How do I create padding around the text of a UILabel?

Question

I'm styling a UILabel programmatically and having trouble getting any padding around the label's text:

After studying many SO threads on the subject (this one, in particular) I thought I'd found a solution but it has no affect on the label. I've created a custom class for the label that subclasses UILabel:

// Swift 3 (I know, I know...)

class PublicationTypeBadge: UILabel {
    var textInsets = UIEdgeInsets.zero {
        didSet { invalidateIntrinsicContentSize() }
    }

    override func textRect(forBounds bounds: CGRect, limitedToNumberOfLines numberOfLines: Int) -> CGRect {
        let insetRect = UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(bounds, textInsets)
        let textRect = super.textRect(forBounds: insetRect, limitedToNumberOfLines: numberOfLines)
        let invertedInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: -textInsets.top,
                                          left: -textInsets.left,
                                          bottom: -textInsets.bottom,
                                          right: -textInsets.right)
        return UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(textRect, invertedInsets)
    }

    override func drawText(in rect: CGRect) {
        super.drawText(in: UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(rect, textInsets))
    }
}

And I invoke it like so:

func setPubTypeBadge(publication: PublicationModel, indexPathRow: Int) {
    if let pubType = publication.publicationType,
        let pubEnum = PublicationType(rawValue: pubType) {
        pubTypeBadge.attributedText = pubEnum.getBadgeLabel(using: pubType)
    }

    let rect = pubTypeBadge.textRect(forBounds: pubTypeBadge.frame, limitedToNumberOfLines: 1)
    pubTypeBadge.drawText(in: rect)
    pubTypeBadge.layer.borderColor = UIColor.dsShade3.cgColor
    pubTypeBadge.layer.borderWidth = 1
    pubTypeBadge.layer.cornerRadius = 4
}

which does absolutely nothing as far as the padding/insets are concerned. I simplly want 6pts of space on the left/right between the text and the border and 4pts on the top/bottom. Any help greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The code below does what you want (Create new LiveView playground and paste it).

But I provide it just for the sake of demonstration and consider that placing UILabel in the container and making proper constraints will be a proper solution for this task.

import UIKit import PlaygroundSupport

class MyViewController : UIViewController {
    override func loadView() {
        let view = UIView()
        view.backgroundColor = .white

        let label = BorderedLabel()
        label.frame = CGRect(x: 150, y: 200, width: 200, height: 20)
        label.text = "Hello World!"
        label.textColor = .black
        // Border settings
        label.layer.cornerRadius = 4 
        label.layer.borderColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
        label.layer.borderWidth = 1
        label.sizeToFit() // Important

        view.addSubview(label)
        self.view = view
    }
}

class BorderedLabel: UILabel {
    var sidePadding = CGFloat(10) // Needed padding, add property observers

    override func sizeToFit() {
        super.sizeToFit()
        bounds.size.width += 2 * sidePadding
    }

    override func drawText(in rect: CGRect) {
        print(rect)
        super.drawText(in: rect.insetBy(dx: sidePadding, dy: 0))
        invalidateIntrinsicContentSize()
    }
}
// Present the view controller in the Live View window
PlaygroundPage.current.liveView = MyViewController()

However you can play with this solution and test it or improve convenience and reliability (along with Auto Layout support)

Answer 2

You can just add empty space before and after the text:

titleLabel.text = " \(itemName) "