How Do I Take a Screen Shot of a UIView?

Question

I am wondering how my iPhone app can take a screen shot of a specific UIView as a UIImage.

I tried this code but all I get is a blank image.

UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(CGSizeMake(320,480));
CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
[myUIView.layer drawInContext:context];
UIImage *screenShot = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

myUIView has dimensions 320x480 an it has some sub-views. What is the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

iOS 7 has a new method that allows you to draw a view hierarchy into the current graphics context. This can be used to get an UIImage very fast.

I implemented a category method on UIView to get the view as an UIImage:

- (UIImage *)pb_takeSnapshot {
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.bounds.size, NO, [UIScreen mainScreen].scale);

    [self drawViewHierarchyInRect:self.bounds afterScreenUpdates:YES];

    // old style [self.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];

    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return image;
}

It is considerably faster then the existing renderInContext: method.

Reference: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/qa/qa1817/_index.html

UPDATE FOR SWIFT: An extension that does the same:

extension UIView {

    func pb_takeSnapshot() -> UIImage {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(bounds.size, false, UIScreen.mainScreen().scale)

        drawViewHierarchyInRect(self.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: true)

        // old style: layer.renderInContext(UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext())

        let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return image
    }
}

UPDATE FOR SWIFT 3

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

    drawHierarchy(in: self.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: true)

    let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    return image