Create the indented look found in UINavigationBarButton - programmatically - ios

Question

I'm trying to programmatically recreate the indented button look that can be seen on a UINavigationBarButton. Not the shiny two tone look or the gradient, just the perimeter shading:
It looks like an internal dark shadowing around the entire view perimeter, slightly darker at the top? And then an external highlighting shadow around the lower view perimeter.
I've played a bit with Core Graphics, and experimented with QuartzCore and shadowing with view.layer.shadowRadius and .shadowOffset, but can't even get the lower highlighting to look right. I'm also not sure where to start to achieve both a dark shadowing with internal offset and a light shadowing with external offset.

Answer 1

It seems as though you want a border that looks looks like a shadow. Since the shadow appears to some sort of gradient, setting a border as a gradient won't be possible at first glance. However, it is possible to create a path that represents the border and then fill that with a gradient. Apple provides what seems to be a little known function called CGPathCreateCopyByStrokingPath. This takes a path (say, a rounded rect, for example) and creates a new path that would be the stroke of the old path given the settings you pass into the function (like line width, join/cap setting, miter limit, etc). So lets say you define a path (this isn't exactly what Apple provides, but's it's similar):
+ (UIBezierPath *) bezierPathForBackButtonInRect:(CGRect)rect withRoundingRadius:(CGFloat)radius{
UIBezierPath *path = [UIBezierPath bezierPath];
CGPoint mPoint = CGPointMake(CGRectGetMaxX(rect) - radius, rect.origin.y);
CGPoint ctrlPoint = mPoint;
[path moveToPoint:mPoint];
ctrlPoint.y += radius;
mPoint.x += radius;
mPoint.y += radius;
if (radius > 0) [path addArcWithCenter:ctrlPoint radius:radius startAngle:M_PI + M_PI_2 endAngle:0 clockwise:YES];
mPoint.y = CGRectGetMaxY(rect) - radius;
[path addLineToPoint:mPoint];
ctrlPoint = mPoint;
mPoint.y += radius;
mPoint.x -= radius;
ctrlPoint.x -= radius;
if (radius > 0) [path addArcWithCenter:ctrlPoint radius:radius startAngle:0 endAngle:M_PI_2 clockwise:YES];
mPoint.x = rect.origin.x + (10.0f);
[path addLineToPoint:mPoint];
[path addLineToPoint:CGPointMake(rect.origin.x, CGRectGetMidY(rect))];
mPoint.y = rect.origin.y;
[path addLineToPoint:mPoint];
[path closePath];
return path;
}
This returns a path similar to Apple's back button (I use this in my app). I have added this method (along with dozens more) as a category to UIBezierPath.
Now lets add that inner shadow in a drawing routine:
- (void) drawRect:(CGRect)rect{
UIBezierPath *path = [UIBezierPath bezierPathForBackButtonInRect:rect withRoundingRadius:5.0f];
//Just fill with blue color, do what you want here for the button
[[UIColor blueColor] setFill];
[path fill];
[path addClip]; //Not completely necessary, but borders are actually drawn 'around' the path edge, so that half is inside your path, half is outside adding this will ensure the shadow only fills inside the path
//This strokes the standard path, however you might want to might want to inset the rect, create a new 'back button path' off the inset rect and create the inner shadow path off that.
//The line width of 2.0f will actually show up as 1.0f with the above clip: [path addClip];, due to the fact that borders are drawn around the edge
UIBezierPath *innerShadow = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithCGPath: CGPathCreateCopyByStrokingPath(path.CGPath, NULL, 2.0f, path.lineCapStyle, path.lineJoinStyle, path.miterLimit)];
//You need this, otherwise the center (inside your path) will also be filled with the gradient, which you don't want
innerShadow.usesEvenOddFillRule = YES;
[innerShadow addClip];
//Now lets fill it with a vertical gradient
CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
CGPoint start = CGPointMake(0, 0);
CGPoint end = CGPointMake(0, CGRectGetMaxY(rect));
CGFloat locations[2] = { 0.0f, 1.0f};
NSArray *colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:(id)[UIColor colorWithWhite:.7f alpha:.5f].CGColor, (id)[UIColor colorWithWhite:.3f alpha:.5f].CGColor, nil];
CGGradientRef gradRef = CGGradientCreateWithColors(CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB(), (__bridge CFArrayRef)colors, locations);
CGContextDrawLinearGradient(context, gradRef, start, end, 0);
CGGradientRelease(gradRef);
}
Now this is just a simple example. I don't save/restore contexts or anything, which you'll probably want to do. There are things you might still want to do to make it better, like maybe inset the 'shadow' path if you want to use a normal border. You might want to use more/different colors and locations. But this should get you started.
UPDATE
There is another method you can use to create this effect. I wrote an algorithm to bevel arbitrary bezier paths in core graphics. This can be used to create the effect you're looking for. This is an example of how I use it in my app:
You pass to the routine the CGContextRef, CGPathRef, size of the bevel and what colors you want it to use for the highlight/shadow.
The code I used for this can be found here:Github - Beveling Algorithm.
I also explain the code and my methodology here: Beveling-Shapes in Core Graphics

Answer 2

Using the layer's shadow won't do it. You need both a light outer shadow and a dark inner shadow to get that effect. A layer can only have one (outer) shadow. (Also, layer shadows are redrawn dynamically, and force CPU-based rendering which kills performance.)
You'll need to do your own drawing with CoreGraphics, either in a view's drawRect: method or a layer's drawInContext: method. (Or you draw into an image context and then reuse the image.) Said drawing will mostly use CGContext functions. (I'll name some below, but this link has documentation for them all.)
For a round rect button, you might find it tedious to create the appropriate CGPath -- instead, you can use +[UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRoundedRect:cornerRadius:] and then the path's CGPath property to set the context's current path with CGContextAddPath.
You can create an inner shadow by setting a clipping path (see CGContextClip and related functions) to the shape of the button, setting up a shadow (see CGContextSetShadowWithColor and related functions), and then drawing around the outside of the shape you want shadowed. For the inner shadow, stroke (CGContextStrokePath) a round-rect that's a bit larger than your button, using a thick stroke width (CGContextSetLineWidth) so there's plenty of "ink" to generate a shadow (remember, this stroke won't be visible due to the clipping path).
You can create an outer shadow in much the same way -- don't use a clipping path this time, because you want the shadow to be outside the shape, and fill (CGContextFillPath) the shape of your button instead of stroking it. Note that drawing a shadow is sort of a "mode": you save the graphics state (CGContextSaveGState), setup a shadow, then draw the shape you want to see a shadow of (the shape itself isn't drawn when you're in this mode), and finally restore state (CGContextRestoreGState) to get out of "shadow mode". Since that mode doesn't draw the shape, only the shadow, you'll need to draw the shape itself separately.
There's an order to do this all in, too. It should be obvious if you think about the order in which you'd paint these things with physical media: First draw the outer shadow, then the button's fill, then the inner shadow. You might add a stroke after that if the inner shadow doesn't give you a pronounced enough outline.
There are a few drawing tools which can output source code for CoreGraphics: Opacity is one that I use. Be careful with these, though, as they code they generate may not be efficient.