Top-aligning text of different sizes within a UILabel

Question

How to top-align text of different sizes within a UILabel? An example is top-aligning smaller-sized cent amount with larger-sized dollar amount in price banners.

Answer 1

I was able to achieve your desired result using a single label.

Using a little math you can offset the baseline of the smaller text to achieve your desired result.

Objective-C

- (NSMutableAttributedString *)styleSalePriceLabel:(NSString *)salePrice withFont:(UIFont *)font
{
    if ([salePrice rangeOfString:@"."].location == NSNotFound) {
        return [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:salePrice];
    } else {
        NSRange range = [salePrice rangeOfString:@"."];
        range.length = (salePrice.length - range.location);
        NSMutableAttributedString *stylizedPriceLabel = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:salePrice];
        UIFont *smallFont = [UIFont fontWithName:font.fontName size:(font.pointSize / 2)];
        NSNumber *offsetAmount = @(font.capHeight - smallFont.capHeight);
        [stylizedPriceLabel addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:smallFont range:range];
        [stylizedPriceLabel addAttribute:NSBaselineOffsetAttributeName value:offsetAmount range:range];
        return stylizedPriceLabel;
    }
}

Swift

extension Range where Bound == String.Index {
    func asNSRange() -> NSRange {
        let location = self.lowerBound.encodedOffset
        let length = self.lowerBound.encodedOffset - self.upperBound.encodedOffset
        return NSRange(location: location, length: length)
    }
}

extension String {
    func asStylizedPrice(using font: UIFont) -> NSMutableAttributedString {
        let stylizedPrice = NSMutableAttributedString(string: self, attributes: [.font: font])

        guard var changeRange = self.range(of: ".")?.asNSRange() else {
            return stylizedPrice
        }

        changeRange.length = self.count - changeRange.location
        // forgive the force unwrapping
        let changeFont = UIFont(name: font.fontName, size: (font.pointSize / 2))!
        let offset = font.capHeight - changeFont.capHeight
        stylizedPrice.addAttribute(.font, value: changeFont, range: changeRange)
        stylizedPrice.addAttribute(.baselineOffset, value: offset, range: changeRange)
        return stylizedPrice
    }
}

This yields the following: