How to set kerning in iPhone UILabel

Question

I am developing an iPhone app, and I want to set kerning in UILabel. The code I\'ve written (possibly around kCTKernAttributeName) seems to be in error. How mig

Answer 1

Before:

After:

Here's a Swift 3 extension that let's you set a UILabel's kerning via code or storyboard:

extension UILabel {

    @IBInspectable var kerning: Float {
        get {
            var range = NSMakeRange(0, (text ?? "").count)
            guard let kern = attributedText?.attribute(NSAttributedStringKey.kern, at: 0, effectiveRange: &range),
                let value = kern as? NSNumber
                else {
                    return 0
            }
            return value.floatValue
        }
        set {
            var attText:NSMutableAttributedString

            if let attributedText = attributedText {
                attText = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: attributedText)
            } else if let text = text {
                attText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text)
            } else {
                attText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "")
            }

            let range = NSMakeRange(0, attText.length)
            attText.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.kern, value: NSNumber(value: newValue), range: range)
            self.attributedText = attText
        }
    }
}

Demo usage:

myLabel.kerning = 3.0

or

The demo uses 3.0 kerning for drama, but I've found 0.1 - 0.8 tends to work well in practice.

Answer 2

Swift 4 and 5

extension NSAttributedString {

    /// Returns a new instance of NSAttributedString with same contents and attributes with kerning added.
    /// - Parameter kerning: a kerning you want to assign to the text.
    /// - Returns: a new instance of NSAttributedString with given kerning.
    func withKerning(_ kerning: CGFloat) -> NSAttributedString {
        let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: self)
        attributedString.addAttributes([.kern: kerning],
                                       range: NSRange(location: 0, length: string.count))
        return NSAttributedString(attributedString: attributedString)
    }
 ]

Answer 3

In Swift 2.0...

Add an extension:

extension UIView {
    func attributes(font: String, color: UIColor, fontSize: CGFloat, kern: Double) -> [String: NSObject] {
        let attribute = [
            NSForegroundColorAttributeName: color,
            NSKernAttributeName: kern,
            NSFontAttributeName : UIFont(name: font, size: fontSize)!
        ]
        return attribute
    }
}

Now, just set your UILabel as attributedText:

self.label.attributedText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "SwiftExample", attributes: attributes("SourceSans-Regular", color: UIColor.whiteColor(), fontSize: 20, kern: 2.0))   

Obviously, I added a bunch of parameters that you may not need. Play around -- feel free to rewrite the method -- I was looking for this on a bunch of different answers so figured I'd post the whole extension in case it helps someone out there... -rab

Answer 4

Just to be up-to-date here, iOS 6 introduced attributedText for UILabel and UITextView!

UILabel reference:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/UILabel_Class/Reference/UILabel.html#//apple_ref/occ/instp/UILabel/attributedText

Answer 5

As far as I am aware, UILabel will not render the characteristics of NSAttributedString. There are a couple of nice open source solutions. I recently used TTTAttributedLabel as a swap in replacement for UILabel that accepts NSAttributedString.

DTCoreText (former NSAttributedString+HTML) is also getting a bit of buzz lately.

Answer 6

An example using IBDesignables and IBInspectables where you can manage to set the kerning value through storyboard only. I found it very practical and I thought to share it with you.

UILabelKerning.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

IB_DESIGNABLE

@interface UILabelKerning : UILabel
@property (assign, nonatomic) IBInspectable int kerning;
@end

UILabelKerning.m

#import "UILabelKerning.h"

@implementation UILabelKerning


-(void)awakeFromNib {

    [self setTheAttributes];
}

- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder*)aDecoder
{
    self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
    if (self)
    {
        // Initialization code
    }

    return self;
}
-(void)setTheAttributes{
    NSMutableAttributedString *attributedString =[[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithAttributedString:self.attributedText];
    [attributedString addAttribute:NSKernAttributeName
                             value:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:self.kerning]
                             range:NSMakeRange(0, [self.text length])];
    [self setAttributedText:attributedString];
}
@end