What's the best way to add a drop shadow to my UIView

Question

I am trying to add a drop shadow to views that are layered on top of one another, the views collapse allowing content in other views to be seen, in this vein i want to keep

Answer 1

Try this:

UIBezierPath *shadowPath = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:view.bounds];
view.layer.masksToBounds = NO;
view.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
view.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0.0f, 5.0f);
view.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5f;
view.layer.shadowPath = shadowPath.CGPath;

First of all: The UIBezierPath used as shadowPath is crucial. If you don't use it, you might not notice a difference at first, but the keen eye will observe a certain lag occurring during events like rotating the device and/or similar. It's an important performance tweak.

Regarding your issue specifically: The important line is view.layer.masksToBounds = NO. It disables the clipping of the view's layer's sublayers that extend further than the view's bounds.

For those wondering what the difference between masksToBounds (on the layer) and the view's own clipToBounds property is: There isn't really any. Toggling one will have an effect on the other. Just a different level of abstraction.

---

Swift 2.2:

override func layoutSubviews()
{
    super.layoutSubviews()

    let shadowPath = UIBezierPath(rect: bounds)
    layer.masksToBounds = false
    layer.shadowColor = UIColor.blackColor().CGColor
    layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0.0, 5.0)
    layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5
    layer.shadowPath = shadowPath.CGPath
}

---

Swift 3:

override func layoutSubviews()
{
    super.layoutSubviews()

    let shadowPath = UIBezierPath(rect: bounds)
    layer.masksToBounds = false
    layer.shadowColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
    layer.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: 0.0, height: 5.0)
    layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5
    layer.shadowPath = shadowPath.cgPath
}

Answer 2

Wasabii's answer in Swift 2.3:

let shadowPath = UIBezierPath(rect: view.bounds)
view.layer.masksToBounds = false
view.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.blackColor().CGColor
view.layer.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: 0, height: 0.5)
view.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.2
view.layer.shadowPath = shadowPath.CGPath

And in Swift 3/4/5:

let shadowPath = UIBezierPath(rect: view.bounds)
view.layer.masksToBounds = false
view.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
view.layer.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: 0, height: 0.5)
view.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.2
view.layer.shadowPath = shadowPath.cgPath

Put this code in layoutSubviews() if you're using AutoLayout.

In SwiftUI, this is all much easier:

Color.yellow  // or whatever your view
    .shadow(radius: 3)
    .frame(width: 200, height: 100)

Answer 3

You can create an extension for UIView to access these values in the design editor

extension UIView{

    @IBInspectable var shadowOffset: CGSize{
        get{
            return self.layer.shadowOffset
        }
        set{
            self.layer.shadowOffset = newValue
        }
    }

    @IBInspectable var shadowColor: UIColor{
        get{
            return UIColor(cgColor: self.layer.shadowColor!)
        }
        set{
            self.layer.shadowColor = newValue.cgColor
        }
    }

    @IBInspectable var shadowRadius: CGFloat{
        get{
            return self.layer.shadowRadius
        }
        set{
            self.layer.shadowRadius = newValue
        }
    }

    @IBInspectable var shadowOpacity: Float{
        get{
            return self.layer.shadowOpacity
        }
        set{
            self.layer.shadowOpacity = newValue
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

You can set shadow to your view from storyboard also

Answer 5

On viewWillLayoutSubviews:

override func viewWillLayoutSubviews() {
    sampleView.layer.masksToBounds =  false
    sampleView.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.darkGrayColor().CGColor;
    sampleView.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(2.0, 2.0)
    sampleView.layer.shadowOpacity = 1.0
}

Using Extension of UIView:

extension UIView {

    func addDropShadowToView(targetView:UIView? ){
        targetView!.layer.masksToBounds =  false
        targetView!.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.darkGrayColor().CGColor;
        targetView!.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(2.0, 2.0)
        targetView!.layer.shadowOpacity = 1.0
    }
}

Usage:

sampleView.addDropShadowToView(sampleView)

Answer 6

The trick is defining the masksToBounds property of your view's layer properly:

view.layer.masksToBounds = NO;

and it should work.

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