UIButton: Making the hit area larger than the default hit area

Question

I have a question dealing with UIButton and its hit area. I am using the Info Dark button in interface builder, but I am finding that the hit area is not large enough for some people's fingers.

Is there a way to increase the hit area of a button either programmatically or in Interface Builder without changing the size of the InfoButton graphic?

Answer 1

Since I am using a background image, none of these solutions worked well for me. Here is a solution that does some fun objective-c magic and offers a drop in solution with minimal code.

First, add a category to UIButton that overrides the hit test and also adds a property for expanding the hit test frame.

UIButton+Extensions.h

@interface UIButton (Extensions)

@property(nonatomic, assign) UIEdgeInsets hitTestEdgeInsets;

@end

UIButton+Extensions.m

#import "UIButton+Extensions.h"
#import <objc/runtime.h>

@implementation UIButton (Extensions)

@dynamic hitTestEdgeInsets;

static const NSString *KEY_HIT_TEST_EDGE_INSETS = @"HitTestEdgeInsets";

-(void)setHitTestEdgeInsets:(UIEdgeInsets)hitTestEdgeInsets {
    NSValue *value = [NSValue value:&hitTestEdgeInsets withObjCType:@encode(UIEdgeInsets)];
    objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &KEY_HIT_TEST_EDGE_INSETS, value, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC);
}

-(UIEdgeInsets)hitTestEdgeInsets {
    NSValue *value = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY_HIT_TEST_EDGE_INSETS);
    if(value) {
        UIEdgeInsets edgeInsets; [value getValue:&edgeInsets]; return edgeInsets;
    }else {
        return UIEdgeInsetsZero;
    }
}

- (BOOL)pointInside:(CGPoint)point withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    if(UIEdgeInsetsEqualToEdgeInsets(self.hitTestEdgeInsets, UIEdgeInsetsZero) || !self.enabled || self.hidden) {
        return [super pointInside:point withEvent:event];
    }

    CGRect relativeFrame = self.bounds;
    CGRect hitFrame = UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(relativeFrame, self.hitTestEdgeInsets);

    return CGRectContainsPoint(hitFrame, point);
}

@end

Once this class is added, all you need to do is set the edge insets of your button. Note that I chose to add the insets so if you want to make the hit area larger, you must use negative numbers.

[button setHitTestEdgeInsets:UIEdgeInsetsMake(-10, -10, -10, -10)];

Note: Remember to import the category (#import "UIButton+Extensions.h") in your classes.