How to save a UIImage to a file using jpegData() and pngData()

Swift version: 5.6

Paul Hudson @twostraws April 18th 2020

If you've generated an image using Core Graphics, or perhaps rendered part of your layout, you might want to save that out as either a PNG or a JPEG. Both are easy thanks to two methods: pngData() and jpegData(), both of which convert a UIImage into a Data instance you can write out.

Here's an example:

if let image = UIImage(named: "example.png") {
    if let data = image.pngData() {
        let filename = getDocumentsDirectory().appendingPathComponent("copy.png")
        try? data.write(to: filename)
    }
}

That call to getDocumentsDirectory() is a little helper function I include in most of my projects, because it makes it easy to locate the user's documents directory where you can save app files. Here it is:

func getDocumentsDirectory() -> URL {
    let paths = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask)
    return paths[0]
}

If you want to save your image as a JPEG rather than a PNG, use this code instead:

if let image = UIImage(named: "example.jpg") {
    if let data = image.jpegData(compressionQuality: 0.8) {
        let filename = getDocumentsDirectory().appendingPathComponent("copy.png")
        try? data.write(to: filename)
    }
}

The parameter to jpegData() is a float that represents JPEG quality, where 1.0 is highest and 0.0 is lowest.