Rounded UIView using CALayers – only some corners – How?

Starting in iOS 3.2, you can use the functionality of UIBezierPaths to create an out-of-the-box rounded rect (where only corners you specify are rounded). You can then use this as the path of a CAShapeLayer, and use this as a mask for your view’s layer:

// Create the path (with only the top-left corner rounded)
UIBezierPath *maskPath = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRoundedRect:imageView.bounds 
                                               byRoundingCorners:UIRectCornerTopLeft
                                                     cornerRadii:CGSizeMake(10.0, 10.0)];

// Create the shape layer and set its path
CAShapeLayer *maskLayer = [CAShapeLayer layer];
maskLayer.frame = imageView.bounds;
maskLayer.path = maskPath.CGPath;

// Set the newly created shape layer as the mask for the image view's layer
imageView.layer.mask = maskLayer;

And that’s it – no messing around manually defining shapes in Core Graphics, no creating masking images in Photoshop. The layer doesn’t even need invalidating. Applying the rounded corner or changing to a new corner is as simple as defining a new UIBezierPath and using its CGPath as the mask layer’s path. The corners parameter of the bezierPathWithRoundedRect:byRoundingCorners:cornerRadii: method is a bitmask, and so multiple corners can be rounded by ORing them together.

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EDIT: Adding a shadow

If you’re looking to add a shadow to this, a little more work is required.

Because “imageView.layer.mask = maskLayer” applies a mask, a shadow will not ordinarily show outside of it. The trick is to use a transparent view, and then add two sublayers (CALayers) to the view’s layer: shadowLayer and roundedLayer. Both need to make use of the UIBezierPath. The image is added as the content of roundedLayer.

// Create a transparent view
UIView *theView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:theFrame];
[theView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];

// Create the path (with only the top-left corner rounded)
UIBezierPath *maskPath = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRoundedRect:theView.bounds 
                                               byRoundingCorners:UIRectCornerTopLeft
                                                     cornerRadii:CGSizeMake(10.0f, 10.0f)];

// Create the shadow layer
CAShapeLayer *shadowLayer = [CAShapeLayer layer];
[shadowLayer setFrame:theView.bounds];
[shadowLayer setMasksToBounds:NO];
[shadowLayer setShadowPath:maskPath.CGPath];
// ...
// Set the shadowColor, shadowOffset, shadowOpacity & shadowRadius as required
// ...

// Create the rounded layer, and mask it using the rounded mask layer
CALayer *roundedLayer = [CALayer layer];
[roundedLayer setFrame:theView.bounds];
[roundedLayer setContents:(id)theImage.CGImage];

CAShapeLayer *maskLayer = [CAShapeLayer layer];
[maskLayer setFrame:theView.bounds];
[maskLayer setPath:maskPath.CGPath];

roundedLayer.mask = maskLayer;

// Add these two layers as sublayers to the view
[theView.layer addSublayer:shadowLayer];
[theView.layer addSublayer:roundedLayer];