How to set the alpha of an UIImage in SWIFT programmatically?

Question

I found a lot solutions here but not for Swift, and I know you can do this with a UIImageView, but in my case i need an programmatically set alpha transparent background image for an UIButton. Best would be an UIImage extension!

let img = UIImage(named: "imageWithoutAlpha")
var imgInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 24, 0, 24)
image = image!.resizableImageWithCapInsets(imgInsets)

let myButton = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 50, y: 50, width: img!.size.width, height: img!.size.height))
myButton.setBackgroundImage(img, forState: UIControlState.Normal)
myButton.contentEdgeInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 20, 0, 20)
myButton.setTitle("Startbutton", forState: UIControlState.Normal)
myButton.setTitleColor(UIColor.blackColor(), forState: UIControlState.Normal)
myButton.sizeToFit()
view.addSubview(myButton)

Current result:

Desired result:

Answer 1

Luckily I was able to help myself and would like to share with you my solution:

Swift 3

// UIImage+Alpha.swift

extension UIImage {  

    func alpha(_ value:CGFloat) -> UIImage {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, scale)
        draw(at: CGPoint.zero, blendMode: .normal, alpha: value)
        let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return newImage!   
    }
}

The above new Swift extension I added to my project and then I changed the UIButton example as follows, to have an alpha transparent background image with a transparency of 50%.

let img = UIImage(named: "imageWithoutAlpha")!.alpha(0.5)
let myButton = UIButton()

myButton.setBackgroundImage(img, for: .normal)

Answer 2

The easiest way is to put your UIImage inside a UIImageView and set the alpha there.

let image = UIImage(named: "imageWithoutAlpha")
let imageView = UIImageView(image: image)
imageView.alpha = 0.5

myButton.setBackgroundImage(image, forState: UIControlState.Normal)

Answer 3

I was able to set the alpha using the following code:

self.imageView.image = UIImageView(image: "image.png")
imageView.alpha = 0.5