iOS uses programmatic styling for tab style icon images. I was wondering if this functionality is public, and if not, is this something that can easily be done? I am not using the UITabBar, which is why I need this exposed. UITabBarItem does not seem to have any methods for accessing the manipulated image.
Basically I would need to:
1) add white tint to base color for the shape outlines
2) add gradients
3) add a diagonal border for the gloss effect
Which APIs are best suited for this kind of image manipulation?
Take a look at Matt Gallagher’s Advanced drawing using AppKit for inspiration. He’s talking about AppKit there, so you can’t use his code directly in iOS, but many of the same tools are either available in iOS or have some sort of counterpart.