Question

I am new to iphone application development. I am building an iphone app where the user needs to be able to add speech bubbles (think comics) over existing images. I have some questions on how to implement this,

• Have an empty speech bubble image and
  overlay it over existing image – Do I
  use a separate UIImage for the speech
  bubble? Or should I draw the speech
  bubble myself?

• Allow the user to move the speech
  bubble using touch- Any pointers or
  examples would be great!

• Also let him resize the speech
  depending on the amount of text – Any
  pointers or examples would be great!

• Finally he should be able to add text
  to speech bubble – Is there a way to
  add textbox over an existing image?

Thanks,

Update –

Found a similar example on this site where we move/resize a UIView – http://www.switchonthecode.com/tutorials/creating-basic-animations-on-iphone

Answer 1

I would use a transparent UIView with a UIImageView containing the bubble and a UITextView set editable.

Use this to resize the text view whenever the text view changed notification is sent:
CGRect frame = textview.frame;
frame.size.height = textview.contentSize.height;
Textview.frame = frame;

Subclass the UIView and use touchesbegan and touchesmoved to determine where to move the view as its being dragged.

sizewithfont: constrainedtosize: linebreakmode is the string size method

How to save a UIImage of this layout to the photo album:

CGRect screenRect = CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 416); // change this as necessary
UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(screenRect.size);
[self.view.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
UIImage *screenshot = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(screenshot, nil, nil, nil);