R – Why is scaling down a UIImage from the camera so slow

The reason your code doesn't work is because the imageOrientation on the code that you have is not being taken into account. Specifically, if the imageOrientation is right/left, then you need to both rotate the image and swap width/height. Here is some code to do this:

-(UIImage*)imageByScalingToSize:(CGSize)targetSize
{
    UIImage* sourceImage = self; 
    CGFloat targetWidth = targetSize.width;
    CGFloat targetHeight = targetSize.height;

    CGImageRef imageRef = [sourceImage CGImage];
    CGBitmapInfo bitmapInfo = CGImageGetBitmapInfo(imageRef);
    CGColorSpaceRef colorSpaceInfo = CGImageGetColorSpace(imageRef);

    if (bitmapInfo == kCGImageAlphaNone) {
        bitmapInfo = kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast;
    }

    CGContextRef bitmap;

    if (sourceImage.imageOrientation == UIImageOrientationUp || sourceImage.imageOrientation == UIImageOrientationDown) {
        bitmap = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL, targetWidth, targetHeight, CGImageGetBitsPerComponent(imageRef), CGImageGetBytesPerRow(imageRef), colorSpaceInfo, bitmapInfo);

    } else {
        bitmap = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL, targetHeight, targetWidth, CGImageGetBitsPerComponent(imageRef), CGImageGetBytesPerRow(imageRef), colorSpaceInfo, bitmapInfo);

    }   

    if (sourceImage.imageOrientation == UIImageOrientationLeft) {
        CGContextRotateCTM (bitmap, radians(90));
        CGContextTranslateCTM (bitmap, 0, -targetHeight);

    } else if (sourceImage.imageOrientation == UIImageOrientationRight) {
        CGContextRotateCTM (bitmap, radians(-90));
        CGContextTranslateCTM (bitmap, -targetWidth, 0);

    } else if (sourceImage.imageOrientation == UIImageOrientationUp) {
        // NOTHING
    } else if (sourceImage.imageOrientation == UIImageOrientationDown) {
        CGContextTranslateCTM (bitmap, targetWidth, targetHeight);
        CGContextRotateCTM (bitmap, radians(-180.));
    }

    CGContextDrawImage(bitmap, CGRectMake(0, 0, targetWidth, targetHeight), imageRef);
    CGImageRef ref = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(bitmap);
    UIImage* newImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:ref];

    CGContextRelease(bitmap);
    CGImageRelease(ref);

    return newImage; 
}

This will resize your image and rotate it to the correct orientation. If you need the definition for radians, it is:

static inline double radians (double degrees) {return degrees * M_PI/180;}

The answer Daniel gave is also correct, but it suffers from the problem that it is not thread-safe, since you're using UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(). Since the above code only uses CG functions, you're all set. I also have a similar function to resize and do proper aspect fill on images - let me know if that's what you're looking for.

Note: I got the original function from this post, and did some modifications to make it work on JPEGs.

The simplest way is to set the frame of your UIImageView and set the contentMode to one of the resizing options.

Or you can use this utility method, if you actually need to resize an image:

+ (UIImage *)imageWithImage:(UIImage *)image scaledToSize:(CGSize)newSize {
    //UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(newSize);
    // In next line, pass 0.0 to use the current device's pixel scaling factor (and thus account for Retina resolution).
    // Pass 1.0 to force exact pixel size.
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(newSize, NO, 0.0);
    [image drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, newSize.width, newSize.height)];
    UIImage *newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();    
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return newImage;
}

Example usage:

#import "MYUtil.h"
…
UIImage *myIcon = [MYUtil imageWithImage:myUIImageInstance scaledToSize:CGSizeMake(20, 20)];