How Do I Take a Screen Shot of a UIView?

I am wondering how my iPhone app can take a screen shot of a specific `UIView` as a `UIImage`.

I tried this code but all I get is a blank image.

UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(CGSizeMake(320,480));
CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
[myUIView.layer drawInContext:context];
UIImage *screenShot = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

<code>myUIView</code> has dimensions 320x480 an it has some sub-views.
What is the correct way to do this?

CGImageRef UIGetScreenImage();


Apple now allows us to use it in a public application, even though it's a private API

I think you may want `renderInContext`, not `drawInContext`. drawInContext is more a method you would override...

Note that it may not work in all views, specifically a year or so ago when I tried to use this with the live camera view it did not work.

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.bounds.size);
[self.view.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
UIImage *viewImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(viewImage, nil, nil, nil);
}

This method may put in your Controller class.

Apple does not allow:

> `CGImageRef UIGetScreenImage();`

Applications should take a screenshot using the `drawRect` method as specified in:

[To see links please register here]

You need to capture the **key window** for a screenshot or a UIView. You can do it in **Retina Resolution** using UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions and set its scale parameter 0.0f. It always captures in native resolution (retina for iPhone 4 and later).

This one does a full screen screenshot (key window)

UIWindow *keyWindow = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow];
CGRect rect = [keyWindow bounds];
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(rect.size,YES,0.0f);
CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
[keyWindow.layer renderInContext:context];
UIImage *capturedScreen = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

This code capture a UIView in native resolution

CGRect rect = [captureView bounds];
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(rect.size,YES,0.0f);
CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
[captureView.layer renderInContext:context];
UIImage *capturedImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

This saves the UIImage in jpg format with 95% quality in the app's document folder if you need to do that.

NSString *imagePath = [NSHomeDirectory() stringByAppendingPathComponent:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Documents/capturedImage.jpg"]];
[UIImageJPEGRepresentation(capturedImage, 0.95) writeToFile:imagePath atomically:YES];

iOS7 onwards, we have below default methods :

- (UIView *)snapshotViewAfterScreenUpdates:(BOOL)afterUpdates

Calling above method is faster than trying to render the contents of the current view into a bitmap image yourself.

If you want to apply a graphical effect, such as blur, to a snapshot, use the `drawViewHierarchyInRect:afterScreenUpdates:` method instead.

[To see links please register here]

-(UIImage *)convertViewToImage
{
UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.bounds.size);
[self drawViewHierarchyInRect:self.bounds afterScreenUpdates:YES];
UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

return image;
}

The following snippet is used to take screenshot :

UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.muUIView.bounds.size);

[myUIView.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];

UIImage *screenShot = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

**Use `renderInContext:` method instead of `drawInContext:` method**

`renderInContext:` method renders the receiver and its sublayers into current context. This method
renders directly from the layer tree.

I have created usable extension for UIView to take screenshot in Swift:

extension UIView{

var screenshot: UIImage{

UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.bounds.size);
let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
self.layer.renderInContext(context)
let screenShot = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
return screenShot
}
}

To use it just type:

let screenshot = view.screenshot