How do I add text to an image in iOS Swift?

I have looked around and have been unsuccessful at figuring out how take text, overlay it on an image, and then combine the two into a single UIImage.

I have exhausted Google using the search terms I can think of so if anyone has a solution or at least a hint they can point to it would be greatly appreciated.

Ok... I figured it out:

func textToImage(drawText: NSString, inImage: UIImage, atPoint: CGPoint) -> UIImage{

    // Setup the font specific variables
    var textColor = UIColor.whiteColor()
    var textFont = UIFont(name: "Helvetica Bold", size: 12)!

    // Setup the image context using the passed image
    let scale = UIScreen.mainScreen().scale
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(inImage.size, false, scale)

    // Setup the font attributes that will be later used to dictate how the text should be drawn
    let textFontAttributes = [
        NSFontAttributeName: textFont,
        NSForegroundColorAttributeName: textColor,
    ]

    // Put the image into a rectangle as large as the original image
    inImage.drawInRect(CGRectMake(0, 0, inImage.size.width, inImage.size.height))

    // Create a point within the space that is as bit as the image
    var rect = CGRectMake(atPoint.x, atPoint.y, inImage.size.width, inImage.size.height)

    // Draw the text into an image
    drawText.drawInRect(rect, withAttributes: textFontAttributes)

    // Create a new image out of the images we have created
    var newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()

    // End the context now that we have the image we need
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

    //Pass the image back up to the caller
    return newImage

}

To call it, you just pass in an image:

textToImage("000", inImage: UIImage(named:"thisImage.png")!, atPoint: CGPointMake(20, 20))

The following links helped me get this straight:

Swift - Drawing text with drawInRect:withAttributes:

How to write text on image in Objective-C (iOS)?

The original goal was to create a dynamic image that I could use in an AnnotaionView such as putting a price at a given location on a map and this worked out great for it. Hope this helps someone trying to do the same thing.

For Swift 3:

 func textToImage(drawText text: NSString, inImage image: UIImage, atPoint point: CGPoint) -> UIImage {
    let textColor = UIColor.white
    let textFont = UIFont(name: "Helvetica Bold", size: 12)!

    let scale = UIScreen.main.scale
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(image.size, false, scale)

    let textFontAttributes = [
        NSFontAttributeName: textFont,
        NSForegroundColorAttributeName: textColor,
        ] as [String : Any]
    image.draw(in: CGRect(origin: CGPoint.zero, size: image.size))

    let rect = CGRect(origin: point, size: image.size)
    text.draw(in: rect, withAttributes: textFontAttributes)

    let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

    return newImage!
 }

For Swift 4:

 func textToImage(drawText text: String, inImage image: UIImage, atPoint point: CGPoint) -> UIImage {
    let textColor = UIColor.white
    let textFont = UIFont(name: "Helvetica Bold", size: 12)!

    let scale = UIScreen.main.scale
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(image.size, false, scale)

    let textFontAttributes = [
        NSAttributedStringKey.font: textFont,
        NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: textColor,
        ] as [NSAttributedStringKey : Any]
    image.draw(in: CGRect(origin: CGPoint.zero, size: image.size))

    let rect = CGRect(origin: point, size: image.size)
    text.draw(in: rect, withAttributes: textFontAttributes)

    let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

    return newImage!
 }

For Swift 5:

func textToImage(drawText text: String, inImage image: UIImage, atPoint point: CGPoint) -> UIImage {
    let textColor = UIColor.white
    let textFont = UIFont(name: "Helvetica Bold", size: 12)!

    let scale = UIScreen.main.scale
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(image.size, false, scale)

    let textFontAttributes = [
        NSAttributedString.Key.font: textFont,
        NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: textColor,
        ] as [NSAttributedString.Key : Any]
    image.draw(in: CGRect(origin: CGPoint.zero, size: image.size))

    let rect = CGRect(origin: point, size: image.size)
    text.draw(in: rect, withAttributes: textFontAttributes)

    let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

    return newImage!
}

My simple solution:

func generateImageWithText(text: String) -> UIImage? {
    let image = UIImage(named: "imageWithoutText")!

    let imageView = UIImageView(image: image)
    imageView.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
    imageView.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: image.size.width, height: image.size.height)

    let label = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: image.size.width, height: image.size.height))
    label.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
    label.textAlignment = .center
    label.textColor = UIColor.white
    label.text = text

    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(label.bounds.size, false, 0)
    imageView.layer.render(in: UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()!)
    label.layer.render(in: UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()!)
    let imageWithText = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

    return imageWithText
}

You can also do a CATextLayer.

    // 1
let textLayer = CATextLayer()
textLayer.frame = someView.bounds

// 2
let string = String(
  repeating: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce auctor arcu quis velit congue dictum. ", 
  count: 20
)

textLayer.string = string

// 3
let fontName: CFStringRef = "Noteworthy-Light"
textLayer.font = CTFontCreateWithName(fontName, fontSize, nil)

// 4
textLayer.foregroundColor = UIColor.darkGray.cgColor
textLayer.isWrapped = true
textLayer.alignmentMode = kCAAlignmentLeft
textLayer.contentsScale = UIScreen.main.scale
someView.layer.addSublayer(textLayer)

https://www.raywenderlich.com/402-calayer-tutorial-for-ios-getting-started

I have created an extension for using it everywhere :

import Foundation
import UIKit
extension UIImage {

    class func createImageWithLabelOverlay(label: UILabel,imageSize: CGSize, image: UIImage) -> UIImage {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(CGSize(width: imageSize.width, height: imageSize.height), false, 2.0)
        let currentView = UIView.init(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: imageSize.width, height: imageSize.height))
        let currentImage = UIImageView.init(image: image)
        currentImage.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: imageSize.width, height: imageSize.height)
        currentView.addSubview(currentImage)
        currentView.addSubview(label)
        currentView.layer.render(in: UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()!)
        let img = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return img!
    }

}

Usage : Anywhere on your ViewController where you have the size and the label to add use it as follows -

let newImageWithOverlay = UIImage.createImageWithLabelOverlay(label: labelToAdd, imageSize: size, image: editedImage)