How to add a drop shadow to a UIButton?

iphone uibutton
Chris Frost picture Chris Frost · Feb 23, 2010 · Viewed 87.6k times · Source

I would like to add a drop shadow to a UIButton. I tried to use self.layer.shadow* properties. Those properties work in UIView, but they behave differently in UIButton. I would really appreciate it if I could get any pointers to draw the drop shadow. Thank you!

self.layer.cornerRadius = 8.0f;
self.layer.masksToBounds = YES;
self.layer.borderWidth = 1.0f;

self.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor greenColor].CGColor;
self.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.8;
self.layer.shadowRadius = 12;
self.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(12.0f, 12.0f);

Answer

fzwo picture fzwo · Jun 14, 2011

There is only one tiny mistake in the question that causes the shadow to not be displayed: masksToBounds:YES also masks the shadow! Here's the correct code:

self.layer.cornerRadius = 8.0f;
self.layer.masksToBounds = NO;
self.layer.borderWidth = 1.0f;

self.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor greenColor].CGColor;
self.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.8;
self.layer.shadowRadius = 12;
self.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(12.0f, 12.0f);

Unfortunately, this means we cannot mask the content and have a shadow at the same time without tricks.

Remember to #import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>.

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