How do I programmatically provide a glossy look to UIButtons?

Question

I would like to add 3D or glossy look to some iPhone UIButtons, but do so without the use of PNGs or stretchable images. I have a lot of buttons of varying shapes and sizes

Answer 1

One way to do this programatically is to modify properties of a UIButton's layer. For example, you can add an instance of CAGradientLayer as a sublayer, set the layer's corner radius, modify it's border, etc. Matt Long has written a great article about this:

http://www.cimgf.com/2010/01/28/fun-with-uibuttons-and-core-animation-layers/