UIButton w/ gradient, rounded corners, border, and drop shadow

Question

There are a few similar questions on the site, but I\'m looking for something specific and slightly different.

I followed the direction given here: http://www.cimgf.

Answer 1

I had a similar problem, however instead of a gradient, I had a image for a background. I solved it in the end using:

+ (void) styleButton:(UIButton*)button
{
CALayer *shadowLayer = [CALayer new];
shadowLayer.frame = button.frame;

shadowLayer.cornerRadius = 5;

shadowLayer.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor].CGColor;
shadowLayer.opacity = 0.5;
shadowLayer.shadowColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
shadowLayer.shadowOpacity = 0.6;
shadowLayer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(1,1);
shadowLayer.shadowRadius = 3;

button.layer.cornerRadius = 5;
button.layer.masksToBounds = YES;

UIView* parent = button.superview;
[parent.layer insertSublayer:shadowLayer below:button.layer];
}

The really interesting thing is that if you have a clearColor as the shadowLayer.backgroundColor is just didn't draw.

Answer 2

Instead of inserting a gradient layer, you can also override the method +layerClass to return the CAGradientLayer class. The layer of the button is than of that class, and you can easily set its colors etc.

+ (Class)layerClass {
    return [CAGradientLayer class];
}

Answer 3

This is the way I found to have a button with rounded corner, gradient, and drop shadow. This example has one particular gradient, but can obviously be replaced with other gradients.

@implementation CustomButton

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    if((self = [super initWithFrame:frame])){
        [self setupView];
    }

    return self;
}

- (void)awakeFromNib {
    [self setupView];
}

# pragma mark - main

- (void)setupView
{
    self.layer.cornerRadius = 10;
    self.layer.borderWidth = 1.0;
    self.layer.borderColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:167.0/255.0 green:140.0/255.0 blue:98.0/255.0 alpha:0.25].CGColor;
    self.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
    self.layer.shadowRadius = 1;
    [self clearHighlightView];

    CAGradientLayer *gradient = [CAGradientLayer layer];
    gradient.frame = self.layer.bounds;
    gradient.cornerRadius = 10;
    gradient.colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
                         (id)[UIColor colorWithWhite:1.0f alpha:1.0f].CGColor,
                         (id)[UIColor colorWithWhite:1.0f alpha:0.0f].CGColor,
                         (id)[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.0f alpha:0.0f].CGColor,
                         (id)[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.0f alpha:0.4f].CGColor,
                         nil];
    float height = gradient.frame.size.height;
    gradient.locations = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
                            [NSNumber numberWithFloat:0.0f],
                            [NSNumber numberWithFloat:0.2*30/height],
                            [NSNumber numberWithFloat:1.0-0.1*30/height],
                            [NSNumber numberWithFloat:1.0f],
                            nil];
    [self.layer addSublayer:gradient];}

- (void)highlightView 
{
    self.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(1.0f, 1.0f);
    self.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.25;
}

- (void)clearHighlightView {
    self.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(2.0f, 2.0f);
    self.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5;
}

- (void)setHighlighted:(BOOL)highlighted
{
    if (highlighted) {
        [self highlightView];
    } else {
        [self clearHighlightView];
    }
    [super setHighlighted:highlighted];
}


@end