Question

I want to make an effect like what you see on the right side of the first cell here:

I’m guessing it’s some sort of overlay view with a gradient, but I just can’t figure out how it’s configured with transparency. I tried making my own overlay view with a gradient and set the alpha of the colors down, but it just shows up as a gray – white gradient.

CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    UIColor *gradBegin = [UIColor colorWithWhite:1.0 alpha:0.8];
    UIColor *gradEnd = [UIColor colorWithWhite:1.0 alpha:0.6];
    NSArray* gradientColors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: 
                               (id)gradBegin.CGColor, 
                               (id)gradEnd.CGColor, nil];
    CGFloat gradientLocations[] = {0, 1};

    CGGradientRef gradient = CGGradientCreateWithColors(colorSpace, (__bridge CFArrayRef)gradientColors, gradientLocations);

    CGContextDrawLinearGradient(context, gradient, CGPointMake(rect.origin.x, rect.origin.y + rect.size.height/2.0), 
                                CGPointMake(rect.origin.x + rect.size.width, rect.origin.y + rect.size.height/2.0), 0);

What exactly is going on in this screenshot, and how can I replicate it?

Answer 1

I wrote a simple UIView class that will draw itself faded. It is a basic UIView with the drawRect overrided:

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    CGColorSpaceRef colourSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    UIColor* gradBegin = [UIColor colorWithWhite:1 alpha:0];
    UIColor* gradEnd = [UIColor colorWithWhite:1 alpha:1];
    NSArray* gradColours = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
                                    (id)gradBegin.CGColor,
                                    (id)gradBegin.CGColor,
                                    (id)gradEnd.CGColor,
                                    (id)gradEnd.CGColor, nil];
    CGFloat gradLocs[] = { 0, 0.5, 0.9, 1 };
    CGGradientRef gradient = CGGradientCreateWithColors(colourSpace, (__bridge CFArrayRef)gradColours, gradLocs);
    CGContextDrawLinearGradient(context, gradient, CGPointMake(0, 0), CGPointMake(self.frame.size.width, 0), 0);
    CGGradientRelease(gradient);
    CGColorSpaceRelease(colourSpace);
}

This works if overlayed over your view and the view’s background is white.