Capture a React Native view to an image.

yarn add react-native-view-shot
react-native link react-native-view-shot

import { ViewShot } from "react-native-view-shot";

class ExampleCaptureOnMountManually extends Component {
  componentDidMount () {
    this.refs.viewShot.capture().then(uri => {
      console.log("do something with ", uri);
    });
  }
  render() {
    return (
      <ViewShot ref="viewShot" options={{ format: "jpg", quality: 0.9 }}>
        <Text>...Something to rasterize...</Text>
      </ViewShot>
    );
  }
}

// alternative
class ExampleCaptureOnMountSimpler extends Component {
  onCapture = uri => {
    console.log("do something with ", uri);
  }
  render() {
    return (
      <ViewShot onCapture={this.onCapture} captureMode="mount">
        <Text>...Something to rasterize...</Text>
      </ViewShot>
    );
  }
}

// waiting an image
class ExampleWaitingCapture extends Component {
  onImageLoad = () => {
    this.refs.viewShot.capture().then(uri => {
      console.log("do something with ", uri);
    })
  };
  render() {
    return (
      <ViewShot ref="viewShot">
        <Text>...Something to rasterize...</Text>
        <Image ... onLoad={this.onImageLoad} />
      </ViewShot>
    );
  }
}

Props:

• children: the actual content to rasterize.
• options: the same options as in captureRef method.
• captureMode (string):
  • if not defined (default). the capture is not automatic and you need to use the ref and call capture() yourself.
  • "mount". Capture the view once at mount. (It is important to understand image loading won't be waited, in such case you want to use "none" with viewShotRef.capture() after Image#onLoad.)
  • "continuous" EXPERIMENTAL, this will capture A LOT of images continuously. For very specific use-cases.
  • "update" EXPERIMENTAL, this will capture images each time React redraw (on did update). For very specific use-cases.
• onCapture: when a captureMode is defined, this callback will be called with the capture result.
• onCaptureFailure: when a captureMode is defined, this callback will be called when a capture fails.

import { captureRef } from "react-native-view-shot";

captureRef(viewRef, {
  format: "jpg",
  quality: 0.8
})
.then(
  uri => console.log("Image saved to", uri),
  error => console.error("Oops, snapshot failed", error)
);

Returns a Promise of the image URI.

• view is a reference to a React Native component.
• options may include:
  • width / height (number): the width and height of the final image (resized from the View bound. don't provide it if you want the original pixel size).
  • format (string): either png or jpg or webm (Android). Defaults to png.
  • quality (number): the quality. 0.0 - 1.0 (default). (only available on lossy formats like jpg)
  • result (string), the method you want to use to save the snapshot, one of:
    • "tmpfile" (default): save to a temporary file (that will only exist for as long as the app is running).
    • "base64": encode as base64 and returns the raw string. Use only with small images as this may result of lags (the string is sent over the bridge). N.B. This is not a data uri, use data-uri instead.
    • "data-uri": same as base64 but also includes the Data URI scheme header.
• snapshotContentContainer (bool): if true and when view is a ScrollView, the "content container" height will be evaluated instead of the container height.

This method release a previously captured uri. For tmpfile it will clean them out, for other result types it just won't do anything.

NB: the tmpfile captures are automatically cleaned out after the app closes, so you might not have to worry about this unless advanced usecases. The ViewShot component will use it each time you capture more than once (useful for continuous capture to not leak files).

Checkout react-native-view-shot-example

Snapshots are not guaranteed to be pixel perfect. It also depends on the platform. Here is some difference we have noticed and how to workaround.

Model tested: iPhone 6 (iOS), Nexus 5 (Android).

1. Only supported by wrapping a <View collapsable={false}> parent and snapshotting it.
2. It returns an empty image (not a failure Promise).
3. Component itself lacks platform support.
4. But you can just use the react-native-maps snapshot function: https://github.com/airbnb/react-native-maps#take-snapshot-of-map

• If you want to save the snapshotted image result to the CameraRoll, just use https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/cameraroll.html#savetocameraroll
• If you want to save it to an arbitrary file path, use something like https://github.com/itinance/react-native-fs
• For any more advanced needs, you can write your own (or find another) native module that would solve your use-case.

• Support of special components like Video / GL views is not guaranteed to work. In case of failure, the captureRef promise gets rejected (the library won't crash).

Check the Interoperability Table above. Some special components are unfortunately not supported. If you have a View that contains one of an unsupported component, the whole snapshot might be compromised as well.

• It's preferable to use a background color on the view you rasterize to avoid transparent pixels and potential weirdness that some border appear around texts.

you need to make sure collapsable is set to false if you want to snapshot a View. Some content might even need to be wrapped into such <View collapsable={false}> to actually make them snapshotable! Otherwise that view won't reflect any UI View. (found by @gaguirre)

Alternatively, you can use the ViewShot component that will have collapsable={false} set to solve this problem.

Make sure you don't snapshot instantly, you need to wait at least there is a first onLayout event, or after a timeout, otherwise the View might not be ready yet. (It should also be safe to just wait Image onLoad if you have one). If you still have the problem, make sure your view actually have a width and height > 0.

Alternatively, you can use the ViewShot component that will wait the first onLayout.

This is because the snapshot image result is in real pixel size where the width/height defined in a React Native style are defined in "point" unit. You might want to set width and height option to force a resize. (might affect image quality)

• To initial iOS work done by @jsierles in https://github.com/jsierles/react-native-view-snapshot
• To React Native implementation of takeSnapshot in iOS by @nicklockwood
• To Windows implementation by @ryanlntn