How Do I Take a Screen Shot of a UIView?

Question

I am wondering how my iPhone app can take a screen shot of a specific UIView as a UIImage.

I tried this code but all I get is a blank image

Answer 1

I created this extension for save a screen shot from UIView

extension UIView {
func saveImageFromView(path path:String) {
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(bounds.size, false, UIScreen.mainScreen().scale)
    drawViewHierarchyInRect(bounds, afterScreenUpdates: true)
    let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 0.4)?.writeToFile(path, atomically: true)

}}

call:

let pathDocuments = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSSearchPathDirectory.DocumentDirectory, NSSearchPathDomainMask.UserDomainMask, true).first!
let pathImage = "\(pathDocuments)/\(user!.usuarioID.integerValue).jpg"
reportView.saveImageFromView(path: pathImage)

If you want to create a png must change:

UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 0.4)?.writeToFile(path, atomically: true)

by

UIImagePNGRepresentation(image)?.writeToFile(path, atomically: true)

Answer 2

I think you may want renderInContext, not drawInContext. drawInContext is more a method you would override...

Note that it may not work in all views, specifically a year or so ago when I tried to use this with the live camera view it did not work.

Answer 3

-(UIImage *)convertViewToImage
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.bounds.size);
    [self drawViewHierarchyInRect:self.bounds afterScreenUpdates:YES];
    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

  return image;
}

Answer 4

I have created usable extension for UIView to take screenshot in Swift:

extension UIView{

var screenshot: UIImage{

    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.bounds.size);
    let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
    self.layer.renderInContext(context)
    let screenShot = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return screenShot
}
}

To use it just type:

let screenshot = view.screenshot

Answer 5

CGImageRef UIGetScreenImage();

Apple now allows us to use it in a public application, even though it's a private API

Answer 6

There is new API from iOS 10

extension UIView {
    func makeScreenshot() -> UIImage {
        let renderer = UIGraphicsImageRenderer(bounds: self.bounds)
        return renderer.image { (context) in
            self.layer.render(in: context.cgContext)
        }
    }
}