How to create a colored 1x1 UIImage on the iPhone dynamically?

You can use CGContextSetFillColorWithColor and CGContextFillRect for this:

Swift

extension UIImage {
    class func image(with color: UIColor) -> UIImage {
        let rect = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0)
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size)
        let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()

        CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, color.CGColor)
        CGContextFillRect(context, rect)

        let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

        return image
    }
}

Swift3

extension UIImage {
    class func image(with color: UIColor) -> UIImage {
        let rect = CGRect(origin: CGPoint(x: 0, y:0), size: CGSize(width: 1, height: 1))
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size)
        let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()!

        context.setFillColor(color.cgColor)
        context.fill(rect)

        let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

        return image!
    }
}

Objective-C

+ (UIImage *)imageWithColor:(UIColor *)color {
    CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size);
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, [color CGColor]);
    CGContextFillRect(context, rect);

    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    return image;
}

Here's another option based on Matt Stephen's code. It creates a resizable solid color image such that you could reuse it or change it's size (e.g. use it for a background).

+ (UIImage *)prefix_resizeableImageWithColor:(UIColor *)color {
    CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 3.0f, 3.0f);
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size);
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, [color CGColor]);
    CGContextFillRect(context, rect);

    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    image = [image resizableImageWithCapInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(1, 1, 1, 1)];

    return image;
}

Put it in a UIImage category and change the prefix.

I used Matt Steven's answer many times so made a category for it:

@interface UIImage (mxcl)
+ (UIImage *)squareImageWithColor:(UIColor *)color dimension:(int)dimension;
@end

@implementation UIImage (mxcl)
+ (UIImage *)squareImageWithColor:(UIColor *)color dimension:(int)dimension {
    CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0, 0, dimension, dimension);
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size);
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, [color CGColor]);
    CGContextFillRect(context, rect);

    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    return image;
}
@end

Using Apple's latest UIGraphicsImageRenderer the code is pretty small:

import UIKit

extension UIImage {
    static func from(color: UIColor) -> UIImage {
        let size = CGSize(width: 1, height: 1)
        return UIGraphicsImageRenderer(size: size).image(actions: { (context) in
            context.cgContext.setFillColor(color.cgColor)
            context.fill(.init(origin: .zero, size: size))
        })
    }
}