Change character spacing on UILabel within Interface Builder

Question

Is there anyway to change the character spacing (track) on UILabel text using Interface Builder? If not, is there a way to do it programmatically on an existing UILabel that was already created with attributed text?

Answer 1

I know it's not an Interface Builder solution, but you can create a UILabel extension and then add spacing to any UILabel you want:

extension UILabel {   func addCharacterSpacing(kernValue: Double = 1.15) {     guard let text = text, !text.isEmpty else { return }     let string = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text)     string.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.kern, value: kernValue, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: string.length - 1))     attributedText = string   } } 

Consider changing the default kernValue from 1.15 to something that works better with your design.

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When implementing always add character spacing after setting the text value:

myLabel.text = "We used to be so close" myLabel.addCharacterSpacing() 

If you plan to have different spacing at different places in the app, you can override the default kern value:

myLabelWithSpecialNeeds.addCharacterSpacing(kernValue: 1.3) 

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This solution overrides any other attributes you might have on your UILabel's attributedText.

Answer 2

Ended up using this for now to get existing attributed text and modify to add character spacing:

let attributedString = discoveryTitle.attributedText as NSMutableAttributedString attributedString.addAttribute(NSKernAttributeName, value: 1.0, range: NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length)) discoveryTitle.attributedText = attributedString 

Swift 3:

let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: discoveryTitle.text) attributedString.addAttribute(NSKernAttributeName, value: CGFloat(1.0), range: NSRange(location: 0, length: attributedString.length)) discoveryTitle.attributedText = attributedString 

Using NSRange instead of NSMakeRange works in Swift 3.