Class

CAGradientLayer

A layer that draws a color gradient over its background color, filling the shape of the layer (including rounded corners)

Overview

You use a gradient layer to create a color gradient containing an arbitrary number of colors. By default, the colors are spread uniformly across the layer, but you can optionally specify locations for control over the color positions through the gradient.

Listing 1 shows how to create a gradient layer containing four colors that are evenly distributed through the gradient. Rotating the layer by 90° (pi / 2 radians) gives a horizontal gradient.

Listing 1

Creating a gradient layer

gradientLayer.colors = [UIColor.red.cgColor,
                        UIColor.yellow.cgColor,
                        UIColor.green.cgColor,
                        UIColor.blue.cgColor]
     
gradientLayer.transform = CATransform3DMakeRotation(CGFloat.pi / 2, 0, 0, 1)

Figure 1 shows the appearance of the gradient layer.

Figure 1

Color gradient layer

Color gradient layer

Topics

Gradient Style Properties

var colors: [Any]?

An array of CGColorRef objects defining the color of each gradient stop. Animatable.

var locations: [NSNumber]?

An optional array of NSNumber objects defining the location of each gradient stop. Animatable.

var endPoint: CGPoint

The end point of the gradient when drawn in the layer’s coordinate space. Animatable.

var startPoint: CGPoint

The start point of the gradient when drawn in the layer’s coordinate space. Animatable.

var type: CAGradientLayerType

Style of gradient drawn by the layer.

Constants

Gradient Types

The style of gradient drawn by the layer.

Relationships

Inherits From

CALayer

Conforms To

See Also

Text, Shapes, and Gradients

class CATextLayer

A layer that provides simple text layout and rendering of plain or attributed strings.

class CAShapeLayer

A layer that draws a cubic Bezier spline in its coordinate space.