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) {
    if let labelText = text, labelText.count > 0 {
      let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: labelText)
      attributedString.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.kern, value: kernValue, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: attributedString.length - 1))
      attributedText = attributedString
    }
  }
}

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.