The key difference between +imageWithContentsOfFile: and +imageNamed: is the former always read the specified file from the filesystem for every call whereas the latter checks a system-maintained cache and only reads from the filesystem when it isn't available in the cache. So generally, you'd want to load images used in your UI with +imageNamed: and use +imageWithContentsOfFile: for images that are not repeatedly used within the app to improve the performance and memory footprint of your app.

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