iPhone UILabel text soft shadow

Question

I know soft shadows are not supported by the UILabel out of the box, on the iPhone. So what would be the best way to implement my own one?

EDIT:

Obviously I will subclass the UILabel and draw in the -drawRect: My question is, how do I get the contents of the label as graphics and draw around them, blur them etc...

EDIT 2:

I returned to this question about a year later. In the meantime I've built a class that allows you to easily add soft shadow to a label and tweak it's radius etc and also to draw gradients on the text itself. You can find it on GitHub: https://github.com/doukasd/iOS-Components/tree/master/Views

user_103529 · Answer

As of 3.2 there is direct support for shadows in the SDK.

label.layer.shadowColor = [label.textColor CGColor];
label.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0.0, 0.0);

#import and play with some parameters:

label.layer.shadowRadius = 3.0;
label.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5;

And, if you find your shadow clipped by the label bounds:

label.layer.masksToBounds = NO;

finally set

label.layer.shouldRasterize = YES;

user_276836 · Answer

I advise you to use the shadowColor and shadowOffset properties of UILabel:

UILabel* label = [[UILabel alloc] init];
label.shadowColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
label.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0,1);

user_3022430 · Answer

I tried almost all of these techniques (except FXLabel) and couldn't get any of them to work with iOS 7. I did eventually find THLabel which is working perfectly for me. I used THLabel in Interface Builder and setup User Defined Runtime Attributes so that it's easy for a non programmer to control the look and feel.

https://github.com/MuscleRumble/THLabel

user_6704959 · Answer

While it's impossible to set a blur radius directly on UILabel, you definitely could change it by manipulating CALayer.

Just set:

//Required properties
customLabel.layer.shadowRadius = 5.0 //set shadow radius to your desired value.
customLabel.layer.shadowOpacity = 1.0 //Choose an opacity. Make sure it's visible (default is 0.0)

//Other options
customLabel.layer.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: 10, height: 10)
customLabel.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
customLabel.layer.masksToBounds = false

What I hope will help someone and other answers failed to clarify is that it will not work if you also set UILabel Shadow Color property directly on Interface Builder while trying to setup .layer.shadowRadius.

So if setting label.layer.shadowRadius didn't work, please verify Shadow Color for this UILabel on Interface Builder. It should be set to default. And then, please, if you want a shadow color other than black, set this color also through .layer property.

enter image description here

iPhone UILabel text soft shadow

15 Answers