Question

I am using CoreGraphics to implement free hand drawing which is working fine for me and now I want to implement Undo feature for this drawing so that user can clear his last stroke.

Here is my drawing method which working UITouchesBegin and UITouchesMoved.

-(void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event{
    UITouch *touch  = [touches anyObject];

    previousPoint2  = previousPoint1;
    previousPoint1  = [touch previousLocationInView:self];
    currentPoint    = [touch locationInView:self];


    // calculate mid point
    CGPoint mid1    = midPoint(previousPoint1, previousPoint2);
    CGPoint mid2    = midPoint(currentPoint, previousPoint1);

    CGMutablePathRef path = CGPathCreateMutable();
    CGPathMoveToPoint(path, NULL, mid1.x, mid1.y);
    CGPathAddQuadCurveToPoint(path, NULL, previousPoint1.x, previousPoint1.y, mid2.x, mid2.y);
    CGRect bounds = CGPathGetBoundingBox(path);
    CGPathRelease(path);

    drawBox = bounds;

    //Pad our values so the bounding box respects our line width
    drawBox.origin.x        -= self.lineWidth * 2;
    drawBox.origin.y        -= self.lineWidth * 2;
    drawBox.size.width      += self.lineWidth * 4;
    drawBox.size.height     += self.lineWidth * 4;

    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(drawBox.size);
    [self.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
    curImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    [curImage retain];
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    [self setNeedsDisplayInRect:drawBox];
}

-(void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
    [curImage drawAtPoint:CGPointMake(0, 0)];
    CGPoint mid1 = midPoint(previousPoint1, previousPoint2);
    CGPoint mid2 = midPoint(currentPoint, previousPoint1);

    context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    [self.layer renderInContext:context];

    CGContextMoveToPoint(context, mid1.x, mid1.y);
    // Use QuadCurve is the key
    CGContextAddQuadCurveToPoint(context, previousPoint1.x, previousPoint1.y, mid2.x, mid2.y);

    CGContextSetLineCap(context, kCGLineCapRound);
    CGContextSetLineWidth(context, self.lineWidth);
    CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, self.lineColor.CGColor);

    CGContextStrokePath(context);

    [super drawRect:rect];
}

Answer 1

There can be 2 ways to implement this on my point of view

1. U can save paths in NSArray and draw all those in loop while calling drawRect method and then while undoing, remove last object, add it to buffer array and redraw all the arrays.

2. U can get one offline buffer canvas where you can have an image created while drawing points, update it when u draw it every time. Here also you need to create an array of points but not redraw then everytime. When you do undo, just remove last object and create a new buffer canvas while drawing points in array.