Center content of UIScrollView when smaller

I've spent a day fighting with this issue, and ended up implementing the scrollViewDidEndZooming:withView:atScale: as follows:

- (void)scrollViewDidEndZooming:(UIScrollView *)scrollView withView:(UIView *)view atScale:(float)scale {
    CGFloat screenWidth = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.width;
    CGFloat screenHeight = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height;
    CGFloat viewWidth = view.frame.size.width;
    CGFloat viewHeight = view.frame.size.height;

    CGFloat x = 0;
    CGFloat y = 0;

    if(viewWidth < screenWidth) {
        x = screenWidth / 2;
    }
    if(viewHeight < screenHeight) {
        y = screenHeight / 2 ;
    }

    self.scrollView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(y, x, y, x);
}

This ensures that when the image is smaller than the screen, there's still adequate space around it so you can position it to the exact place you want.

(assuming that your UIScrollView contains an UIImageView to hold the image)

Essentially, what this does is check whether your image view's width / height is smaller that the screen's width / height, and if so, create an inset of half the screen's width / height (you could probably make this larger if you want the image to go out of the screen bounds).

Note that since this is a UIScrollViewDelegate method, don't forget to add it to your view controller's declaration, so to avoid getting a build issue.

If contentInset is not needed for anything else, it can be used to center scrollview's content.

class ContentCenteringScrollView: UIScrollView {

    override var bounds: CGRect {
        didSet { updateContentInset() }
    }

    override var contentSize: CGSize {
        didSet { updateContentInset() }
    }

    private func updateContentInset() {
        var top = CGFloat(0)
        var left = CGFloat(0)
        if contentSize.width < bounds.width {
            left = (bounds.width - contentSize.width) / 2
        }
        if contentSize.height < bounds.height {
            top = (bounds.height - contentSize.height) / 2
        }
        contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: top, left: left, bottom: top, right: left)
    }
}

Advantage if this approach is that you can still use contentLayoutGuide to place content inside scrollview

scrollView.addSubview(imageView)
imageView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
    imageView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: scrollView.contentLayoutGuide.leadingAnchor),
    imageView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: scrollView.contentLayoutGuide.trailingAnchor),
    imageView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: scrollView.contentLayoutGuide.topAnchor),
    imageView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: scrollView.contentLayoutGuide.bottomAnchor)
])

or just drag and drop the content in Xcode's Interface Builder.

Ok, this solution is working for me. I have a subclass of UIScrollView with a reference to the UIImageView it is displaying. Whenever the UIScrollView zooms, the contentSize property is adjusted. It is in the setter that I scale the UIImageView appropriately and also adjust its center position.

-(void) setContentSize:(CGSize) size{
CGSize lSelfSize = self.frame.size;
CGPoint mid;
if(self.zoomScale >= self.minimumZoomScale){
    CGSize lImageSize = cachedImageView.initialSize;
    float newHeight = lImageSize.height * self.zoomScale;

    if (newHeight < lSelfSize.height ) {
        newHeight = lSelfSize.height;
    }
    size.height = newHeight;

    float newWidth = lImageSize.width * self.zoomScale;
    if (newWidth < lSelfSize.width ) {
        newWidth = lSelfSize.width;
    }
    size.width = newWidth;
    mid = CGPointMake(size.width/2, size.height/2);

}
else {
    mid = CGPointMake(lSelfSize.width/2, lSelfSize.height/2);
}

cachedImageView.center = mid;
[super  setContentSize:size];
[self printLocations];
NSLog(@"zoom %f setting size %f x %f",self.zoomScale,size.width,size.height);
}

Evertime I set the image on the UIScrollView I resize it. The UIScrollView in the scrollview is also a custom class I created.

-(void) resetSize{
    if (!scrollView){//scroll view is view containing imageview
        return;
    }

    CGSize lSize = scrollView.frame.size;

    CGSize lSelfSize = self.image.size; 
    float lWidth = lSize.width/lSelfSize.width;
    float lHeight = lSize.height/lSelfSize.height;

    // choose minimum scale so image width fits screen
    float factor  = (lWidth<lHeight)?lWidth:lHeight;

    initialSize.height = lSelfSize.height  * factor;
    initialSize.width = lSelfSize.width  * factor;

    [scrollView setContentSize:lSize];
    [scrollView setContentOffset:CGPointZero];
    scrollView.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
}

With these two methods I am able to have a view that behaves just like the photos app.

I know some answers above are right, but I just want to give my answer with some explanation, the comments will make you understand why we do like this.

When I load the scrollView for the first time, I write the following code to make it center, please notice we set contentOffset first, then contentInset

    scrollView.maximumZoomScale = 8
    scrollView.minimumZoomScale = 1

    // set vContent frame
    vContent.frame = CGRect(x: 0,
                            y: 0  ,
                            width: vContentWidth,
                            height: vContentWidth)
    // set scrollView.contentSize
    scrollView.contentSize = vContent.frame.size

    //on the X direction, if contentSize.width > scrollView.bounds.with, move scrollView from 0 to offsetX to make it center(using `scrollView.contentOffset`)
    // if not, don't need to set offset, but we need to set contentInset to make it center.(using `scrollView.contentInset`)
    // so does the Y direction.
    let offsetX = max((scrollView.contentSize.width - scrollView.bounds.width) * 0.5, 0)
    let offsetY = max((scrollView.contentSize.height - scrollView.bounds.height) * 0.5, 0)
    scrollView.contentOffset = CGPoint(x: offsetX, y: offsetY)

    let topX = max((scrollView.bounds.width - scrollView.contentSize.width) * 0.5, 0)
    let topY = max((scrollView.bounds.height - scrollView.contentSize.height) * 0.5, 0)
    scrollView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: topY, left: topX, bottom: 0, right: 0)

Then, when I pinch vContent, I write the following code to make it center.

func scrollViewDidZoom(_ scrollView: UIScrollView) {
    //we just need to ensure that the content is in the center when the contentSize is less than scrollView.size.
    let topX = max((scrollView.bounds.width - scrollView.contentSize.width) * 0.5, 0)
    let topY = max((scrollView.bounds.height - scrollView.contentSize.height) * 0.5, 0)
    scrollView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: topY, left: topX, bottom: 0, right: 0)
}

In case your inner imageView has initial specific width(eg 300) and you just want to center its width only on zoom smaller than its initial width this might help you also.

 func scrollViewDidZoom(scrollView: UIScrollView){
    if imageView.frame.size.width < 300{
        imageView.center.x = self.view.frame.width/2
    }
  }

Here's the current way I'm making this work. It's better but still not perfect. Try setting:

 myScrollView.bouncesZoom = YES; 

to fix the problem with the view not centering when at minZoomScale.

- (void)scrollViewDidScroll:(UIScrollView *)scrollView
{
CGSize screenSize = [[self view] bounds].size;//[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size;//
CGSize photoSize = [yourImage size];
CGFloat topInset = (screenSize.height - photoSize.height * [myScrollView zoomScale]) / 2.0;
CGFloat sideInset = (screenSize.width - photoSize.width * [myScrollView zoomScale]) / 2.0;

if (topInset < 0.0)
{ topInset = 0.0; }
if (sideInset < 0.0)
{ sideInset = 0.0; } 
[myScrollView setContentInset:UIEdgeInsetsMake(topInset, sideInset, -topInset, -sideInset)];
ApplicationDelegate *appDelegate = (ApplicationDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];

CGFloat scrollViewHeight; //Used later to calculate the height of the scrollView
if (appDelegate.navigationController.navigationBar.hidden == YES) //If the NavBar is Hidden, set scrollViewHeight to 480
{ scrollViewHeight = 480; }
if (appDelegate.navigationController.navigationBar.hidden == NO) //If the NavBar not Hidden, set scrollViewHeight to 360
{ scrollViewHeight = 368; }

imageView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, CGImageGetWidth(yourImage)* [myScrollView zoomScale], CGImageGetHeight(yourImage)* [myScrollView zoomScale]);

[imageView setContentMode:UIViewContentModeCenter];
}

Also, I do the following to prevent the image from sticking a the side after zooming out.

- (void) scrollViewDidEndZooming:(UIScrollView *)scrollView withView:(UIView *)view atScale:(float)scale {
myScrollView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 420);
 //put the correct parameters for your scroll view width and height above
}

A Swift version to just subclass UIScrollView and lauout the subview by yourself. It works pretty smooth.

import UIKit

class CenteringScrollView: UIScrollView {
    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()

        if zoomScale < 1.0 {
            if let subview = self.subviews.first {
                subview.center.x = self.center.x
            }
        }
    }
}