Often i need to use some image as a background for many visual components, like views, scrollviews, buttons, other images… and most of time i ended using a large enough image to cover the front image.
So, if my view was 1000x700 i needed to load an 1000x700 image for the background. But this image will eat a lot of memory just to be there as a background. There should be a better way to do this. And there is a better way to do this.
All you have to do is create your UIImage like this
UIImage* backgroundImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@”stretchableImage.png”] stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:44 topCapHeight:45];
this stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth specify how many pixel in the left must be kept. The same goes to the topCapHeight, and in this case it specifies the number of pixels in the top.
So in the example, the sdk will keep the first 44 pixels, copy the 45th along all the way of the image, and in the end keep again the last 44 pixels. It will do the same for the height.
So you wont need to keep a large image in memory. And you can also use this technique to create dynamic buttons, views and anything that you may even not know how length it is.
Here you can find an image as example (but keep in mind that as a designer, i’m a good programmer ^_^” )Visit my tumblr for more iphone tips and tricks
