Merge two UIImages into one

Question

I have merge two images into one. I already implemented it with some help from the internet but it takes around 2,5s. I'm testing on the simulator so let's take it as a reference.

I currently use UIGraphicsBeingImageContext. Is there any faster way to achieve it?

extension UIImage {
 func overlayWith(image: UIImage, posX: CGFloat, posY: CGFloat, topImageSize: CGSize,
 combinedImage: @escaping (UIImage) -> Void) {
 DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInteractive).async {
 let newWidth = self.size.width < posX + image.size.width ? posX + image.size.width : self.size.width
 let newHeight = self.size.height < posY + image.size.height ? posY + image.size.height : self.size.height
 let newSize = CGSize(width: newWidth, height: newHeight)
 UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(newSize, false, 0.0)
 self.draw(in: CGRect(origin: CGPoint.zero, size: self.size))
 image.draw(in: CGRect(origin: CGPoint(x: posX, y: posY), size: topImageSize))
 let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
 UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
 DispatchQueue.main.async {
 combinedImage(newImage)
 }
 }
 }
}

• ielyamani: What is the size of the images you are using?
• mikro098: @Carpsen90 the base image is iPhone image so it is around 3000x4000 and the top image is smaller ~1000x500. I implemented downsampling from WWDC 2018 session 219 (Image and graphics best practices) but it only shrinks down a photo. I tested it on iPhone 7 and it took me ~0,25s so it is almost instantaneous but maybe there are some tricks to speed up this process?
• mikro098: And btw when I'm combining two photos I get a peak of memory use of about ~170 MB on iPhone 7.
• ielyamani: I've found that this code is almost twice as fast if topImageSize has the same with/height ratio as the size of image. Needed clarification: Could these images have some transparency, could the alpha channel be different from 1.0?
• mikro098: @Carpsen90 yep, the top image is .png with transparent background but the base image is not - it is just image taken with iPhone camera

Answer 1

On a simulator with the original code, it takes about 1.52s on my machine.

Since the base image won't get resized (self.size is passed in self.draw(in:)), and its alpha channel is always 1, I could gain at least 200ms by using the following :

self.draw(at: CGPoint.zero, blendMode: .copy, alpha: 1)

• mikro098: thanks, cool trick. I managed to drop from 1.13s to 1.07s or even 0.98 on the simulator. Not a major improvement but a welcome one.