This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Drawing into Contexts
Many Quartz functions depend on referencing a context that you can draw into. For example, consider the function calls in Listing 1-5. These set a 4-pixel-wide line width, set a gray color, and then stroke an ellipse within a rectangular container. Each function call requires a context parameter, which must be a valid CGContextRef. You can build this context yourself (as in Listing 1-4) or retrieve one from UIKit, which is explored in the next section.
Listing 1-5 Drawing an Ellipse
// Set the line width
CGContextSetLineWidth(context, 4);
// Set the line color
CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context,
[UIColor grayColor].CGColor);
// Draw an ellipse
CGContextStrokeEllipseInRect(context, rect);
The code in Listing 1-5 naturally lives where Listing 1-4 says, Perform drawing here. At this point in Listing 1-4, you have fully created a bitmap context reference, and you can use that reference with these drawing requests.
By the end of Listing 1-4, you’ve created an image and manually released the context. Figure 1-5 shows the output created by merging Listing 1-5 into Listing 1-4. The image you produce is a gray ellipse, stroked with a 4-pixel-wide line. Figure 1-5 shows that image displayed in a UIImageView instance.
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Figure 1-5 Core Graphics functions require a context to draw this ellipse.
This entire process is performed outside the auspices of UIKit. The only UIKit call is imageWithCGImage:, which converts the newly created CGImageRef to a UIImage instance.