Question

I have a frame on my UIView with a layer. I have the layer set the background color and make the alpha 0.5 and make the frame.backgroundColor = clearColor so that people can see the lines behind it. However it makes the subviews which hold text also faded out. How do I prevent this?

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
        // Initialization code
        [self setAlpha:kAlpha];
        CALayer *layer = [self layer];
        [layer setMasksToBounds:YES];
        [layer setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor].CGColor];
        [layer setCornerRadius:kCornerRadius];
    }
    return self;
}

- (id)init
{
    if (self = [super init]) {
        self.clipsToBounds = YES;
        self.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
        self.multipleTouchEnabled = NO;

        tileTitle = [[UILabel alloc] init];
        tileTitle.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
        tileTitle.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
        tileTitle.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:13.0f];

        tileDescription = [[UILabel alloc] init];
        tileDescription.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
        tileDescription.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
        tileDescription.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:11.0f];
        tileDescription.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeTailTruncation;

        [self addSubview:tileTitle];
        [self addSubview:tileDescription];
    }

    return self;
}

Answer 1

To change the transparency of the view, but not its subviews, you can change its background color:

myView.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:1.0 green:0.0 blue:0.0 alpha:0.25];

This method also works with a CALayer.