UILabel with text of two different colors

Question

The way to do it is to use NSAttributedString like this:

NSMutableAttributedString *text = 
 [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] 
   initWithAttributedString: label.attributedText];

[text addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName 
             value:[UIColor redColor] 
             range:NSMakeRange(10, 1)];
[label setAttributedText: text];

I created a UILabel extension to do it.

I have done this by creating a category for NSMutableAttributedString

-(void)setColorForText:(NSString*) textToFind withColor:(UIColor*) color
{
    NSRange range = [self.mutableString rangeOfString:textToFind options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch];

    if (range.location != NSNotFound) {
        [self addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:color range:range];
    }
}

Use it like

- (void) setColoredLabel
{
    NSMutableAttributedString *string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"Here is a red blue and green text"];
    [string setColorForText:@"red" withColor:[UIColor redColor]];
    [string setColorForText:@"blue" withColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
    [string setColorForText:@"green" withColor:[UIColor greenColor]];
    mylabel.attributedText = string;
}

SWIFT 3

extension NSMutableAttributedString{
    func setColorForText(_ textToFind: String, with color: UIColor) {
        let range = self.mutableString.range(of: textToFind, options: .caseInsensitive)
        if range.location != NSNotFound {
            addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: color, range: range)
        }
    }
}

USAGE

func setColoredLabel() {
    let string = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Here is a red blue and green text")
    string.setColorForText("red", with: #colorLiteral(red: 0.9254902005, green: 0.2352941185, blue: 0.1019607857, alpha: 1))
    string.setColorForText("blue", with: #colorLiteral(red: 0.2392156869, green: 0.6745098233, blue: 0.9686274529, alpha: 1))
    string.setColorForText("green", with: #colorLiteral(red: 0.3411764801, green: 0.6235294342, blue: 0.1686274558, alpha: 1))
    mylabel.attributedText = string
}

SWIFT 4 @kj13 Thanks for notifying

// If no text is send, then the style will be applied to full text
func setColorForText(_ textToFind: String?, with color: UIColor) {

    let range:NSRange?
    if let text = textToFind{
        range = self.mutableString.range(of: text, options: .caseInsensitive)
    }else{
        range = NSMakeRange(0, self.length)
    }
    if range!.location != NSNotFound {
        addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor, value: color, range: range!)
    }
}

I have did more experiments with attributes and below are the results, here is the SOURCECODE

Here is the result

Here you go

NSMutableAttributedString * string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:lblTemp.text];
[string addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor redColor] range:NSMakeRange(0,5)];
[string addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor greenColor] range:NSMakeRange(5,6)];
[string addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor blueColor] range:NSMakeRange(11,5)];
lblTemp.attributedText = string;

Swift 4

// An attributed string extension to achieve colors on text.
extension NSMutableAttributedString {

    func setColor(color: UIColor, forText stringValue: String) {
       let range: NSRange = self.mutableString.range(of: stringValue, options: .caseInsensitive)
       self.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor, value: color, range: range)
    }

}

// Try it with label
let label = UILabel()
label.frame = CGRect(x: 70, y: 100, width: 260, height: 30)
let stringValue = "There are 5 results."
let attributedString: NSMutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: stringValue)
attributedString.setColor(color: UIColor.red, forText: "5")
label.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 26)
label.attributedText = attributedString
self.view.addSubview(label)

Result

Swift 3

func setColoredLabel() {
        var string: NSMutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "redgreenblue")
        string.setColor(color: UIColor.redColor(), forText: "red")
        string.setColor(color: UIColor.greenColor(), forText: "green")
        string.setColor(color: UIColor.blueColor(, forText: "blue")
        mylabel.attributedText = string
    }


func setColor(color: UIColor, forText stringValue: String) {
        var range: NSRange = self.mutableString.rangeOfString(stringValue, options: NSCaseInsensitiveSearch)
        if range != nil {
            self.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: color, range: range)
        }
    }

Result:

//NSString *myString = @"I have to replace text 'Dr Andrew Murphy, John Smith' ";
NSString *myString = @"Not a member?signin";

//Create mutable string from original one
NSMutableAttributedString *attString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:myString];

//Fing range of the string you want to change colour
//If you need to change colour in more that one place just repeat it
NSRange range = [myString rangeOfString:@"signin"];
[attString addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor colorWithRed:(63/255.0) green:(163/255.0) blue:(158/255.0) alpha:1.0] range:range];

//Add it to the label - notice its not text property but it's attributeText
_label.attributedText = attString;

Since iOS 6, UIKit supports drawing attributed strings, so no extension or replacement is needed.

From UILabel:

@property(nonatomic, copy) NSAttributedString *attributedText;

You just need to build up your NSAttributedString. There are basically two ways:

1. Append chunks of text with the same attributes - for each part create one NSAttributedString instance and append them to one NSMutableAttributedString

2. Create attributed text from plain string and then add attributed for given ranges – find the range of your number (or whatever) and apply different color attribute on that.