Creating a Custom UIButton

Question

I am looking to create a Custom UIButton (not subclass) progrmatically, I would like it to have a background image that will stretch as the UIButton's width increases. How would I do this?

Solution 1

First create a stretchable UIImage (this assumes the 'cap' at the end of your button image is 10px):

UIImage *backgroundImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"ImageBackground.png"] stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:10 topCapHeight:0];

Then use the stretchable image as the background:

[myButton setBackgroundImage:backgroundImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];

When you set the backgroundImage on a UIButton for UIControlStateNormal, it acts as the background for all states, unless you explicitly set a different backgroundImage for any of the other states.

Solution 2

Better yet, use UIView's contentStretch property. Otherwise, you might get some nasty surprises if you use stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth to shrink a graphic or to stretch a complex graphic with lighting or gloss effects.