I have an app that has been happily generating PDFs using quartz/UIKit since iOS 4, but since upgrading the project to iOS 8, crashes whenever it tries to render text into the PDF context. Drawing lines & rectangles is fine, but any permutation of string rendering fails with an exception in one of the low level libraries.
Rather than posting my own source, I tried working backwards from Apple's documentation. Granted it is out of date, but if it's no longer supposed to work, they ought to have fixed it.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/2DDrawing/Conceptual/DrawingPrintingiOS/GeneratingPDF/GeneratingPDF.html
Adapted source code:
- (void)producePDF
{
NSString *text=#"Bzorg blarf gloop foo!";
CFAttributedStringRef currentText = CFAttributedStringCreate(NULL, (CFStringRef)text, NULL);
CTFramesetterRef framesetter = CTFramesetterCreateWithAttributedString(currentText);
NSString *pdfFileName = fullPath;
// Create the PDF context using the default page size of 612 x 792.
UIGraphicsBeginPDFContextToFile(pdfFileName, CGRectZero, nil);
CFRange currentRange = CFRangeMake(0, 0);
NSInteger currentPage = 0;
BOOL done = NO;
do {
// Mark the beginning of a new page.
UIGraphicsBeginPDFPageWithInfo(CGRectMake(0, 0, 612, 792), nil);
// Draw a page number at the bottom of each page.
currentPage++;
//[self drawPageNumber:currentPage];
// Render the current page and update the current range to
// point to the beginning of the next page.
//currentRange = [self renderPageWithTextRange:currentRange andFramesetter:framesetter];
currentRange=[self renderPage:currentPage withTextRange:currentRange andFramesetter:framesetter];
// If we're at the end of the text, exit the loop.
if (currentRange.location == CFAttributedStringGetLength((CFAttributedStringRef)currentText))
done = YES;
} while (!done);
// Close the PDF context and write the contents out.
UIGraphicsEndPDFContext();
// Release the framewetter.
CFRelease(framesetter);
// Release the attributed string.
CFRelease(currentText);
}
- (CFRange)renderPage:(NSInteger)pageNum withTextRange:(CFRange)currentRange
andFramesetter:(CTFramesetterRef)framesetter
{
// Get the graphics context.
CGContextRef currentContext = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
// Put the text matrix into a known state. This ensures
// that no old scaling factors are left in place.
CGContextSetTextMatrix(currentContext, CGAffineTransformIdentity);
// Create a path object to enclose the text. Use 72 point
// margins all around the text.
CGRect frameRect = CGRectMake(72, 72, 468, 648);
CGMutablePathRef framePath = CGPathCreateMutable();
CGPathAddRect(framePath, NULL, frameRect);
// Get the frame that will do the rendering.
// The currentRange variable specifies only the starting point. The framesetter
// lays out as much text as will fit into the frame.
CTFrameRef frameRef = CTFramesetterCreateFrame(framesetter, currentRange, framePath, NULL);
CGPathRelease(framePath);
// Core Text draws from the bottom-left corner up, so flip
// the current transform prior to drawing.
CGContextTranslateCTM(currentContext, 0, 792);
CGContextScaleCTM(currentContext, 1.0, -1.0);
// Draw the frame.
CTFrameDraw(frameRef, currentContext);
// Update the current range based on what was drawn.
currentRange = CTFrameGetVisibleStringRange(frameRef);
currentRange.location += currentRange.length;
currentRange.length = 0;
CFRelease(frameRef);
return currentRange;
}
I've tried numerous permutations, and they all seem to fail at the exact point of rendering text. The Apple-derived example above dies at the line:
CTFrameDraw(frameRef, currentContext);
Other code attempts to get the minimum working:
NSMutableParagraphStyle* textStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle.defaultParagraphStyle.mutableCopy;
textStyle.alignment = NSTextAlignmentLeft;
NSDictionary* textFontAttributes = #{
NSFontAttributeName: [UIFont fontWithName: #"Helvetica" size: 12], NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.redColor,
NSParagraphStyleAttributeName: textStyle};
[#"Hello, World!" drawAtPoint:CGPointZero withAttributes:textFontAttributes];
... crashes at the "drawAtPoint" call.
For what it's worth, if I execute the app on a device without the debugger attached (i.e. run/kill/launch from springboard), the PDF creation works just fine. Presumably whatever bogus exception was getting thrown just gets ignored in real life.
I am trying to render Arabic text in my iOS app with custom TTF font (scheherazade) using core-text, which works for the most part - however certain glyphs at the edge of the CTFrame are dropped.
When I adjust the frame-size to make the dropped-glyphs appear in the interior of the frame, they display corretly, which leads me believe something is going wrong in inside CTFrameDraw. Below is the code I'm using to render the Arabic-text:
CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
// Flip the coordinate system
CGContextSetTextMatrix(context, CGAffineTransformIdentity);
CGContextTranslateCTM(context, 0, v.textFrame.size.height);
CGContextScaleCTM(context, 1.0, -1.0);
CGMutablePathRef path = CGPathCreateMutable(); //1
CGPathAddRect(path, NULL, v.textFrame );
CGFloat minLineHeight = 60.0;
CGFloat maxLineHeight = 60.0;
CTTextAlignment paragraphAlignment = kCTRightTextAlignment;
CTLineBreakMode lineBrkMode = kCTLineBreakByWordWrapping;
CTParagraphStyleSetting setting[4] = {
{kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierAlignment, sizeof(CTTextAlignment), ¶graphAlignment},
{kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierMinimumLineHeight, sizeof(CGFloat), &minLineHeight},
{kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierMaximumLineHeight, sizeof(CGFloat), &maxLineHeight},
{kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierLineBreakMode, sizeof(CTLineBreakMode), &lineBrkMode}
};
CTParagraphStyleRef paragraphStyle = CTParagraphStyleCreate(setting, 4);
NSDictionary *attr = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
(id)v.arabicFont, (id)kCTFontAttributeName,
paragraphStyle, (id)kCTParagraphStyleAttributeName,
nil];
CFRelease(paragraphStyle);
NSAttributedString* attString = [[[NSAttributedString alloc]
initWithString:v.verseText attributes:attr] autorelease]; //2
CTFramesetterRef framesetter =
CTFramesetterCreateWithAttributedString((CFAttributedStringRef)attString); //3
CTFrameRef frame =
CTFramesetterCreateFrame(framesetter,
CFRangeMake(0, [attString length]), path, NULL);
CTFrameDraw(frame, context); //4
CFRelease(frame); //5
CFRelease(path);
CFRelease(framesetter);
Also attached are the screenshots showing the problem I face. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
invalid: http://stellarbeacon.com.au/invalid.png
valid : http://stellarbeacon.com.au/valid.png
There are some bugs in CoreText related to determining the correct frame size. Some of these where fixed in iOS 6, e.g. http://www.cocoanetics.com/2012/02/radar-coretext-line-spacing-bug/
If your problem still exists there then you should file a Radar with the specifics. Also you should open a call with Apple DTS which can probably provide you with a workaround. Often - if your problem is indeed a bug - then you get your DTS call credited back.
PS: try to display your text with my DTCoreText views which do manual layouting and display and see if the problem can be reproduced there. If not then you have your workaround.
I am trying to get the rect for an attributed string, but the boundingRectWithSize call is not respecting the size I pass in and is returning a rect with a single line height as opposed to a large height (it is a long string). I have experimented by passing in a very large value for the height and also 0 as in the code below, but the rect returned is always the same.
CGRect paragraphRect = [attributedText boundingRectWithSize:CGSizeMake(300,0.0)
options:NSStringDrawingUsesDeviceMetrics
context:nil];
Is this broken, or do I need to do something else to have it returned a rect for wrapped text?
Looks like you weren't providing the correct options. For wrapping labels, provide at least:
CGRect paragraphRect =
[attributedText boundingRectWithSize:CGSizeMake(300.f, CGFLOAT_MAX)
options:(NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin|NSStringDrawingUsesFontLeading)
context:nil];
Note: if the original text width is under 300.f there won't be line wrapping, so make sure the bound size is correct, otherwise you will still get wrong results.
For some reason, boundingRectWithSize always returns wrong size.
I figured out a solution.
There is a method for UItextView -sizeThatFits which returns the proper size for the text set.
So instead of using boundingRectWithSize, create an UITextView, with a random frame, and call its sizeThatFits with the respective width and CGFLOAT_MAX height.
It returns the size that will have the proper height.
UITextView *view=[[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, width, 10)];
view.text=text;
CGSize size=[view sizeThatFits:CGSizeMake(width, CGFLOAT_MAX)];
height=size.height;
If you are calculating the size in a while loop, do no forget to add that in an autorelease pool, as there will be n number of UITextView created, the run time memory of the app will increase if we do not use autoreleasepool.
Ed McManus has certainly provided a key to getting this to work. I found a case that does not work
UIFont *font = ...
UIColor *color = ...
NSDictionary *attributesDictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
font, NSFontAttributeName,
color, NSForegroundColorAttributeName,
nil];
NSMutableAttributedString *string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString: someString attributes:attributesDictionary];
[string appendAttributedString: [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString: anotherString];
CGRect rect = [string boundingRectWithSize:constraint options:(NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin|NSStringDrawingUsesFontLeading) context:nil];
rect will not have the correct height. Notice that anotherString (which is appended to string) was initialized without an attribute dictionary. This is a legitimate initializer for anotherString but boundingRectWithSize: does not give an accurate size in this case.
My final decision after long investigation:
- boundingRectWithSize function returns correct size for uninterrupted sequence of characters only!
In case string contains spaces or something else (called by Apple "Some of the glyphs" ) - it is impossible to get actual size of rect needed to display text!
I have replaced spaces in my strings by letters and immediately got correct result.
Apple says here:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsstring/1524729-boundingrectwithsize
"This method returns the actual bounds of the glyphs in the string. Some of the glyphs (spaces, for example) are allowed to overlap the layout constraints specified by the size passed in, so in some cases the width value of the size component of the returned CGRect can exceed the width value of the size parameter."
So it is necessary to find some another way to calculate actual rect...
After long investigation process solution finally found!!!
I am not sure it will work good for all cases related to UITextView, but main and important thing was detected!
boundingRectWithSize function as well as CTFramesetterSuggestFrameSizeWithConstraints (and many other methods) will calculate size and text portion correct when correct rectangle used.
For example - UITextView has textView.bounds.size.width - and this value not actual rectangle used by system when text drawing on UITextView.
I found very interesting parameter and performed simple calculation in code:
CGFloat padding = textView.textContainer.lineFragmentPadding;
CGFloat actualPageWidth = textView.bounds.size.width - padding * 2;
And magic works - all my texts calculated correct now!
Enjoy!
Swift four version
let string = "A great test string."
let font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14)
let attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey: Any] = [.font: font]
let attributedString = NSAttributedString(string: string, attributes: attributes)
let largestSize = CGSize(width: bounds.width, height: .greatestFiniteMagnitude)
//Option one (best option)
let framesetter = CTFramesetterCreateWithAttributedString(attributedString)
let textSize = CTFramesetterSuggestFrameSizeWithConstraints(framesetter, CFRange(), nil, largestSize, nil)
//Option two
let textSize = (string as NSString).boundingRect(with: largestSize, options: [.usesLineFragmentOrigin , .usesFontLeading], attributes: attributes, context: nil).size
//Option three
let textSize = attributedString.boundingRect(with: largestSize, options: [.usesLineFragmentOrigin , .usesFontLeading], context: nil).size
Measuring the text with the CTFramesetter works best as it provides integer sizes and handles emoji's and other unicode characters well.
I didn't have luck with any of these suggestions. My string contained unicode bullet points and I suspect they were causing grief in the calculation. I noticed UITextView was handling the drawing fine, so I looked to that to leverage its calculation. I did the following, which is probably not as optimal as the NSString drawing methods, but at least it's accurate. It's also slightly more optimal than initialising a UITextView just to call -sizeThatFits:.
NSTextContainer *textContainer = [[NSTextContainer alloc] initWithSize:CGSizeMake(width, CGFLOAT_MAX)];
NSLayoutManager *layoutManager = [[NSLayoutManager alloc] init];
[layoutManager addTextContainer:textContainer];
NSTextStorage *textStorage = [[NSTextStorage alloc] initWithAttributedString:formattedString];
[textStorage addLayoutManager:layoutManager];
const CGFloat formattedStringHeight = ceilf([layoutManager usedRectForTextContainer:textContainer].size.height);
Turns out that EVERY part of an NSAttributedString must have a dictionary set with at least NSFontAttributeName and NSForegroundColorAttributeName set, if you wish boundingRectWithSize to actually work!
I don't see that documented anywhere.
In case you'd like to get bounding box by truncating the tail, this question can help you out.
CGFloat maxTitleWidth = 200;
NSMutableParagraphStyle *paragraph = [[NSMutableParagraphStyle alloc] init];
paragraph.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByTruncatingTail;
NSDictionary *attributes = #{NSFontAttributeName : self.textLabel.font,
NSParagraphStyleAttributeName: paragraph};
CGRect box = [self.textLabel.text
boundingRectWithSize:CGSizeMake(maxTitleWidth, CGFLOAT_MAX)
options:(NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin | NSStringDrawingUsesFontLeading)
attributes:attributes context:nil];
I've found that the preferred solution does not handle line breaks.
I've found this approach works in all cases:
UILabel* dummyLabel = [UILabel new];
[dummyLabel setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, desiredWidth, CGFLOAT_MAX)];
dummyLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
[dummyLabel setLineBreakMode:NSLineBreakByWordWrapping];
dummyLabel.attributedText = myString;
[dummyLabel sizeToFit];
CGSize requiredSize = dummyLabel.frame.size;
#warrenm Sorry to say that framesetter method didn't work for me.
I got this.This function can help us to determine the frame size needed for a string range of an NSAttributedString in iphone/Ipad SDK for a given Width :
It can be used for a dynamic height of UITableView Cells
- (CGSize)frameSizeForAttributedString:(NSAttributedString *)attributedString
{
CTTypesetterRef typesetter = CTTypesetterCreateWithAttributedString((CFAttributedStringRef)attributedString);
CGFloat width = YOUR_FIXED_WIDTH;
CFIndex offset = 0, length;
CGFloat y = 0;
do {
length = CTTypesetterSuggestLineBreak(typesetter, offset, width);
CTLineRef line = CTTypesetterCreateLine(typesetter, CFRangeMake(offset, length));
CGFloat ascent, descent, leading;
CTLineGetTypographicBounds(line, &ascent, &descent, &leading);
CFRelease(line);
offset += length;
y += ascent + descent + leading;
} while (offset < [attributedString length]);
CFRelease(typesetter);
return CGSizeMake(width, ceil(y));
}
Thanks to HADDAD ISSA >>> http://haddadissa.blogspot.in/2010/09/compute-needed-heigh-for-fixed-width-of.html
I have had the same problem with not getting an accurate size using these techniques and I've changed my approach to make it work.
I have a long attributed string which I've been trying to fit into a scroll view so that it shows properly without being truncated. What I did to make the text work reliably was to not set the height at all as a constraint and instead allowed the intrinsic size to take over. Now the text is displayed correctly without being truncated and I do not have to calculate the height.
I suppose if I did need to get the height reliably I would create a view which is hidden and these constraints and get the height of the frame once the constraints are applied.
Update July 2022
After many more trial and error and getting feedback from other answers, specifically the ones pointing out to use NSString.DrawingOptions.usesDeviceMetrics, I found out that this option is definitely a game changer, though is not enough on itself.
Using .deviceMetrics returns the correct height, but it won't fit properly on a UILabel nor on a NSTextField on some cases.
The only way I was able to make it fit on all cases was using a CATextLayer. Which is available for both iOS and macOS.
Example
let attributedString = NSAttributedString(string: "my string")
let maxWidth = CGFloat(300)
let size = attributedString.boundingRect(
with: .init(width: maxWidth,
height: .greatestFiniteMagnitude),
options: [
.usesFontLeading,
.usesLineFragmentOrigin,
.usesDeviceMetrics])
let textLayer = CATextLayer()
textLayer.frame = .init(origin: .zero, size: size)
textLayer.contentsScale = 2 // for retina
textLayer.isWrapped = true // for multiple lines
textLayer.string = attributedString
Then you can add the CATextLayer to any NSView/UIView.
macOS
let view = NSView()
view.wantsLayer = true
view.layer?.addSublayer(textLayer)
iOS
let view = UIView()
view.layer.addSublayer(textLayer)
Original answer February 2021
Many of the answers here are great, David Rees summarises the options nicely.
But sometimes when there are special characters or multiple white spaces the size seemed to always be wrong.
Example of a not working string (for me):
"hello . . world"
What I found out is that setting the kern of the NSAttributedString to 1 helps returning the right size.
Like this:
NSAttributedString(
string: "some string",
attributes: [
.font: NSFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle: .body),
.kern: 1])
Im a little late to the game - but I have been trying to figure out a way that works to find the bounding box that will fit around an attributed string to make a focus ring like editing a file in Finder does. everything I had tried failed when there are spaces at the end of the string or multiple spaces inside the string. boundingRectWithSize fails miserably for this as well as CTFramesetterCreateWithAttributedString.
Using a NSLayoutManager the following code seems to do the trick in all the cases I have found so far and returns a rect that perfectly bounds the string. Bonus: if you select the text the edges of the selection go right up to the bounds of the rect returned. The code below uses the layoutManager from a NSTextView.
NSLayoutManager* layout = [self layoutManager];
NSTextContainer* container = [self textContainer];
CGRect focusRingFrame = [layout boundingRectForGlyphRange:NSMakeRange(0, [[self textStorage] length]) inTextContainer:container];
textView.textContainerInset = UIEdgeInsetsZero;
NSString *string = #"Some string";
NSDictionary *attributes = #{NSFontAttributeName:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:12.0f], NSForegroundColorAttributeName:[UIColor blackColor]};
NSAttributedString *attributedString = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:string attributes:attributes];
[textView setAttributedText:attributedString];
CGRect textViewFrame = [textView.attributedText boundingRectWithSize:CGSizeMake(CGRectGetWidth(self.view.frame)-8.0f, 9999.0f) options:(NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin|NSStringDrawingUsesFontLeading) context:nil];
NSLog(#"%f", ceilf(textViewFrame.size.height));
Works on all fonts perfectly!
I had the same problem, but I recognised that height constrained has been set correctly. So I did the following:
-(CGSize)MaxHeighForTextInRow:(NSString *)RowText width:(float)UITextviewWidth {
CGSize constrainedSize = CGSizeMake(UITextviewWidth, CGFLOAT_MAX);
NSDictionary *attributesDictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
[UIFont fontWithName:#"HelveticaNeue" size:11.0], NSFontAttributeName,
nil];
NSMutableAttributedString *string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:RowText attributes:attributesDictionary];
CGRect requiredHeight = [string boundingRectWithSize:constrainedSize options:NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin context:nil];
if (requiredHeight.size.width > UITextviewWidth) {
requiredHeight = CGRectMake(0, 0, UITextviewWidth, requiredHeight.size.height);
}
return requiredHeight.size;
}
NSDictionary *stringAttributes = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
[UIFont systemFontOfSize:18], NSFontAttributeName,
[UIColor blackColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName,
nil];
NSAttributedString *attributedString = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:myLabel.text attributes:stringAttributes];
myLabel.attributedText = attributedString; //this is the key!
CGSize maximumLabelSize = CGSizeMake (screenRect.size.width - 40, CGFLOAT_MAX);
CGRect newRect = [myLabel.text boundingRectWithSize:maximumLabelSize
options:(NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin|NSStringDrawingUsesFontLeading)
attributes:stringAttributes context:nil];
self.myLabelHeightConstraint.constant = ceilf(newRect.size.height);
I tried everything on this page and still had one case for a UILabel that was not formatting correctly. Actually setting the attributedText on the label finally fixed the problem.
Add Following methods in ur code for getting correct size of attribute string
1.
- (CGFloat)findHeightForText:(NSAttributedString *)text havingWidth:(CGFloat)widthValue andFont:(UIFont *)font
{
UITextView *textView = [[UITextView alloc] init];
[textView setAttributedText:text];
[textView setFont:font];
CGSize size = [textView sizeThatFits:CGSizeMake(widthValue, FLT_MAX)];
return size.height;
}
2. Call on heightForRowAtIndexPath method
int h = [self findHeightForText:attrString havingWidth:yourScreenWidth andFont:urFont];
One thing I was noticing is that the rect that would come back from (CGRect)boundingRectWithSize:(CGSize)size options:(NSStringDrawingOptions)options attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributes context:(NSStringDrawingContext *)context would have a larger width than what I passed in. When this happened my string would be truncated. I resolved it like this:
NSString *aLongString = ...
NSInteger width = //some width;
UIFont *font = //your font;
CGRect rect = [aLongString boundingRectWithSize:CGSizeMake(width, CGFLOAT_MAX)
options:(NSStringDrawingUsesFontLeading | NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin)
attributes:#{ NSFontAttributeName : font,
NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor whiteColor]}
context:nil];
if(rect.size.width > width)
{
return rect.size.height + font.lineHeight;
}
return rect.size.height;
For some more context; I had multi line text and I was trying to find the right height to display it in. boundRectWithSize was sometimes returning a width larger than what I would specify, thus when I used my past in width and the calculated height to display my text, it would truncate. From testing when boundingRectWithSize used the wrong width the amount it would make the height short by was 1 line. So I would check if the width was greater and if so add the font's lineHeight to provide enough space to avoid truncation.
NSAttributedString *attributedText =[[[NSAttributedString alloc]
initWithString:joyMeComment.content
attributes:#{ NSFontAttributeName: [UIFont systemFontOfSize:TextFont]}] autorelease];
CGRect paragraphRect =
[attributedText boundingRectWithSize:CGSizeMake(kWith, CGFLOAT_MAX)
options:(NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin|NSStringDrawingUsesFontLeading)
context:nil];
contentSize = paragraphRect.size;
contentSize.size.height+=10;
label.frame=contentSize;
if label's frame not add 10 this method will never work! hope this can help you! goog luck.
I'd like to add my thoughts since I had exactly the same problem.
I was using UITextView since it had nicer text alignment (justify, which at the time was not available in UILabel), but in order to "simulate" non-interactive-non-scrollable UILabel, I'd switch off completely scrolling, bouncing, and user interaction.
Of course, problem was that text was dynamic, and while width would be fixed, height should be recalculated every time I'd set new text value.
boundingRectWithSize didn't work well for me at all, from what I could see, UITextView was adding some margin on top which boundingRectWithSize would not get into a count, hence, height retrieved from boundingRectWithSize was smaller than it should be.
Since text was not to be updated rapidly, it's just used for some information that may update every 2-3 seconds the most, I've decided following approach:
/* This f is nested in a custom UIView-inherited class that is built using xib file */
-(void) setTextAndAutoSize:(NSString*)text inTextView:(UITextView*)tv
{
CGFloat msgWidth = tv.frame.size.width; // get target's width
// Make "test" UITextView to calculate correct size
UITextView *temp = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, msgWidth, 300)]; // we set some height, really doesn't matter, just put some value like this one.
// Set all font and text related parameters to be exact as the ones in targeted text view
[temp setFont:tv.font];
[temp setTextAlignment:tv.textAlignment];
[temp setTextColor:tv.textColor];
[temp setText:text];
// Ask for size that fits :P
CGSize tv_size = [temp sizeThatFits:CGSizeMake(msgWidth, 300)];
// kill this "test" UITextView, it's purpose is over
[temp release];
temp = nil;
// apply calculated size. if calcualted width differs, I choose to ignore it anyway and use only height because I want to have width absolutely fixed to designed value
tv.frame = CGRectMake(tv.frame.origin.x, tv.frame.origin.y, msgWidth, tv_size.height );
}
*Above code is not directly copied from my source, I had to adjust it / clear it from bunch of other stuff not needed for this article. Don't take it for copy-paste-and-it-will-work-code.
Obvious disadvantage is that it has alloc and release, for each call.
But, advantage is that you avoid depending on compatibility between how boundingRectWithSize draws text and calculates it's size and implementation of text drawing in UITextView (or UILabel which also you can use just replace UITextView with UILabel). Any "bugs" that Apple may have are this way avoided.
P.S. It would seem that you shouldn't need this "temp" UITextView and can just ask sizeThatFits directly from target, however that didn't work for me. Though logic would say it should work and alloc/release of temporary UITextView are not needed, it did not. But this solution worked flawlessly for any text I would set in.
Ok so I spent lots of time debugging this. I found out that the maximum text height as defined by boundingRectWithSize allowed to display text by my UITextView was lower than the frame size.
In my case the frame is at most 140pt but the UITextView tolerate texts at most 131pt.
I had to figure that out manually and hardcode the "real" maximum height.
Here is my solution:
- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text {
NSString *proposedText = [textView.text stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:range withString:text];
NSMutableAttributedString *attributedText = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:proposedText];
CGRect boundingRect;
CGFloat maxFontSize = 100;
CGFloat minFontSize = 30;
CGFloat fontSize = maxFontSize + 1;
BOOL fit;
NSLog(#"Trying text: \"%#\"", proposedText);
do {
fontSize -= 1;
//XXX Seems like trailing whitespaces count for 0. find a workaround
[attributedText addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:[textView.font fontWithSize:fontSize] range:NSMakeRange(0, attributedText.length)];
CGFloat padding = textView.textContainer.lineFragmentPadding;
CGSize boundingSize = CGSizeMake(textView.frame.size.width - padding * 2, CGFLOAT_MAX);
boundingRect = [attributedText boundingRectWithSize:boundingSize options:NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin|NSStringDrawingUsesFontLeading context:nil];
NSLog(#"bounding rect for font %f is %#; (max is %f %f). Padding: %f", fontSize, NSStringFromCGRect(boundingRect), textView.frame.size.width, 148.0, padding);
fit = boundingRect.size.height <= 131;
} while (!fit && fontSize > minFontSize);
if (fit) {
self.textView.font = [self.textView.font fontWithSize:fontSize];
NSLog(#"Fit!");
} else {
NSLog(#"No fit");
}
return fit;
}
Encountered exactly same issue.
To me, the issue is solved by TTTAttributedLabel's
+ (CGSize)sizeThatFitsAttributedString:(NSAttributedString *)attributedString
withConstraints:(CGSize)size
limitedToNumberOfLines:(NSUInteger)numberOfLines
method, as it provide accurate result.
I had issues calculating the height of an NSTextField. Any method I tried was always returning values that were too small.
For me the problem turned out to be that, for some reason, NSTextField's attributedStringValue property never contained any of the attributes that I set via Interface Builder. It actually contained no attributes at all if I didn't set an attributed string programmatically. Not even a font. That is why all of the height calculations were botched.
To get it to work, I created a Category for NSTextField which implements a custom function for getting the correct attributed string.
Here's the implementation file for that Category:
//
// --------------------------------------------------------------------------
// NSTextField+Additions.m
// Created for Mac Mouse Fix (https://github.com/noah-nuebling/mac-mouse-fix)
// Created by Noah Nuebling in 2021
// Licensed under MIT
// --------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
#import "NSTextField+Additions.h"
#implementation NSTextField (Additions)
// Copy paste template for adding attributes to an attributed string. Contains all possible attributes
// [str addAttributes:#{
// NSFontAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSParagraphStyleAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSForegroundColorAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSBackgroundColorAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSLigatureAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSKernAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSStrikethroughStyleAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSStrokeColorAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSStrokeWidthAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSShadowAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSTextEffectAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSAttachmentAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSLinkAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSBaselineOffsetAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSUnderlineColorAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSStrikethroughColorAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSObliquenessAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSExpansionAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSWritingDirectionAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSVerticalGlyphFormAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// } range:NSMakeRange(0, str.length)];
/// In my testing NSTextField.attributedStringValue actually returned a string without _any_ attributes. Not even a font or anything.
/// This lead to issues when trying to calculate the fitting height for a certain width of the NSTextField.
/// This function takes some of the properties of the NSTextField and returns an NSAttributed string based on those.
/// I'm not sure this is perfect, but the returned attributed string describes the way that the text of the NSTextField is rendered close enough to be usable for my height calculations
- (NSAttributedString *)effectiveAttributedStringValue {
NSMutableAttributedString *str = self.attributedStringValue.mutableCopy;
// Create paragraph style from NSTextField properties
// Not sure if we're setting these properties correctly, and there could be more properties we should be setting
NSMutableParagraphStyle *paragraphStyle = [[NSMutableParagraphStyle alloc] init];
paragraphStyle.alignment = self.alignment;
paragraphStyle.baseWritingDirection = self.baseWritingDirection;
paragraphStyle.lineBreakMode = self.lineBreakMode;
paragraphStyle.allowsDefaultTighteningForTruncation = self.allowsDefaultTighteningForTruncation;
if (#available(macOS 10.15, *)) paragraphStyle.lineBreakStrategy = self.lineBreakStrategy;
// Add attributes to AttributedString based on NSTextField properties
[str addAttributes:#{
NSFontAttributeName: self.font,
NSParagraphStyleAttributeName: paragraphStyle,
NSForegroundColorAttributeName: self.textColor,
NSBackgroundColorAttributeName: self.backgroundColor,
// NSLigatureAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSKernAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSStrikethroughStyleAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSStrokeColorAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSStrokeWidthAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSShadowAttributeName: NSNull.null, //self.shadow,
// NSTextEffectAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSAttachmentAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSLinkAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSBaselineOffsetAttributeName: NSNull.null, //self.baselineOffsetFromBottom,
// NSUnderlineColorAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSStrikethroughColorAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSObliquenessAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSExpansionAttributeName: NSNull.null,
// NSWritingDirectionAttributeName: NSNull.null, //self.baseWritingDirection,
// NSVerticalGlyphFormAttributeName: NSNull.null,
} range:NSMakeRange(0, str.length)];
// return NSAttributedString
return str;
}
#end
Random Sidenotes
Some of the issues I've read about people having with UILabel in this thread sound a lot like they might be related.
I eventually decided to use NSTextView over NSTextField because its methods for obtaining the attributed string work out of the box, and using NSTextField for clickable links was completely botched as well. I'm under the impression that NSTextField is just a buggy mess that you should avoid beyond the most basic of use-cases.
I was having issues sometimes calculating some heights with boundingRect, specially with paragraphs and break lines. Adding .usesDeviceMetrics as a parameter did the trick. Now seems to work fine in all cases.
extension NSAttributedString {
func heightWithWidth(_ width: CGFloat) -> CGFloat {
let constraints = CGSize(width: width, height: .infinity)
let bounding = self.boundingRect(with: constraints, options: [.usesLineFragmentOrigin, .usesFontLeading, .usesDeviceMetrics], context: nil)
return bounding.height
}
}
I want to have some text with a custom line-spacing, so I wrote an attribute string with CTParagraphStyleAttributte and pass it to my CATextLayer:
UIFont *font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:20];
CTFontRef ctFont = CTFontCreateWithName((CFStringRef)font.fontName,
font.pointSize, NULL);
CGColorRef cgColor = [UIColor whiteColor].CGColor;
CGFloat leading = 25.0;
CTTextAlignment alignment = kCTRightTextAlignment; // just for test purposes
const CTParagraphStyleSetting styleSettings[] = {
{kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierLineSpacingAdjustment, sizeof(CGFloat), &leading},
{kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierAlignment, sizeof(CTTextAlignment), &alignment}
};
CTParagraphStyleRef paragraphStyle = CTParagraphStyleCreate(styleSettings, 2));
NSDictionary *attributes = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
(id)ctFont, (id)kCTFontAttributeName,
(id)cgColor, (id)kCTForegroundColorAttributeName,
(id)paragraphStyle, (id)kCTParagraphStyleAttributeName,
nil];
CFRelease(ctFont);
CFRelease(paragraphStyle);
NSMutableAttributedString *attrStr = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc]
initWithString:string
attributes:attributes];
_textLayer.string = attrStr;
[attrStr release];
But the line height is not changing. I think I am missing something here but I don't know what.
I've tried with kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierLineSpacingAdjustment and kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierLineSpacing but either of them don't seem to work (?). I tried also to set the alignment using kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierAlignment (I know CATextLayer has a property for that) just to test kCTParagraphStyleAttributeName is indeed working and it didn't.
I've noticed that even if I pass some crazy values (for example: CTParagraphStyleCreate(styleSettings, -555);) which leads me to ask myself: Does CATextLayer support paragraph attributes? If so, what am I missing here?
I tried your code, putting the NSAttributedString in a CATextLayer, and it ignored the formatting, as you said.
Then I tried drawing the exact same attributed string to a UIView drawRect method using CTFrameDraw, and it obeyed all your formatting. I can only assume that CATextLayer ignores the majority of its formatting. The CATextLayer Class Reference has a number of warnings about what it does in the interests of efficiency.
If you really need to draw to a CALayer, not a UIView, you may be able to create your own CALayer subclass or delegate and do the drawing there.
- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{
//
// Build attrStr as before.
//
CGContextRef ctx = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
CGRect bounds = [self bounds];
// Text ends up drawn inverted, so we have to reverse it.
CGContextSetTextMatrix(ctx, CGAffineTransformIdentity);
CGContextTranslateCTM( ctx, bounds.origin.x, bounds.origin.y+bounds.size.height );
CGContextScaleCTM( ctx, 1, -1 );
// Build a rectangle for drawing in.
CGMutablePathRef path = CGPathCreateMutable();
CGPathAddRect(path, NULL, bounds);
// Create the frame and draw it into the graphics context
CTFramesetterRef framesetter = CTFramesetterCreateWithAttributedString((__bridge CFAttributedStringRef) attrStr);
CTFrameRef frame = CTFramesetterCreateFrame(framesetter, CFRangeMake(0, 0), path, NULL);
CFRelease(framesetter);
CFRelease(path);
// Finally do the drawing.
CTFrameDraw(frame, ctx);
CFRelease(frame);
}