Overlaying a UIImage with a color?

Question

I'm attempting to add a black overlay over some current UIImage's (which are white). I've been trying to use following code:

[[UIColor blackColor] set];
[image drawAtPoint:CGPointMake(0, 0) blendMode:kCGBlendModeOverlay alpha:1.0];

But it's not working, and I'm pretty sure set isn't supposed to be there.

Answer 1

So, to sum up all the answers into one here's the drop-in method that works perfectly from iOS 6 all the way up to iOS 11 with all kinds of images and icons:

+ (UIImage *)filledImageFrom:(UIImage *)source withColor:(UIColor *)color{

    // begin a new image context, to draw our colored image onto with the right scale
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(source.size, NO, [UIScreen mainScreen].scale);

    // get a reference to that context we created
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    // set the fill color
    [color setFill];

    // translate/flip the graphics context (for transforming from CG* coords to UI* coords
    CGContextTranslateCTM(context, 0, source.size.height);
    CGContextScaleCTM(context, 1.0, -1.0);

    CGContextSetBlendMode(context, kCGBlendModeColorBurn);
    CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0, 0, source.size.width, source.size.height);
    CGContextDrawImage(context, rect, source.CGImage);

    CGContextSetBlendMode(context, kCGBlendModeSourceIn);
    CGContextAddRect(context, rect);
    CGContextDrawPath(context,kCGPathFill);

    // generate a new UIImage from the graphics context we drew onto
    UIImage *coloredImg = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    //return the color-burned image
    return coloredImg;
}

Update: Swift 3 version

func filledImage(source: UIImage, fillColor: UIColor) -> UIImage {

    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(source.size, false, UIScreen.main.scale)

    let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()
    fillColor.setFill()

    context!.translateBy(x: 0, y: source.size.height)
    context!.scaleBy(x: 1.0, y: -1.0)

    context!.setBlendMode(CGBlendMode.colorBurn)
    let rect = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: source.size.width, height: source.size.height)
    context!.draw(source.cgImage!, in: rect)

    context!.setBlendMode(CGBlendMode.sourceIn)
    context!.addRect(rect)
    context!.drawPath(using: CGPathDrawingMode.fill)

    let coloredImg : UIImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

    return coloredImg
}