Getting a screenshot of a UIScrollView, including offscreen parts

Question

I have a UIScrollView decendent that implements a takeScreenshot method that looks like this:

-(void)takeScreenshot {  
  CGRect contextRect  =          


        

Answer 1

Here is code that works ...

- (IBAction) renderScrollViewToImage
{
    UIImage* image = nil;

    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(_scrollView.contentSize);
    {
        CGPoint savedContentOffset = _scrollView.contentOffset;
        CGRect savedFrame = _scrollView.frame;

        _scrollView.contentOffset = CGPointZero;
        _scrollView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, _scrollView.contentSize.width, _scrollView.contentSize.height);

        [_scrollView.layer renderInContext: UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];     
        image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();

        _scrollView.contentOffset = savedContentOffset;
        _scrollView.frame = savedFrame;
    }
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    if (image != nil) {
        [UIImagePNGRepresentation(image) writeToFile: @"/tmp/test.png" atomically: YES];
        system("open /tmp/test.png");
    }
}

The last few lines simply write the image to /tmp/test.png and then opens it in Preview.app. This obviously only works on in the Simulator :-)

Complete project in the ScrollViewScreenShot Github Repository

Answer 2

SWIFT 3 version thanks to @gleb vodovozov:

func getImageOfScrollView()->UIImage{
    var image = UIImage();

    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.scrollView.contentSize, false, UIScreen.main.scale)

    // save initial values
    let savedContentOffset = self.scrollView.contentOffset;
    let savedFrame = self.scrollView.frame;
    let savedBackgroundColor = self.scrollView.backgroundColor

    // reset offset to top left point
    self.scrollView.contentOffset = CGPoint.zero;
    // set frame to content size
    self.scrollView.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.scrollView.contentSize.width, height: self.scrollView.contentSize.height)
    // remove background
    self.scrollView.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear

    // make temp view with scroll view content size
    // a workaround for issue when image on ipad was drawn incorrectly
    let tempView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.scrollView.contentSize.width, height: self.scrollView.contentSize.height))

    // save superview
    let tempSuperView = self.scrollView.superview
    // remove scrollView from old superview
    self.scrollView.removeFromSuperview()
    // and add to tempView
    tempView.addSubview(self.scrollView)

    // render view
    // drawViewHierarchyInRect not working correctly
    tempView.layer.render(in: UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()!)
    // and get image
    image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!;

    // and return everything back
    tempView.subviews[0].removeFromSuperview()
    tempSuperView?.addSubview(self.scrollView)

    // restore saved settings
    self.scrollView.contentOffset = savedContentOffset;
    self.scrollView.frame = savedFrame;
    self.scrollView.backgroundColor = savedBackgroundColor

    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    return image
}

Answer 3

I took this solution from @Roopesh Mittal's answer and made it safer/cleaner.

Swift 5 compatible

fileprivate extension UIScrollView {
    func screenshot() -> UIImage? {
        let savedContentOffset = contentOffset
        let savedFrame = frame

        UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(contentSize)
        contentOffset = .zero
        frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: contentSize.width, height: contentSize.height)

        guard let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext() else { return nil }

        layer.render(in: context)
        let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

        contentOffset = savedContentOffset
        frame = savedFrame

        return image
    }
}

Answer 4

In iOS 13 I have ran into issue that this line won't work

frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: contentSize.width, height: contentSize.height)

to fix the issue, I am removing scrollview from parent and then attaching in after taking the screenshot.

Answer 5

Here's another way of doing it, which takes the zoom level into account. I have a scrollview with 4 different UIImageView layers in it, and I want to take a screenshot of their current state:

float theScale = 1.0f / theScrollView.zoomScale;
// The viewing rectangle in absolute coordinates
CGRect visibleArea = CGRectMake((int)(theScrollView.contentOffset.x * theScale), (int)(theScrollView.contentOffset.y * theScale),
                                (int)(theScrollView.bounds.size.width * theScale), (int)(theScrollView.bounds.size.height * theScale));

NSArray *layers = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:imageLayer1, imageLayer2, imageLayer3, imageLayer4, nil];
UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(visibleArea.size);
for (UIImageView *layer in layers) {
    CALayer *coreLayer = layer.layer;
    coreLayer.bounds = CGRectMake(layer.frame.origin.x - visibleArea.origin.x, layer.frame.origin.y - visibleArea.origin.y, layer.frame.size.width, layer.frame.size.height);
    [coreLayer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
}
UIImage *screenshot = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

This takes the screenshot in absolute coordinates. That is, if you have a 2048*2048 image in the scrollview and you can see about a quarter of it, then regardless of the resolution of your screen it would take a screenshot of 512*512. If you want to take a screenshot at your screen resolution (say, 320*480) then you have to adjust the image as follows, directly after the above code:

UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(theScrollView.frame.size);
[screenshot drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, theScrollView.frame.size.width, theScrollView.frame.size.height)];
UIImage *smallScreenshot = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

Answer 6

SWIFT 3 version:

func snapshot() -> UIImage?
{      
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(scrollView.contentSize)

    let savedContentOffset = scrollView.contentOffset
    let savedFrame = scrollView.frame

    scrollView.contentOffset = CGPoint.zero
    scrollView.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: scrollView.contentSize.width, height: scrollView.contentSize.height)

    scrollView.layer.render(in: UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()!)
    let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()

    scrollView.contentOffset = savedContentOffset
    scrollView.frame = savedFrame

    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

    return image
}

This worked for me