I had the need to take a regular old NSString and get a UIImage representation of that text. It seems like a relatively straightforward thing to do, so here is the code that I put together:

+ (UIImage *)imageWithView:(UIView *)view
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(view.bounds.size, NO, 0.0);
    [view.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
    UIImage *img = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return img;
}

+ (UIImage *)imageWithString:(NSString *)theString font:(UIFont *)theFont color:(UIColor *)theColor
{
    UILabel *tempLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
    tempLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    tempLabel.textColor = theColor;
    tempLabel.font = theFont;
    tempLabel.text = theString;
    [tempLabel sizeToFit];
    
    return [self imageWithView:tempLabel];
}

As an added bonus, if you happen to be using Font Awesome in your iOS project (and let’s be honest, if you aren’t, you should be), here is a bonus method:

+ (UIImage *)imageWithFontAwesomeIcon:(NSString *)faIcon fontSize:(CGFloat)fontSize color:(UIColor *)fontColor
{
    return [self imageWithString:[NSString fontAwesomeIconStringForIconIdentifier:faIcon]
                            font:[UIFont fontWithName:kFontAwesomeFamilyName size:fontSize]
                           color:fontColor];
}

BTW, Happy Birthday to Brian Setzer, who is a fantastic guitar player and singer.