How do I make UILabel display outlined text?

A Swift 4 class version based off the answer by kprevas

import Foundation
import UIKit

public class OutlinedText: UILabel{
    internal var mOutlineColor:UIColor?
    internal var mOutlineWidth:CGFloat?

    @IBInspectable var outlineColor: UIColor{
        get { return mOutlineColor ?? UIColor.clear }
        set { mOutlineColor = newValue }
    }

    @IBInspectable var outlineWidth: CGFloat{
        get { return mOutlineWidth ?? 0 }
        set { mOutlineWidth = newValue }
    }    

    override public func drawText(in rect: CGRect) {
        let shadowOffset = self.shadowOffset
        let textColor = self.textColor

        let c = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()
        c?.setLineWidth(outlineWidth)
        c?.setLineJoin(.round)
        c?.setTextDrawingMode(.stroke)
        self.textColor = mOutlineColor;
        super.drawText(in:rect)

        c?.setTextDrawingMode(.fill)
        self.textColor = textColor
        self.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: 0, height: 0)
        super.drawText(in:rect)

        self.shadowOffset = shadowOffset
    }
}

It can be implemented entirely in the Interface Builder by setting the UILabel's custom class to OutlinedText. You will then have the ability to set the outline's width and color from the Properties pane.

If you want to animate something complicated, the best way is to programmaticly take a screenshot of it an animate that instead!

To take a screenshot of a view, you'll need code a little like this:

UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(mainContentView.bounds.size);
[mainContentView.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
UIImage *viewImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext(); 

Where mainContentView is the view you want to take a screenshot of. Add viewImage to a UIImageView and animate that.

Hope that speeds up your animation!!

N

If your goal is something like this:

Here is how I achieved it: I added a new label of a custom class as a Subview to my current UILabel (inspired by this answer).

Just copy & paste it into your project and you are good to go:

extension UILabel {
    func addTextOutline(usingColor outlineColor: UIColor, outlineWidth: CGFloat) {
        class OutlinedText: UILabel{
            var outlineWidth: CGFloat = 0
            var outlineColor: UIColor = .clear

            override public func drawText(in rect: CGRect) {
                let shadowOffset = self.shadowOffset
                let textColor = self.textColor

                let c = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()
                c?.setLineWidth(outlineWidth)
                c?.setLineJoin(.round)
                c?.setTextDrawingMode(.stroke)
                self.textAlignment = .center
                self.textColor = outlineColor
                super.drawText(in:rect)

                c?.setTextDrawingMode(.fill)
                self.textColor = textColor
                self.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: 0, height: 0)
                super.drawText(in:rect)

                self.shadowOffset = shadowOffset
            }
        }

        let textOutline = OutlinedText()
        let outlineTag = 9999

        if let prevTextOutline = viewWithTag(outlineTag) {
            prevTextOutline.removeFromSuperview()
        }

        textOutline.outlineColor = outlineColor
        textOutline.outlineWidth = outlineWidth
        textOutline.textColor = textColor
        textOutline.font = font
        textOutline.text = text
        textOutline.tag = outlineTag

        sizeToFit()
        addSubview(textOutline)
        textOutline.frame = CGRect(x: -(outlineWidth / 2), y: -(outlineWidth / 2),
                                   width: bounds.width + outlineWidth,
                                   height: bounds.height + outlineWidth)
    }
}

USAGE:

yourLabel.addTextOutline(usingColor: .red, outlineWidth: 6)

it also works for a UIButton with all its animations:

yourButton.titleLabel?.addTextOutline(usingColor: .red, outlineWidth: 6)

if ALL you want is a one pixel black border around my white UILabel text,

then i do think you're making the problem harder than it is... I don't know by memory which 'draw rect / frameRect' function you should use, but it will be easy for you to find. this method just demonstrates the strategy (let the superclass do the work!):

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{
  [super drawRect:rect];
  [context frameRect:rect]; // research which rect drawing function to use...
}

Here is the another answer to set outlined text on label.

extension UILabel {

func setOutLinedText(_ text: String) {
    let attribute : [NSAttributedString.Key : Any] = [
        NSAttributedString.Key.strokeColor : UIColor.black,
        NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor : UIColor.white,
        NSAttributedString.Key.strokeWidth : -2.0,
        NSAttributedString.Key.font : UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 12)
        ] as [NSAttributedString.Key  : Any]

    let customizedText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text,
                                                   attributes: attribute)
    attributedText = customizedText
 }

}

set outlined text simply using the extension method.

lblTitle.setOutLinedText("Enter your email address or username")

it is also possible to subclass UILabel with the following logic:

- (void)setText:(NSString *)text {
    [self addOutlineForAttributedText:[[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:text]];
}

- (void)setAttributedText:(NSAttributedString *)attributedText {
    [self addOutlineForAttributedText:attributedText];
}

- (void)addOutlineForAttributedText:(NSAttributedString *)attributedText {
    NSDictionary *strokeTextAttributes = @{
                                           NSStrokeColorAttributeName: [UIColor blackColor],
                                           NSStrokeWidthAttributeName : @(-2)
                                           };

    NSMutableAttributedString *attrStr = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithAttributedString:attributedText];
    [attrStr addAttributes:strokeTextAttributes range:NSMakeRange(0, attrStr.length)];

    super.attributedText = attrStr;
}

and if you set text in Storyboard then:

- (instancetype)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {

    self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
    if (self) {
        // to apply border for text from storyboard
        [self addOutlineForAttributedText:[[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:self.text]];
    }
    return self;
}

Why don't you create a 1px border UIView in Photoshop, then set a UIView with the image, and position it behind your UILabel?

Code:

UIView *myView;
UIImage *imageName = [UIImage imageNamed:@"1pxBorderImage.png"];
UIColor *tempColour = [[UIColor alloc] initWithPatternImage:imageName];
myView.backgroundColor = tempColour;
[tempColour release];

It's going to save you subclassing an object and it's fairly simple to do.

Not to mention if you want to do animation, it's built into the UIView class.