How to draw border around a UILabel?

Question

Is there a way for UILabel to draw a border around itself? This is useful for me to debug the text placement and to see the placement and how big the label actually is.

Grinnell

Answer 1

You can set label's border via its underlying CALayer property:

#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>

myLabel.layer.borderColor = [UIColor greenColor].CGColor
myLabel.layer.borderWidth = 3.0

Swift 5:

myLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.darkGray.cgColor
myLabel.layer.borderWidth = 3.0

Andromeda

Compiler complaints that there is no definition of borderColor and borderWidth within CALayer. – Grinnell

they're available only starting SDK 3.0 :( If you want just a quick solution for debugging purpose you can set semitransparent colored background for your label. – Andromeda

If the compiler complains then you probably forgot to #import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h> – Dray

Make sure you set the border width, because I guess it defaults to zero, and you won't see it if you don't set it. – Audun

@Andromeda This solution is adding the border to all the sides of the label. Can we add the border only the right side of the label ??? – Crossbreed

@chinthakad, no. I think you'll need custom label subclass with custom drawing for that – Andromeda

In Swift the first line would read: myLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.greenColor().CGColor – Archiepiscopate

Answer 2

Here are some things you can do with UILabel and its borders.

Here is the code for those labels:

import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBOutlet weak var label1: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var label2: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var label3: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var label4: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var label5: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var label6: UILabel!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // label 1
        label1.layer.borderWidth = 1.0

        // label 2
        label2.layer.borderWidth = 5.0
        label2.layer.borderColor = UIColor.blue.cgColor

        // label 3
        label3.layer.borderWidth = 2.0
        label3.layer.cornerRadius = 8

        // label 4
        label4.backgroundColor = UIColor.cyan

        // label 5
        label5.backgroundColor = UIColor.red
        label5.layer.cornerRadius = 8
        label5.layer.masksToBounds = true

        // label 6
        label6.layer.borderWidth = 2.0
        label6.layer.cornerRadius = 8
        label6.backgroundColor = UIColor.yellow
        label6.layer.masksToBounds = true
    }
}

Note that in Swift there is no need to import QuartzCore.

See also

• Border, rounded corners, and shadow on a CALayer
• Explanation of masksToBounds
• Using a border with a Bezier path for a layer
• How to do transforms on a CALayer

Longwise

How were you able to get those paddings? My text is touching the borders... – Steverson

@eestein, I think I just dragged the label size bigger in the Interface Builder. Or I might have set size constraints on them. – Longwise

Answer 3

Swift version:

myLabel.layer.borderWidth = 0.5
myLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.greenColor().CGColor

For Swift 3:

myLabel.layer.borderWidth = 0.5
myLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.green.cgColor

Thump

it will be myLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.blackColor().CGColor! – Chemistry

Answer 4

Swift 3/4 with @IBDesignable

---

While almost all the above solutions work fine but I would suggest an @IBDesignable custom class for this.

@IBDesignable
class CustomLabel: UILabel {

    /*
    // Only override draw() if you perform custom drawing.
    // An empty implementation adversely affects performance during animation.
    override func draw(_ rect: CGRect) {
        // Drawing code
    }
    */

    @IBInspectable var borderColor: UIColor = UIColor.white {
        didSet {
            layer.borderColor = borderColor.cgColor
        }
    }

    @IBInspectable var borderWidth: CGFloat = 2.0 {
        didSet {
            layer.borderWidth = borderWidth
        }
    }

    @IBInspectable var cornerRadius: CGFloat = 0.0 {
        didSet {
            layer.cornerRadius = cornerRadius
        }
    }
}

Franky

Answer 5

UILabel properties borderColor,borderWidth,cornerRadius in Swift 4

@IBOutlet weak var anyLabel: UILabel!
   override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        anyLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
        anyLabel.layer.borderWidth = 2
        anyLabel.layer.cornerRadius = 5
        anyLabel.layer.masksToBounds = true
}

Simulant

Thanks! I used the info from this answer in my PaddedLabel with Border solution here: https://mcmap.net/q/23632/-how-can-i-make-a-padded-uilabel-with-rounded-border-in-ios. Also gave a link back to here. – Camala

Answer 6

You can use this repo: GSBorderLabel

It's quite simple:

GSBorderLabel *myLabel = [[GSBorderLabel alloc] initWithTextColor:aColor
                                                     andBorderColor:anotherColor
                                                     andBorderWidth:2];

Mutineer

This deals with border around the actual characters in the text, the question is talking about borders around the rectangle the text is contained in. – Blazon

Answer 7

Solution for Swift 4:

yourLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.green.cgColor

Griggs

Answer 8

it really depends on how many boarder use in your view , sometimes , just add a UIVIEW which the size is a bit bigger to create the border . the method is faster than produce a view

Sceptre

Answer 9

Using an NSAttributedString string for your labels attributedText is probably your best bet. Check out this example.

Psychognosis