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How to render a gradient

Paul Hudson @twostraws September 12th 2022

Updated for Xcode 14.2

Updated in iOS 16

SwiftUI gives us a variety of gradient options, all of which can be used in a variety of ways.

If you’re targeting iOS 16 or later, you can get a beautifully simple linear gradient by appending .gradient to whatever color you’re using:

Rectangle().fill(.blue.gradient)

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For more advanced gradients, or to support iOS versions prior to 16, you can use one of SwiftUI’s built in gradient types to get exact control. For example, you could render a text view using a white to black linear gradient like this:

Text("Hello World")
    .padding()
    .foregroundColor(.white)
    .font(.largeTitle)
    .background(
        LinearGradient(gradient: Gradient(colors: [.white, .black]), startPoint: .top, endPoint: .bottom)
    )

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The words “Hello World” in white over a gradient fading from white at the top to black at the bottom.

The colors are specified as an array and you can have as many as you want – by default SwiftUI will space them equally. So, we could go from white to red to black like this:

Text("Hello World")
    .padding()
    .foregroundColor(.white)
    .font(.largeTitle)
    .background(
        LinearGradient(gradient: Gradient(colors: [.white, .red, .black]), startPoint: .top, endPoint: .bottom)
    )

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The words “Hello World” in white over a gradient fading from white at the top to red in the center to black at the bottom.

To make a horizontal gradient rather than a vertical one, use .leading and .trailing for your start and end points:

Text("Hello World")
    .padding()
    .foregroundColor(.white)
    .font(.largeTitle)
    .background(
        LinearGradient(gradient: Gradient(colors: [.white, .red, .black]), startPoint: .leading, endPoint: .trailing)
    )

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The words “Hello World” in white over a gradient fading from white on the left to red in the center to black on the right.

For alternative gradient styles, try RadialGradient or AngularGradient. As an example, this creates a radial gradient through a variety of colors, starting from the center of the circle and going out to the edges:

Circle()
    .fill(
        RadialGradient(gradient: Gradient(colors: [.red, .yellow, .green, .blue, .purple]), center: .center, startRadius: 50, endRadius: 100)
    )
    .frame(width: 200, height: 200)

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A circle colored with a gradient transitioning radially outwards from red to yellow to green to blue to purple.

And this creates an angular gradient (often called a conic gradient), cycling through various colors then returning to the beginning:

Circle()
    .fill(
        AngularGradient(gradient: Gradient(colors: [.red, .yellow, .green, .blue, .purple, .red]), center: .center)
    )
    .frame(width: 200, height: 200)

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A circle colored with a conic gradient transitioning through the colors of the rainbow.

Because all three gradient types conform to the ShapeStyle protocol, you can use them for backgrounds, fills, and strokes. For example, this uses our rainbow conical gradient as a thick inner stroke for a circle:

Circle()
    .strokeBorder(
        AngularGradient(gradient: Gradient(colors: [.red, .yellow, .green, .blue, .purple, .red]), center: .center, startAngle: .zero, endAngle: .degrees(360)),
        lineWidth: 50
    )
    .frame(width: 200, height: 200)

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A donut shape colored with a conic gradient transitioning through the colors of the rainbow.