Get Slightly Lighter and Darker Color from UIColor

Question

I was looking to be able to turn any UIColor into a gradient. The way I am intending to do this is by using Core Graphics to draw a gradient. What I am trying to do is to ge

Answer 1

- (UIColor *)lighterColorForColor:(UIColor *)c
{
    CGFloat r, g, b, a;
    if ([c getRed:&r green:&g blue:&b alpha:&a])
        return [UIColor colorWithRed:MIN(r + 0.2, 1.0)
                               green:MIN(g + 0.2, 1.0)
                                blue:MIN(b + 0.2, 1.0)
                               alpha:a];
    return nil;
}

- (UIColor *)darkerColorForColor:(UIColor *)c
{
    CGFloat r, g, b, a;
    if ([c getRed:&r green:&g blue:&b alpha:&a])
        return [UIColor colorWithRed:MAX(r - 0.2, 0.0)
                               green:MAX(g - 0.2, 0.0)
                                blue:MAX(b - 0.2, 0.0)
                               alpha:a];
    return nil;
}

Use it like this:

UIColor *baseColor = // however you obtain your color
UIColor *lighterColor = [self lighterColorForColor:baseColor];
UIColor *darkerColor = [self darkerColorForColor:baseColor];

EDIT: as @Anchu Chimala pointed out, for maximum flexibility, these methods should be implemented as an UIColor category. Also, from @Riley's idea, it may be a better idea to make the color proprtionally darker or lighter instead of adding or subtracting constant values. As @jrturton pointed out, it's not necessary to manipulate the RGB components; it's better to modify the brightness property itself. All in all:

@implementation UIColor (LightAndDark)

- (UIColor *)lighterColor
{
    CGFloat h, s, b, a;
    if ([self getHue:&h saturation:&s brightness:&b alpha:&a])
        return [UIColor colorWithHue:h
                          saturation:s
                          brightness:MIN(b * 1.3, 1.0)
                               alpha:a];
    return nil;
}

- (UIColor *)darkerColor
{
    CGFloat h, s, b, a;
    if ([self getHue:&h saturation:&s brightness:&b alpha:&a])
        return [UIColor colorWithHue:h
                          saturation:s
                          brightness:b * 0.75
                               alpha:a];
    return nil;
}
@end

Answer 2

I'm not sure if you're looking for some sort of Objective-C answer, but based on how colors specified by RGBA work, I think you can simply scale the RGB values according to an arbitrary factor to get a "lighter" or "darker" shade. For example, you might have a blue:

[UIColor colorWithRed:0.0 green:0.0 blue:1.0 alpha:1.0];

Want a darker blue? Multiply the RGB values by 0.9:

[UIColor colorWithRed:0.0 green:0.0 blue:0.9 alpha:1.0];

Voila. Or maybe you have an orange:

[UIColor colorWithRed:1.0 green:0.4 blue:0.0 alpha:1.0];

Choose another scale factor, say, 0.8:

[UIColor colorWithRed:0.8 green:0.32 blue:0.0 alpha:1.0];

Is that the sort of effect you're looking for?

Answer 3

None of the solutions posted quite worked for all colours and shades, but then I stumbled across this library which provides a set of very well implemented extensions to UIColor.

Specifically it has a lighten function as part of its HSL implementation: (UIColor *)lighten:(CGFloat)amount - which works perfectly.

Answer 4

I render coloured cells based on a status value:

For this I wrote a swift extension based on some old objc code after I got an error using CryingHippo's suggestion:

extension UIColor{

    func darker(darker: CGFloat) -> UIColor{

        var red: CGFloat = 0.0
        var green: CGFloat = 0.0
        var blue: CGFloat = 0.0

        if self.colorSpace == UIColorSpace.genericGrayColorSpace(){

            red =  whiteComponent - darker
            green = whiteComponent - darker
            blue  = whiteComponent - darker
        } else {
            red = redComponent - darker
            green = greenComponent - darker
            blue = blueComponent - darker
        }

        if red < 0{
            green += red/2
            blue += red/2
        }

        if green < 0{
            red += green/2
            blue += green/2
        }

        if blue < 0{
            green += blue/2
            red += blue/2
        }

        return UIColor(
            calibratedRed: red,
            green: green,
            blue: blue,
            alpha: alphaComponent
        )
    }

    func lighter(lighter: CGFloat) -> UIColor{
        return darker(-lighter)
    }
}

The same works for NSColor as well. Simply replace UIColor with NSColor.

Answer 5

user529758's solution in Swift:

Darker color:

func darkerColorForColor(color: UIColor) -> UIColor {

       var r:CGFloat = 0, g:CGFloat = 0, b:CGFloat = 0, a:CGFloat = 0

       if color.getRed(&r, green: &g, blue: &b, alpha: &a){
           return UIColor(red: max(r - 0.2, 0.0), green: max(g - 0.2, 0.0), blue: max(b - 0.2, 0.0), alpha: a)
       }

       return UIColor()
}

Lighter color:

func lighterColorForColor(color: UIColor) -> UIColor {

       var r:CGFloat = 0, g:CGFloat = 0, b:CGFloat = 0, a:CGFloat = 0

       if color.getRed(&r, green: &g, blue: &b, alpha: &a){
           return UIColor(red: min(r + 0.2, 1.0), green: min(g + 0.2, 1.0), blue: min(b + 0.2, 1.0), alpha: a)
       }

       return UIColor()
}

Answer 6

Sebyffffd solution as an extension:

extension UIColor {    
    func darker() -> UIColor {

        var r:CGFloat = 0, g:CGFloat = 0, b:CGFloat = 0, a:CGFloat = 0

        if self.getRed(&r, green: &g, blue: &b, alpha: &a){
            return UIColor(red: max(r - 0.2, 0.0), green: max(g - 0.2, 0.0), blue: max(b - 0.2, 0.0), alpha: a)
        }

        return UIColor()
    }

    func lighter() -> UIColor {

        var r:CGFloat = 0, g:CGFloat = 0, b:CGFloat = 0, a:CGFloat = 0

        if self.getRed(&r, green: &g, blue: &b, alpha: &a){
            return UIColor(red: min(r + 0.2, 1.0), green: min(g + 0.2, 1.0), blue: min(b + 0.2, 1.0), alpha: a)
        }

        return UIColor()
    }
}

Usage:

let darkerYellow = UIColor.yellow.darker()
let lighterYellow = UIColor.yellow.lighter()