How to dim the screen

Written by Paul Hudson    @twostraws

There is no built-in way to dim the screen unless you're presenting a view controller, at which point iOS dims the background view controller for you.

Instead, if you want to dim stuff you need to do it yourself: create a full-screen UIView with a translucent background color (I find 66% black works best) then set its alpha to be 0. When you want things to dim, set the alpha to be 1.

Available from iOS 2.0

Did this solution work for you? Please pass it on!

Tweet

Other people are reading…

• How to add a toolbar above the keyboard using inputAccessoryView
• How to convert a CGPoint in one UIView to another view using convert()
• How to recolor UIImages using template images and withRenderingMode()
• How to measure touch strength using 3D Touch
• How to detect when the Back button is tapped

About the Swift Knowledge Base

This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.