I'm trying to make a nice looking UIButton. I'm not exactly sure what I mean by that, but something nicer than just a plain white looking rounded corner button with blue font. I can't seem to find anything online, so can anyone help? I want to do it all by programming (no XIB) and I am not an artist so I can't draw any custom images or anything like that.
Back in May of last year, Jeff LaMarche (of iPhone dev shop Martian Craft and co-author of several iPhone development books) put out a suite called GradientButtons that makes it easy to implement pretty, shiny, colorful buttons. I've used it in several projects and it's quite nice.
Here is a tutorial on how to make a shhiny button all in code, no image needed!
Tutorial on gradients at CocoaWithLove
http://tapadoo.com/2010/tired-of-trying-to-create-nice-buttons-for-your-iphone-app-try-this/
I ran into the above link when I was searching for a similar resource. Did the job
The Apple UI guidelines would suggest I think that you use the standard button unless you have good reason not to.
Related
I am curious as to whether or not there is an open source solution to replicate the flash button in the iOS camera applicaiton.
I have seem many other apps use this, but there doesn't seem to be a native way, so I assume there is a common source out there.
It is possible to get the flash button by using UIImagePickerController class, but most of the camera apps out there don't seem to be using this (or perhaps they subclass it, which is against apple's terms).
I am looking for a way to replicate the expanding behavior of the button. Any thoughts?
It doesn't sound too hard.
The way I'd do it is to separate the right curve of the button (as images), and make a UIView that has the left part of the button and the right curve as subviews.
When it's tapped, slide the right curve and animate the extra buttons in.
You could use a stretchable UIImage (see UIImage documentation) and then just animate the frame changing.
In the Apple 2010 WWDC Sample code (downloadable via iTunes, otherwise I'd post it here), there are several sample applications which use this control. They call the class ExpandyButton. I realize I'm answering my question, but hopefully someone out there can find this useful.
While looking for a similar solution to this problem I came across this code which was extremely helpful. Similar to ExpandyButton it fit my needs better.
https://github.com/ddebin/DDExpandableButton
Don't need image background, just good-looking color is enough.
Jeff LaMarche has some very iOS-looking and simple-to-use programmatic gradient buttons here.
You just need to add a .h and .m file to your project and you are good to go.
http://www.youthedesigner.com/2010/03/10/29-sexy-iphone-app-designs/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/09/iphone-app-design-trends/
These may not be of any use but check them out. There are some really well designed apps and u'll get a good idea of what colours work. Your question is slightly vague to provide an exact answer IMO.
You can get the RBB values of the colours using a number of tools.
Check this
Fun With UIButtons and Core Animation Layers
I understand how to include a standard alert within my iPhone application, and can dismiss it with an OK or CLOSE button (see Epicurious example in image).
How can I make a cool alert/notice overlay like the one seen in the foursquare app (see foursquare example in image)? In particular, how to include the alert/notice layout with graphic. Is this a separate view?
If you can point me to a tutorial or sample code that will get me moving in the right direction, it's much appreciated! :)
Answered here.
Jeff Lamarche has a nice write up on the topic here
Sam Vermette has a nice blog post about this http://samvermette.com/309
And this is his corresponding github project.
It's as easy as this:
[SVStatusHUD showWithImage:image status:#"Hello World!" duration:3];
I want to implement a functionality similar to found in Pages app..i.e. text floating around images, image zooming etc.. I have been struggling with this part of my application but no success yet. Would be grateful if someone provides me with some pointers in this regard , like 'Which UIControl should I use?','Help in thinking logic' etc..
Thanx in advance.
Sounds like a fun app to develop.
Some Pointers:
Immediately off the bat, I would say look into creating your own Controls for the floating objects.
I would suggest tackling a smaller project, or maybe a few small to medium size projects. p
Try making a few apps with WinForms or WPF. Also look into XSL:FO.
Immediately off the bat, I would say look into creating your own Controls.
There was a WWDC session that talked about iOS text. I don't think it's violating NDA to say this is going to be a very hard project. No, make that very, very, very hard.
You will probably need to do all UI yourself, and use Core Text for rendering of the text. (But I believe you need to draw selection, etc.) And do the layout yourself.
If you look at the Notes app on the iPad, you can see it uses all native iPhone controls, but they're "skinned" to look like a pad of paper. What's the best way to implement something similar to that? Could I use interface builder and simply change the background image for each of the controls, including the TableViews?
Thanks in advance for all your help! I'm going to continue researching this question right now.
This article from Dr Touch will probably come in handy: Stuff you learn from reverse engineering Notes.app
It's a little more complicated than that. My suggestion is manifold:
Hire a real designer to make the artwork.
Subclass whatever controls you want to skin, and handle this business directly in drawRect:. Interface Builder will not help you in this instance.
Consider drawing your controls programmatically instead of using images; a really cool thing would be to cache the programmatic drawings so that they only have to be performed once.
Best of luck!