Get lighter and darker color variations for a given UIColor

Question

How to get different lighter and darker variations of a given UIColor in Swift?

Answer 1

Swift 4 version that supports RGBA, HSBA, and WB (greyscale)

Here's a variation of TranQuan's answer that also supports greyscale colors like .white and .black. (Note: I removed saturation adjustment because I didn't think it belonged in a simple function like this.)

extension UIColor {
    /**
     Create a ligher color
     */
    func lighter(by percentage: CGFloat = 10.0) -> UIColor {
        return self.adjustBrightness(by: abs(percentage))
    }

    /**
     Create a darker color
     */
    func darker(by percentage: CGFloat = 10.0) -> UIColor {
        return self.adjustBrightness(by: -abs(percentage))
    }

    /**
     Try to adjust brightness and falls back to adjusting colors if necessary
     */
    func adjustBrightness(by percentage: CGFloat) -> UIColor {
        var alpha, hue, saturation, brightness, red, green, blue, white : CGFloat
        (alpha, hue, saturation, brightness, red, green, blue, white) = (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0)

        let multiplier = percentage / 100.0

        if self.getHue(&hue, saturation: &saturation, brightness: &brightness, alpha: &alpha) {
            let newBrightness: CGFloat = max(min(brightness + multiplier*brightness, 1.0), 0.0)
            return UIColor(hue: hue, saturation: saturation, brightness: newBrightness, alpha: alpha)
        }
        else if self.getRed(&red, green: &green, blue: &blue, alpha: &alpha) {
            let newRed: CGFloat = min(max(red + multiplier*red, 0.0), 1.0)
            let newGreen: CGFloat = min(max(green + multiplier*green, 0.0), 1.0)
            let newBlue: CGFloat = min(max(blue + multiplier*blue, 0.0), 1.0)
            return UIColor(red: newRed, green: newGreen, blue: newBlue, alpha: alpha)
        }
        else if self.getWhite(&white, alpha: &alpha) {
            let newWhite: CGFloat = (white + multiplier*white)
            return UIColor(white: newWhite, alpha: alpha)
        }

        return self
    }
}