zed.0xff.me

iphone glossy buttons howto

sample images

one big sample image33 individual button images











ObjC code

Following ObjC code uses iphone Private API (UIGlassButton class), so it may be rejected from AppStore.
BUT you can generate a lot of iphone-style glossy button images with it, save to PNG, and use in your projects.

IMPORTANT: this code must be run on iPhone simulator. it saves PNG images to /tmp folder on your computer

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#define UIColorFromRGBA(rgbValue,a) [UIColor colorWithRed:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 \
  green:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255.0 \
  blue:((float)(rgbValue & 0xFF))/255.0 alpha:a]

Class theClass = NSClassFromString(@"UIGlassButton");

for(int j=0;j<3;j++){
    for(int i=0;i<=10;i++){
        UIButton *theButton = [[[theClass alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(5+120*j, 5+i*44, 120, 44)] autorelease];
        [theButton setValue:UIColorFromRGBA(0xff<<(j*8),0.1*i) forKey:@"tintColor"];
        //[theButton setTitle:@"Accept" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
        [self.view addSubview:theButton];
        
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(theButton.frame.size);
        CGContextRef theContext = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
        [theButton.layer renderInContext:theContext];
        
        UIImage *theImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
        NSData *theData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(theImage);
        [theData writeToFile:[NSString stringWithFormat:
                              @"/tmp/btn%@%02i.png",
                              j==0 ? @"B" : (j==1 ? @"G" : @"R"),
                              i] atomically:NO];
        
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    }
}

and now make them stretch

automatically stretching to
(oops, button lost a shadow during screen capture, not important here though)

note that stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth method:

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            UIButton* button = [[UIButton alloc] init];
            [button setTitle:@"  looong long long very long text  " forState:UIControlStateNormal];
            [button setBackgroundImage:[[UIImage imageNamed:@"btnB10.png"] stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:10 topCapHeight:10] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
            [button sizeToFit];

NB: Don’t forget to release a button ! :)

Alchemy is working OK on ...

(listing only iDevices b/c there’s too much Android devices, and Alchemy is working on 99% of them)

iDevice Firmware Status
iPhone4 4.2.1
4.2.8 		OK
iPod Touch 3g 4.1
4.2.1
4.3.3 		OK
iPhone 3g 4.2.x POSSIBLY FIXED IN v1.1
iPod Touch 2g 4.2.x POSSIBLY FIXED IN v1.1
iPhone 2g 3.1.2
3.1.3 		FIXED IN v1.1
update is already on the appstore!

Alchemy for iPhone!

Long waited for, Alchemy for iPhone is finally out!

Links: ★ iTunes Preview ★ original tweet ★

Screenshots & QR:

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
if you discovered a bug or game is not working for you – please leave a comment with bug description and your phone model + iOS version. Thank you!

UPD2: this video shows how to determine your IOS version