How to not stretch an image in UIButton

Question

I'm trying to create a custom UITableViewCell programmatically and one of the subviews of this cell is going to be a button with an image in it (a simple image of a magnifying glass). However, I want the button's image to be centered and scaled proportionately down to fit in the button and NOT to be stretched to fill the entire button. Below is my code where self refers to the custom UITableViewCell which I am placing the button into.

self.myButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
[self.myButton setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed: @image_name_here"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
self.myButton.frame = CGRectMake(...//something, something)
self.myButton.imageView.contentMode = UIViewContentModeCenter;
[self.contentView addSubview:self.mySearchHelpButton];

Right now the image stretches to fill the entire button rather than scaling proportionately so that it fits nicely.

I have also tried setting the contentMode to UIViewContentModeScaleAspectFill but this doesn't seem to change anything. In fact, none of the different contentModes seem to change anything.

Robot Woods · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-05 14:46:02Z

68

Have you tried setImage instead of setBackgroundImage?

answered Jul 5, 2012 at 14:46

Robot Woods

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Comments

Rutger Huijsmans · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-04 05:56:46Z

59

Make sure the button is a Custom UIButton

Just using setImage: did not work for me on iOS9.

But it worked combined with myButton.imageView.contentMode = UIViewContentMode.ScaleAspectFit;

edited May 4, 2016 at 5:56

Rutger Huijsmans

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answered Jan 28, 2016 at 23:54

Dimitris

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2 Comments

RainCast Over a year ago

Thanks! This works for me too, seems to me this attribute is not exposed in IB, so that we have to manually set it in code instead of from IB. On IB, there is only a content mode setting for the button itself, instead of its imageView. Correct me if I am wrong.

Natalia Over a year ago

You're spot on RainCast - the only way to set aspect fit for just the imageView seems to be programmatically.

Ramin · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-03 14:01:14Z

46

In Swift...

button.imageView?.contentMode = . scaleAspectFit

edited Apr 3, 2020 at 14:01

Ramin

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answered Dec 10, 2015 at 13:25

Blank

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2 Comments

Mr Heelis Over a year ago

this is now button.imageView?.contentMode = .scaleAspectFit

cheesey Over a year ago

keep in mind if yourButton.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = falsethen .scaleAspectFit will not be applied

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

39

Storyboard

Property image.

You must define specific property in Runtime Attributes of Identity inspector – imageView.contentMode, where you set value relatively to rawValue position of enum UIViewContentMode. 1 means scaleAspectFit.

And button's alignment, in Attributes inspector:

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Oct 2, 2017 at 20:25

dimpiax

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9 Comments

neda Derakhshesh Over a year ago

thank you, your guide helps me a lot. is it possible for you to give me a brief explanation about what are you doing exactly? thank you very much

dimpiax Over a year ago

@nedaDerakhshesh could you be more specific? Thanks.

Nicolas Massart Over a year ago

This is the rawValue of the scaleAspectFit enum (case scaleAspectFit = 1)

Luke Smith Over a year ago

This worked for me, but ONLY after I had unloaded and reloaded the image - ie delete the image name from the image / background image field, then add it again to reload.

Anibal Sanchez Over a year ago

You saved my day!

|

Abhishek Jain · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-27 08:03:50Z

10

Swift 4.2

myButton.imageView!.contentMode = .scaleAspectFit

Swift earlier version

myButton.imageView!.contentMode = UIViewContentMode.scaleAspectFit

edited Oct 27, 2018 at 8:03

answered Oct 9, 2017 at 15:18

Abhishek Jain

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Comments

J. Doe · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-25 17:29:42Z

9

Swift 4.X and 5.X

button.imageView!.contentMode = .scaleAspectFit
button.contentVerticalAlignment = .fill
button.contentHorizontalAlignment = .fill

answered May 25, 2019 at 17:29

J. Doe

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Comments

Sherwin Zadeh · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-14 18:24:28Z

3

I think you guys are missing the obvious issue. The image is too large for the button and iOS then has to guess how you want to scale it. Make sure your images are the right size and you won't have this issue. Of course this is for static images and buttons that you know the size for up-front -- not dynamic content.

answered Apr 14, 2019 at 18:24

Sherwin Zadeh

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2 Comments

tyoc213 Over a year ago

What would be the right size for a normal button? less than the width and height of the button itself? or how it is calculated?

Sherwin Zadeh Over a year ago

@tyoc213, the size should be exactly the point size of the button, width and height, that you want. For example if you want a 44pt x 100pt button, the image asset should be 44x100 pixels @ 1x, 88x200 pixels @ 2x, 132x300 pixels @ 3x.That way auto layout knows can use the image as the intrinsic size of the button.

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