I needed a version that preserved the alpha channel, so I modified the code posted by Dutchie432:
@implementation UIImage (grayscale)
typedef enum {
ALPHA = 0,
BLUE = 1,
GREEN = 2,
RED = 3
} PIXELS;
- (UIImage *)convertToGrayscale {
CGSize size = [self size];
int width = size.width;
int height = size.height;
// the pixels will be painted to this array
uint32_t *pixels = (uint32_t *) malloc(width * height * sizeof(uint32_t));
// clear the pixels so any transparency is preserved
memset(pixels, 0, width * height * sizeof(uint32_t));
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
// create a context with RGBA pixels
CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(pixels, width, height, 8, width * sizeof(uint32_t), colorSpace,
kCGBitmapByteOrder32Little | kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast);
// paint the bitmap to our context which will fill in the pixels array
CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height), [self CGImage]);
for(int y = 0; y < height; y++) {
for(int x = 0; x < width; x++) {
uint8_t *rgbaPixel = (uint8_t *) &pixels[y * width + x];
// convert to grayscale using recommended method: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayscale#Converting_color_to_grayscale
uint32_t gray = 0.3 * rgbaPixel[RED] + 0.59 * rgbaPixel[GREEN] + 0.11 * rgbaPixel[BLUE];
// set the pixels to gray
rgbaPixel[RED] = gray;
rgbaPixel[GREEN] = gray;
rgbaPixel[BLUE] = gray;
}
}
// create a new CGImageRef from our context with the modified pixels
CGImageRef image = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);
// we're done with the context, color space, and pixels
CGContextRelease(context);
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
free(pixels);
// make a new UIImage to return
UIImage *resultUIImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:image];
// we're done with image now too
CGImageRelease(image);
return resultUIImage;
}
@end