Swift version: 5.6
All views have a mask
property that allows you to cut out parts depending on what you need. This mask can be any other kind of UIView
, so you could for example use a label to cut out an image view.
To try it out, first create a view with some obvious content such as a background color:
let redView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 50, y: 50, width: 128, height: 128))
redView.backgroundColor = .red
view.addSubview(redView)
Now create your mask as a separate UIView
. Although it won’t be directly visible you should give this either a background color or some other content because the alpha channel of this mask determines what shows through in the original view.
To demonstrate this, here’s a mask view that’s the same size as the original view, but it’s offset 64 pixels to the right and has a 64-point corner radius. When used as a mask for the previous view it will have the effect of turning it into a semi-circle:
let maskView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 64, y: 0, width: 128, height: 128))
maskView.backgroundColor = .blue
maskView.layer.cornerRadius = 64
redView.mask = maskView
The blue background color won’t be visible – that’s just there to make sure all pixels in the mask are opaque.
SPONSORED From March 20th to 26th, you can join a FREE crash course for mid/senior iOS devs who want to achieve an expert level of technical and practical skills – it’s the fast track to being a complete senior developer!
Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!
Available from iOS 8.0
This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.
Link copied to your pasteboard.