Make Background of UIView a Gradient Without Sub Classing

Question

Is there a way to make the background of a UIView a gradient without subclassing it? I'd rather not use an image file to accomplish this either. It just seems obtuse to have to subclass UIView just to draw a gradient for the background.

Answer 1

You can use +[UIColor colorWithPatternImage:] to produce a patterned background. Example (bring your own CGGradient):

// Allocate color space CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB(); // Allocate bitmap context CGContextRef bitmapContext = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL, 320, 480, 8, 4 * 320, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst); //allocate myGradient CGFloat locationList[]  = {0.0f, 1.0f}; CGFloat colorList[]     = {0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f}; CGGradientRef myGradient   = CGGradientCreateWithColorComponents(colorSpace, colorList, locationList, 2); // Draw Gradient Here CGContextDrawLinearGradient(bitmapContext, myGradient, CGPointMake(0.0f, 0.0f), CGPointMake(320.0f, 480.0f), 0); // Create a CGImage from context CGImageRef cgImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(bitmapContext); // Create a UIImage from CGImage UIImage *uiImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:cgImage]; // Release the CGImage CGImageRelease(cgImage); // Release the bitmap context CGContextRelease(bitmapContext); // Release the color space CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace); // Create the patterned UIColor and set as background color [targetView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithPatternImage:image]]; 

It will probably be simpler to just create a UIView subclass though. It will use less memory as well.