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How to use an image for your background color with UIColor(patternImage:)

Swift version: 5.10

Paul Hudson    @twostraws   

Nearly all subclasses of UIView can have their background color adjusted, but often you’ll find you want to use an image rather than a flat color.

Well, this is actually significantly easier than you think: you can wrap any UIImage inside a UIColor, and use it anywhere you want to set a background color – or indeed any kind of color, even for text. If the image is too small for the space you’re drawing it will automatically be tiled, meaning that it will be repeated both horizontally and vertically until the space is filled.

To try it out, load a UIImage into your app then add this line of code to a view controller:

view.backgroundColor = UIColor(patternImage: yourImage)
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Available from iOS 8.0

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