UIView with rounded corners and drop shadow?

Question

I’ve been working on an application for a couple of years and received a simple design request: Round the corners on a UIView and add a drop shadow.To do as given below.

Answer 1

Something swifty tested in swift 4

import UIKit

extension UIView {
    @IBInspectable var dropShadow: Bool {
        set{
            if newValue {
                layer.shadowColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
                layer.shadowOpacity = 0.4
                layer.shadowRadius = 1
                layer.shadowOffset = CGSize.zero
            } else {
                layer.shadowColor = UIColor.clear.cgColor
                layer.shadowOpacity = 0
                layer.shadowRadius = 0
                layer.shadowOffset = CGSize.zero
            }
        }
        get {
            return layer.shadowOpacity > 0
        }
    }
}

Produces

If you enable it in the Inspector like this:

It will add the User Defined Runtime Attribute, resulting in:

(I added previously the cornerRadius = 8)

:)

Answer 2

Swift

// corner radius
blueView.layer.cornerRadius = 10

// border
blueView.layer.borderWidth = 1.0
blueView.layer.borderColor = UIColor.black.cgColor

// shadow
blueView.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
blueView.layer.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: 3, height: 3)
blueView.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.7
blueView.layer.shadowRadius = 4.0

Exploring the options

Problem 1: Shadow gets clipped off

What if there are sublayers or subviews (like an image) whose content we want to clip to the bounds of our view?

We can accomplish this with

blueView.layer.masksToBounds = true

(Alternatively, blueView.clipsToBounds = true gives the same result.)

But, oh no! The shadow was also clipped off because it's outside of the bounds! What to do? What to do?

Solution

Use separate views for the shadow and the border. The base view is transparent and has the shadow. The border view clips any other subcontent that it has to its borders.

// add the shadow to the base view
baseView.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
baseView.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
baseView.layer.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: 3, height: 3)
baseView.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.7
baseView.layer.shadowRadius = 4.0

// add the border to subview
let borderView = UIView()
borderView.frame = baseView.bounds
borderView.layer.cornerRadius = 10
borderView.layer.borderColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
borderView.layer.borderWidth = 1.0
borderView.layer.masksToBounds = true
baseView.addSubview(borderView)

// add any other subcontent that you want clipped
let otherSubContent = UIImageView()
otherSubContent.image = UIImage(named: "lion")
otherSubContent.frame = borderView.bounds
borderView.addSubview(otherSubContent)

This gives the following result:

Problem 2: Poor performance

Adding rounded corners and shadows can be a performance hit. You can improve performance by using a predefined path for the shadow and also specifying that it be rasterized. The following code can be added to the example above.

baseView.layer.shadowPath = UIBezierPath(roundedRect: baseView.bounds, cornerRadius: 10).cgPath
baseView.layer.shouldRasterize = true
baseView.layer.rasterizationScale = UIScreen.main.scale

See this post for more details. See here and here also.

This answer was tested with Swift 4 and Xcode 9.

Answer 3

Check out the example project on GitHub to make sure you use the component correctly.

Simple Swift 5 solution without any additional subviews or subclassing:

extension UIView {

    func addShadow(offset: CGSize, color: UIColor, radius: CGFloat, opacity: Float) {
        layer.masksToBounds = false
        layer.shadowOffset = offset
        layer.shadowColor = color.cgColor
        layer.shadowRadius = radius
        layer.shadowOpacity = opacity

        let backgroundCGColor = backgroundColor?.cgColor
        backgroundColor = nil
        layer.backgroundColor =  backgroundCGColor
    }
}

Note that you should set up your view with corner radius and other properties before calling addShadow.

After that, just call this from viewDidLoad like this:

button.addShadow(offset: CGSize.init(width: 0, height: 3), color: UIColor.black, radius: 2.0, opacity: 0.35)

Final result:

Super easy and simple!

Answer 4

The following code snippet adds a border, border radius, and drop shadow to v, a UIView:

// border radius
[v.layer setCornerRadius:30.0f];

// border
[v.layer setBorderColor:[UIColor lightGrayColor].CGColor];
[v.layer setBorderWidth:1.5f];

// drop shadow
[v.layer setShadowColor:[UIColor blackColor].CGColor];
[v.layer setShadowOpacity:0.8];
[v.layer setShadowRadius:3.0];
[v.layer setShadowOffset:CGSizeMake(2.0, 2.0)];

You can adjust the settings to suit your needs.

Also, add the QuartzCore framework to your project and:

#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>

See my other answer regarding masksToBounds.

---

Note

This may not work in all cases. If you find that this method interferes with other drawing operations that you are performing, please see this answer.

Answer 5

If you are struggling because of the rounded corners vs. subviews vs. masksToBounds, then try using my function:

- (UIView*)putView:(UIView*)view insideShadowWithColor:(UIColor*)color andRadius:(CGFloat)shadowRadius andOffset:(CGSize)shadowOffset andOpacity:(CGFloat)shadowOpacity
{
    CGRect shadowFrame; // Modify this if needed
    shadowFrame.size.width = 0.f;
    shadowFrame.size.height = 0.f;
    shadowFrame.origin.x = 0.f;
    shadowFrame.origin.y = 0.f;
    UIView * shadow = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:shadowFrame];
    shadow.userInteractionEnabled = NO; // Modify this if needed
    shadow.layer.shadowColor = color.CGColor;
    shadow.layer.shadowOffset = shadowOffset;
    shadow.layer.shadowRadius = shadowRadius;
    shadow.layer.masksToBounds = NO;
    shadow.clipsToBounds = NO;
    shadow.layer.shadowOpacity = shadowOpacity;
    [view.superview insertSubview:shadow belowSubview:view];
    [shadow addSubview:view];
    return shadow;
}

call it on your view. whether your view has rounded corners, no matter its size, its shape - a nice shadow will be drawn.

Just keep the return value of the function so you can refer to it when you want to remove the table (or for example use insertSubview:aboveView:)

Answer 6

Swift 4 Solution for making UICollectionViewCell round and adding Shadows, without any extensions and complications :)

Note: For simple views e.g Buttons. See the @suragch's Answer in this post. https://stackoverflow.com/a/34984063/7698092. Tested successfully for buttons

In case if any one still struggling to round the corners and add shadows at the same time. Although this solution works with UICollectionViewCell, it can be generalized to any view.

This technique worked for me without making any extensions and all the complicated stuff. I am working with storyBoard.

Technique

You must add a UIView (lets say it "containerView") inside your UICollectionViewCell in storyBoard and add all the required views (buttons, images etc) inside this containerView. See the Screenshot.

Connect the outlet for containerView. Add following lines of code in CellforItemAtIndexPath delegate function.

//adds shadow to the layer of cell

cell.layer.cornerRadius = 3.0
    cell.layer.masksToBounds = false
    cell.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
    cell.layer.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: 0, height: 0)
    cell.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.6

//makes the cell round 

let containerView = cell.containerView!
    containerView.layer.cornerRadius = 8
    containerView.clipsToBounds = true

Output

See the simulator Screenshot