how to take a screenshot of the iPhone programmatically?

Question

Is it possible in objective C that we can take the screen shot of screen and stored this image in UIImage.

possible duplicate of How to take a screenshot programmatically — Brad Larson
– Brad Larson, Commented Sep 1, 2010 at 16:03

Bill Garrison · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-03 11:00:15Z

The previous code assumes that the view to be captured lives on the main screen...it might not.

Would this work to always capture the content of the main window? (warning: compiled in StackOverflow)

 - (UIImage *) captureScreen { UIWindow *keyWindow = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow]; CGRect rect = [keyWindow bounds]; UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size); CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(); [keyWindow.layer renderInContext:context]; UIImage *img = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext(); UIGraphicsEndImageContext(); return img; }

I animate graphics in the view but this code ignores animation (not removed after completed)
That doesn't work: the status bar is not saved, and one of my view is an OpenGL view, its content isn't saved either.

VdesmedT · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-01 17:04:06Z

You need to create a bitmap context of the size of your screen and use

[self.view.layer renderInContext:c]

to copy your view in it. Once this is done, you can use

CGBitmapContextCreateImage(c)

to create a CGImage from your context.

Elaboration :

CGSize screenSize = [[UIScreen mainScreen] applicationFrame].size; CGColorSpaceRef colorSpaceRef = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB(); CGContextRef ctx = CGBitmapContextCreate(nil, screenSize.width, screenSize.height, 8, 4*(int)screenSize.width, colorSpaceRef, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast); CGContextTranslateCTM(ctx, 0.0, screenSize.height); CGContextScaleCTM(ctx, 1.0, -1.0); [(CALayer*)self.view.layer renderInContext:ctx]; CGImageRef cgImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(ctx); UIImage *image = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:cgImage]; CGImageRelease(cgImage); CGContextRelease(ctx); [UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 1.0) writeToFile:@"screen.jpg" atomically:NO];

Note that if you run your code in response to a click on a UIButton, your image will shows that button pressed.

Just wanted to mention that you missed releasing the colorSpaceRef
Also, what is self? What about window transforms? Do you know what will happen when keyboard/alerts are shown?

Bill Garrison · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-04 15:01:31Z

7

Technical Q&A QA1703 Screen Capture in UIKit Applications

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/qa/qa2010/qa1703.html

answered Sep 4, 2010 at 15:01

Bill Garrison

2,04915 silver badges18 bronze badges

1 Comment

noelicus Over a year ago

Broken link :-(

P.J.Radadiya · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-20 11:31:39Z

try this...

- (UIImage*)captureView:(UIView *)view { CGRect rect = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]; UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size); CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(); [view.layer renderInContext:context]; UIImage *img = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext(); UIGraphicsEndImageContext(); return img; } - (void)saveScreenshotToPhotosAlbum:(UIView *)view { UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum([self captureView:self.view], nil, nil,nil); }

P.J.Radadiya · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-20 11:57:42Z

UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.window.bounds.size); [self.window.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()]; UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext(); UIGraphicsEndImageContext(); NSData * data = UIImagePNGRepresentation(image); [data writeToFile:@"foo.png" atomically:YES];

UPDATE April 2011: for retina display, change the first line into this:

if ([[UIScreen mainScreen] respondsToSelector:@selector(scale)]) { UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.window.bounds.size, NO, [UIScreen mainScreen].scale); } else { UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.window.bounds.size); }

j-printemps · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-05 12:13:56Z

// 100% Work

- (UIImage *)screenshot { UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.main_uiview.bounds.size, NO, 2.0f); [self.main_uiview drawViewHierarchyInRect:_main_uiview.bounds afterScreenUpdates:YES]; UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext(); UIGraphicsEndImageContext(); return image; }

Mark · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-15 14:44:29Z

- (void)SnapShot { if ([[UIScreen mainScreen] respondsToSelector:@selector(scale)]) { UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.view.bounds.size, NO, [UIScreen mainScreen].scale); } else { UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.view.bounds.size); } [self.view.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()]; UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext(); UIGraphicsEndImageContext(); NSData *data = UIImagePNGRepresentation(image); [data writeToFile:@"snapshot.png" options:NSDataWritingWithoutOverwriting error:Nil]; [data writeToFile:@"snapshot.png" atomically:YES]; UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum([UIImage imageWithData:data], nil, nil, nil); }

1. You have double writing to file. 2. Why do you need [UIImage imageWithData:data] if you already have image object above. 3. Camel case

Nithinbemitk · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-15 06:18:53Z

Use this code to take the screenshot:

-(void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *)webView { UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.webView.bounds.size); [self.webView.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()]; UIImage *screenshotImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext(); UIGraphicsEndImageContext(); UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(screenshotImage, nil, nil, nil); NSString *docDir = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) objectAtIndex:0]; NSString *str1=[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d",myInt]; NSString *pngFilePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/page_%@.png",docDir,str1]; // any name u want for image NSLog(@"%@",pngFilePath); NSData *data1 = [NSData dataWithData:UIImagePNGRepresentation(screenshotImage)]; [data1 writeToFile:pngFilePath atomically:YES]; }

for what do you need data1, UIImagePNGRepresentation it's already NSData

Ramani Hitesh · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-01 09:21:42Z

(UIImage *)screenshot { UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.main_uiview.bounds.size, NO, 2.0f); [self.main_uiview drawViewHierarchyInRect:_main_uiview.bounds afterScreenUpdates:YES];

UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext(); UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

return image; }

Alex Nazarov · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-21 19:59:21Z

In modern way:

Obj-C

@interface UIView (Snapshot) - (UIImage * _Nullable)snapshot; @end @implementation UIView (Snapshot) - (UIImage * _Nullable)snapshot { UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.bounds.size, NO, UIScreen.mainScreen.scale); [self drawViewHierarchyInRect:self.bounds afterScreenUpdates:YES]; UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext(); UIGraphicsEndImageContext(); return image; } @end

Swift

extension UIView { func snapshot() -> UIImage? { UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(bounds.size, false, UIScreen.main.scale) drawHierarchy(in: bounds, afterScreenUpdates: true) let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext() UIGraphicsEndImageContext() return image } }

MikeyWard · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-31 15:56:48Z

-1

Yes, here's a link to the Apple Developer Forums https://devforums.apple.com/message/149553

answered Aug 31, 2010 at 15:56

MikeyWard

1,1439 silver badges20 bronze badges

1 Comment

Tanuva Over a year ago

Link is dead by now.

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