The currently accepted answer is now out of date, at least if you are supporting iOS 7.
Here is what you should be using if you are only supporting iOS7+:
+ (UIImage *) imageWithView:(UIView *)view
{
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(view.bounds.size, view.opaque, 0.0f);
[view drawViewHierarchyInRect:view.bounds afterScreenUpdates:NO];
UIImage * snapshotImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
return snapshotImage;
}
Swift 4:
func imageWithView(view: UIView) -> UIImage? {
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(view.bounds.size, view.isOpaque, 0.0)
defer { UIGraphicsEndImageContext() }
view.drawHierarchy(in: view.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: true)
return UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
}
As per this article, you can see that the new iOS7 method drawViewHierarchyInRect:afterScreenUpdates:
is many times faster than renderInContext:
.