Get lighter and darker color variations for a given UIColor

Question

How to get different lighter and darker variations of a given UIColor in Swift?

Answer 1

The code example below demonstrate how you can get a lighter and darker shade of a given color, useful in applications having dynamic themes

For Darker Color

+ (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)
return nil; 
}

For Lighter Color

+ (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;
}

Answer 2

I want to provide another version using brightness & saturation instead of RGB

extension UIColor {
  /**
   Create a ligher color
   */
  func lighter(by percentage: CGFloat = 30.0) -> UIColor {
    return self.adjustBrightness(by: abs(percentage))
  }

  /**
   Create a darker color
   */
  func darker(by percentage: CGFloat = 30.0) -> UIColor {
    return self.adjustBrightness(by: -abs(percentage))
  }

  /**
   Try to increase brightness or decrease saturation
   */
  func adjustBrightness(by percentage: CGFloat = 30.0) -> UIColor {
    var h: CGFloat = 0, s: CGFloat = 0, b: CGFloat = 0, a: CGFloat = 0
    if self.getHue(&h, saturation: &s, brightness: &b, alpha: &a) {
      if b < 1.0 {
        let newB: CGFloat = max(min(b + (percentage/100.0)*b, 1.0), 0.0)
        return UIColor(hue: h, saturation: s, brightness: newB, alpha: a)
      } else {
        let newS: CGFloat = min(max(s - (percentage/100.0)*s, 0.0), 1.0)
        return UIColor(hue: h, saturation: newS, brightness: b, alpha: a)
      }
    }
    return self
  }
}

Answer 3

For Swift 5.0 :

extension UIColor {

func lighter(by percentage: CGFloat = 10.0) -> UIColor {
    return self.adjust(by: abs(percentage))
}

func darker(by percentage: CGFloat = 10.0) -> UIColor {
    return self.adjust(by: -abs(percentage))
}

func adjust(by percentage: CGFloat) -> UIColor {
    var alpha, hue, saturation, brightness, red, green, blue, white : CGFloat
    (alpha, hue, saturation, brightness, red, green, blue, white) = (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0)

    let multiplier = percentage / 100.0

    if self.getHue(&hue, saturation: &saturation, brightness: &brightness, alpha: &alpha) {
        let newBrightness: CGFloat = max(min(brightness + multiplier*brightness, 1.0), 0.0)
        return UIColor(hue: hue, saturation: saturation, brightness: newBrightness, alpha: alpha)
    }
    else if self.getRed(&red, green: &green, blue: &blue, alpha: &alpha) {
        let newRed: CGFloat = min(max(red + multiplier*red, 0.0), 1.0)
        let newGreen: CGFloat = min(max(green + multiplier*green, 0.0), 1.0)
        let newBlue: CGFloat = min(max(blue + multiplier*blue, 0.0), 1.0)
        return UIColor(red: newRed, green: newGreen, blue: newBlue, alpha: alpha)
    }
    else if self.getWhite(&white, alpha: &alpha) {
        let newWhite: CGFloat = (white + multiplier*white)
        return UIColor(white: newWhite, alpha: alpha)
    }

    return self
    }
}

Answer 4

Updated

Use below UIColor Extension:

extension UIColor {

    func lighter(by percentage: CGFloat = 30.0) -> UIColor? {
        return self.adjust(by: abs(percentage) )
    }

    func darker(by percentage: CGFloat = 30.0) -> UIColor? {
        return self.adjust(by: -1 * abs(percentage) )
    }

    func adjust(by percentage: CGFloat = 30.0) -> UIColor? {
        var red: CGFloat = 0, green: CGFloat = 0, blue: CGFloat = 0, alpha: CGFloat = 0
        if self.getRed(&red, green: &green, blue: &blue, alpha: &alpha) {
            return UIColor(red: min(red + percentage/100, 1.0),
                           green: min(green + percentage/100, 1.0),
                           blue: min(blue + percentage/100, 1.0),
                           alpha: alpha)
        } else {
            return nil
        }
    }
}

Usage:

let color = UIColor(red:0.96, green:0.54, blue:0.10, alpha:1.0)
color.lighter(30) // returns lighter color by 30%
color.darker(30) // returns darker color by 30%

instead of .lighter() and .darker(), you can use .adjust() with positive values for lightening and negative values for darkening

color.adjust(-30) // 30% darker color
color.adjust(30) // 30% lighter color

Output:

Answer 5

Version with RGB values modification

Here I put simple UIColor extension which is based on previous answers. It's working perfectly for me.

Below demo:

Colors manipulation code

public extension UIColor {

    /**
     Create a lighter color
     */
    public func lighter(by percentage: CGFloat = 30.0) -> UIColor {
        return self.adjustBrightness(by: abs(percentage))
    }

    /**
     Create a darker color
     */
    public func darker(by percentage: CGFloat = 30.0) -> UIColor {
        return self.adjustBrightness(by: -abs(percentage))
    }

    /**
     Changing R, G, B values
     */

    func adjustBrightness(by percentage: CGFloat = 30.0) -> UIColor {

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

        if self.getRed(&red, green: &green, blue: &blue, alpha: &alpha) {

            let pFactor = (100.0 + percentage) / 100.0

            let newRed = (red*pFactor).clamped(to: 0.0 ... 1.0)
            let newGreen = (green*pFactor).clamped(to: 0.0 ... 1.0)
            let newBlue = (blue*pFactor).clamped(to: 0.0 ... 1.0)

            return UIColor(red: newRed, green: newGreen, blue: newBlue, alpha: alpha)
        }

        return self
    }
}

Clamped function Extension to easily keep values between min and max.

extension Comparable {

    func clamped(to range: ClosedRange<Self>) -> Self {

        if self > range.upperBound {
            return range.upperBound
        } else if self < range.lowerBound {
            return range.lowerBound
        } else {
            return self
        }
    }
}