public static NSImage createGradientImageWidth(CGFloat pixelsWide) height(CGFloat pixelsHigh) fromColor(NSColor fromColor) toColor(NSColor toColor)
{
CGImageRef theCGImage = null;
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
// create the bitmap context
CGContextRef gradientBitmapContext = CGBitmapContextCreate(null, (size_t)pixelsWide, (size_t)pixelsHigh, 8, 0, colorSpace, CGImageAlphaInfo.kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst as CGBitmapInfo);
// define the start and end grayscale values (with the alpha, even though
// our bitmap context doesn't support alpha the gradient requires it)
CGColorRef start = fromColor.CGColor();
CGColorRef end = toColor.CGColor();
CGColorRef[] colors = new [] {start, end};
// CGFloat locations[2] = { 0.0, 1.0 };
CFArrayRef colorArray = CFArrayCreate(null, &colors, 2, null);
// create the CGGradient and then release the gray color space
CGGradientRef grayScaleGradient = CGGradientCreateWithColors(null, colorArray, null);
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
CFRelease(colorArray);
// create the start and end points for the gradient vector (straight down)
CGPoint gradientStartPoint = CGPointZero;
CGPoint gradientEndPoint = CGPointMake(pixelsWide / 2, pixelsHigh);
// draw the gradient into the gray bitmap context
CGContextDrawLinearGradient(gradientBitmapContext, grayScaleGradient, gradientStartPoint, gradientEndPoint, kCGGradientDrawsAfterEndLocation);
CGGradientRelease(grayScaleGradient);
// convert the context into a CGImageRef and release the context
theCGImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(gradientBitmapContext);
CGContextRelease(gradientBitmapContext);
// return the imageref containing the gradient
NSImage theImage = this.imageFromCGImageRef(theCGImage);
// [NSImage imageWithCGImage:theCGImage];
CGImageRelease(theCGImage);
return theImage;
}