Center content of UIScrollView when smaller

Question

I've got very simple solution! All you need is to update the center of your subview (imageview) while zooming in the ScrollViewDelegate. If zoomed image is smaller than scrollview then adjust subview.center else center is (0,0).

- (void)scrollViewDidZoom:(UIScrollView *)scrollView 
{
    UIView *subView = [scrollView.subviews objectAtIndex:0];

    CGFloat offsetX = MAX((scrollView.bounds.size.width - scrollView.contentSize.width) * 0.5, 0.0);
    CGFloat offsetY = MAX((scrollView.bounds.size.height - scrollView.contentSize.height) * 0.5, 0.0);

    subView.center = CGPointMake(scrollView.contentSize.width * 0.5 + offsetX, 
                                 scrollView.contentSize.height * 0.5 + offsetY);
}

@EvelynCordner's answer was the one that worked best in my app. A lot less code than the other options too.

Here's the Swift version if anyone needs it:

func scrollViewDidZoom(_ scrollView: UIScrollView) {
    let offsetX = max((scrollView.bounds.width - scrollView.contentSize.width) * 0.5, 0)
    let offsetY = max((scrollView.bounds.height - scrollView.contentSize.height) * 0.5, 0)
    scrollView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(offsetY, offsetX, 0, 0)
}

Okay, I've been fighting this for the past two days on and off and having finally come to a pretty reliable (so far...) solution I thought I should share it and save others some pain. :) If you do find a problem with this solution please shout!

I've basically gone through what everyone else has: searching StackOverflow, the Apple Developer Forums, looked at the code for three20, ScrollingMadness, ScrollTestSuite, etc. I've tried enlarging the UIImageView frame, playing with the UIScrollView's offset and/or insets from the ViewController, etc. but nothing worked great (as everyone else has found out too).

After sleeping on it, I tried a couple of alternative angles:

1. Subclassing the UIImageView so it alters it's own size dynamically - this didn't work well at all.
2. Subclassing the UIScrollView so it alters it's own contentOffset dynamically - this is the one that seems to be a winner for me.

With this subclassing UIScrollView method I'm overriding the contentOffset mutator so it isn't setting {0,0} when the image is scaled smaller than the viewport - instead it's setting the offset such that the image will be kept centred in the viewport. So far, it always seems to work. I've checked it with wide, tall, tiny & large images and doesn't have the "works but pinch at minimum zoom breaks it" issue.

I've uploaded an example project to github that uses this solution, you can find it here: http://github.com/nyoron/NYOBetterZoom

For a solution better suited for scroll views that use autolayout, use content insets of the scroll view rather than updating the frames of your scroll view's subviews.

- (void)scrollViewDidZoom:(UIScrollView *)scrollView
{
    CGFloat offsetX = MAX((scrollView.bounds.size.width - scrollView.contentSize.width) * 0.5, 0.0);
    CGFloat offsetY = MAX((scrollView.bounds.size.height - scrollView.contentSize.height) * 0.5, 0.0);

    self.scrollView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(offsetY, offsetX, 0.f, 0.f);
}

This code should work on most versions of iOS (and has been tested to work on 3.1 upwards).

It's based on the Apple WWDC code for the photoscoller.

Add the below to your subclass of UIScrollView, and replace tileContainerView with the view containing your image or tiles:

- (void)layoutSubviews {
    [super layoutSubviews];

    // center the image as it becomes smaller than the size of the screen
    CGSize boundsSize = self.bounds.size;
    CGRect frameToCenter = tileContainerView.frame;

    // center horizontally
    if (frameToCenter.size.width < boundsSize.width)
        frameToCenter.origin.x = (boundsSize.width - frameToCenter.size.width) / 2;
    else
        frameToCenter.origin.x = 0;

    // center vertically
    if (frameToCenter.size.height < boundsSize.height)
        frameToCenter.origin.y = (boundsSize.height - frameToCenter.size.height) / 2;
    else
        frameToCenter.origin.y = 0;

    tileContainerView.frame = frameToCenter;
}