CGImage;
    CGImageRef imageRef = image.CGImage;

    CGImageRef mask = CGImageMaskCreate(CGImageGetWidth(maskRef),
                                        CGImageGetHeight(maskRef),
                                        CGImageGetBitsPerComponent(maskRef),
                                        CGImageGetBitsPerPixel(maskRef),
                                        CGImageGetBytesPerRow(maskRef),
                                        CGImageGetDataProvider(maskRef), NULL, true);

    CGImageRef maskImageRef = CGImageCreateWithMask([image CGImage], mask);

    CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(nil,
                                                 CGImageGetWidth(imageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetHeight(imageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetBitsPerComponent(imageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetBytesPerRow(imageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetColorSpace(imageRef),
                                                 CGImageGetBitmapInfo(imageRef));
    CGRect imageRect = CGRectMake(0, 0, CGImageGetWidth(imageRef), CGImageGetHeight(imageRef));
    CGContextDrawImage(context, imageRect, maskImageRef);
    CGImageRef maskedImageRef = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);
    UIImage *maskedImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:maskedImageRef];

    CGImageRelease(mask);
    CGContextRelease(context);
    CGImageRelease(maskedImageRef);

    return maskedImage;
}