Set a button background image iPhone programmatically

Question

In Xcode, how do you set the background of a UIButton as an image? Or, how can you set a background gradient in the UIButton?

Answer 1

Complete code:

+ (UIButton *)buttonWithTitle:(NSString *)title
                       target:(id)target
                     selector:(SEL)selector
                        frame:(CGRect)frame
                        image:(UIImage *)image
                 imagePressed:(UIImage *)imagePressed
                darkTextColor:(BOOL)darkTextColor
{
    UIButton *button = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:frame];

    button.contentVerticalAlignment = UIControlContentVerticalAlignmentCenter;
    button.contentHorizontalAlignment = UIControlContentHorizontalAlignmentCenter;

    [button setTitle:title forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    [button setTitleColor:[UIColor blackColor] forState:UIControlStateNormal];


    UIImage *newImage = [image stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:12.0 topCapHeight:0.0];
    [button setBackgroundImage:newImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];

    UIImage *newPressedImage = [imagePressed stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:12.0 topCapHeight:0.0];
    [button setBackgroundImage:newPressedImage forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];

    [button addTarget:target action:selector forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

    // in case the parent view draws with a custom color or gradient, use a transparent color
    button.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

    return button;
}

UIImage *buttonBackground = UIImage imageNamed:@"whiteButton.png";
UIImage *buttonBackgroundPressed = UIImage imageNamed:@"blueButton.png";

CGRect frame = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, kStdButtonWidth, kStdButtonHeight);

UIButton *button = [FinishedStatsView buttonWithTitle:title
                                               target:target
                                             selector:action
                                                frame:frame
                                                image:buttonBackground
                                         imagePressed:buttonBackgroundPressed
                                        darkTextColor:YES];

[self addSubview:button]; 

To set an image:

UIImage *buttonImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Home.png"];
[myButton setBackgroundImage:buttonImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self.view addSubview:myButton];

To remove an image:

[button setBackgroundImage:nil forState:UIControlStateNormal];

Answer 2

This will work

UIImage *buttonImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"imageName.png"];
[btn setImage:buttonImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self.view addSubview:btn];

Answer 3

In case it helps anyone setBackgroundImage didn't work for me, but setImage did

Answer 4

You can set an background image without any code!

Just press the button you want an image to in Main.storyboard, then, in the utilities bar to the right, press the attributes inspector and set the background to the image you want! Make sure you have the picture you want in the supporting files to the left.

Answer 5

Swift

Set the button image like this:

let myImage = UIImage(named: "myImageName")
myButton.setImage(myImage , forState: UIControlState.Normal)

where myImageName is the name of your image in your asset catalog.

Answer 6

When setting an image in a tableViewCell or collectionViewCell, this worked for me:

Place the following code in your cellForRowAtIndexPath or cellForItemAtIndexPath

// Obtain pointer to cell. Answer assumes that you've done this, but here for completeness.

CheeseCell *cell = [collectionView dequeueReusableCellWithReuseIdentifier:@"cheeseCell" forIndexPath:indexPath];

// Grab the image from document library and set it to the cell.

UIImage *myCheese = [UIImage imageNamed:@"swissCheese.png"];
[cell.cheeseThumbnail setImage:myCheese forState:UIControlStateNormal];

NOTE: xCode seemed to get hung up on this for me. I had to restart both xCode and the Simulator, it worked properly.

This assumes that you've got cheeseThumbnail set up as an IBOutlet... and some other stuff... hopefully you're familiar enough with table/collection views and can fit this in.

Hope this helps.