Create CGContext for CoreText

Question

I was trying to render some CoreText in a CALayer, so that i can adjust the alpha of that layer explicitly. I tried overriding the drawRect: method but that, as far as i know, only draws on the root layer of the view, and i have two sublayers, a bg image and the CoreText. Here's the method that attempts to draw the CoreText layer: (which works in drawRect if i remove the createContext code)

-(void) drawTextLayer
{
    //get context
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(CGSizeMake(250.0, 137.0), YES, 1.0);
CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

//draw text
//attribute string
NSMutableAttributedString *attrStr = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:displayTxt];

//get font    
NSString *fontPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"idolwild"
                                                     ofType:@"ttf"];

CFURLRef url = CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath(kCFAllocatorDefault, (CFStringRef)fontPath, kCFURLPOSIXPathStyle, false);
CGDataProviderRef dataProvider = CGDataProviderCreateWithURL(url);
CGFontRef theCGFont = CGFontCreateWithDataProvider(dataProvider);
CTFontRef idolwild = CTFontCreateWithGraphicsFont(theCGFont, 16.0, &CGAffineTransformIdentity, nil);

CFRelease(theCGFont);
CFRelease(dataProvider);
CFRelease(url);

[attrStr addAttribute:(id)kCTFontAttributeName
                value:(id)idolwild
                range:NSMakeRange(0, [attrStr length])];


//create paragraph style and assign text alignment to it
CTTextAlignment alignment = kCTCenterTextAlignment;
CTParagraphStyleSetting _settings[] = {    {kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierAlignment, sizeof(alignment), &alignment} };
CTParagraphStyleRef paragraphStyle = CTParagraphStyleCreate(_settings, sizeof(_settings) / sizeof(_settings[0]));

//set paragraph style attribute
[attrStr addAttribute:(id)kCTParagraphStyleAttributeName
                value:(id)paragraphStyle
                range:NSMakeRange(0, [attrStr length])];


[attrStr addAttribute:(id)kCTForegroundColorAttributeName
                value:(id)[UIColor clearColor].CGColor
                range:NSMakeRange(0, [attrStr length])];


[attrStr addAttribute:(id)kCTForegroundColorAttributeName
                value:(id)[UIColor blackColor].CGColor
                range:NSMakeRange(0, [[wordRanges objectAtIndex:currentTextindex] intValue])];


//layout master
CTFramesetterRef framesetter = CTFramesetterCreateWithAttributedString((CFAttributedStringRef)attrStr);

//bounding eclipse
CGMutablePathRef boundingEclipse = CGPathCreateMutable();
CGPathAddEllipseInRect(boundingEclipse, NULL, boundingEclipseRect);


//ctframe
CTFrameRef bubbleFrame = CTFramesetterCreateFrame(framesetter, 
                                                  CFRangeMake(0, 0),
                                                  boundingEclipse, NULL);

// flip the coordinate system
CGContextSetTextMatrix(context, CGAffineTransformIdentity);
CGContextTranslateCTM(context, 0, self.bounds.size.height);
CGContextScaleCTM(context, 1.0, -1.0);


    //fill bg to visual
    CGContextAddPath(context, boundingEclipse);
    [[UIColor greenColor] setFill];
    CGContextFillPath(context);

//draw
CTFrameDraw(bubbleFrame, context);

//add to layer
UIImage *tempImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
textLayer.contents = tempImage;

//cleanup
CGPathRelease(boundingEclipse);
CFRelease(framesetter);
CFRelease(bubbleFrame);
CFRelease(idolwild);
CGContextRelease(context);

[attrStr release];
}

--any theory on CALayers and CGContexts is much appreciated

Answer 1

I can suggest three different methods:

1. Subclass CALayer and implement its drawInContext:.

2. Set an object that is not a UIView as the sublayer's delegate, then implement drawLayer:inContext:.

3. Create a CGImage and set it as the layer's contents:

   UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(size);
   CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
   
   /// draw
   
   UIImage * image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
   UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
   
   sublayer.contents = (id)image.CGImage;