How to Fix Uilabel Text Spacing

How to control the line spacing in UILabel

I thought about adding something new to this answer, so I don't feel as bad... Here is a Swift answer:

import Cocoa

let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
paragraphStyle.lineSpacing = 40

let attrString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Swift Answer")
attrString.addAttribute(.paragraphStyle, value:paragraphStyle, range:NSMakeRange(0, attrString.length))

var tableViewCell = NSTableCellView()
tableViewCell.textField.attributedStringValue = attrString

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"Short answer: you can't. To change the spacing between lines of text, you will have to subclass UILabel and roll your own drawTextInRect, or create multiple labels."

See: Set UILabel line spacing

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This is a really old answer, and other have already addded the new and better way to handle this.. Please see the up to date answers provided below.

How to Increase Line spacing in UILabel in Swift

Programatically add LineSpacing to your UILabel using following snippet.

Earlier Swift version

let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Your text")

// *** Create instance of `NSMutableParagraphStyle`
let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()

// *** set LineSpacing property in points ***
paragraphStyle.lineSpacing = 2 // Whatever line spacing you want in points

// *** Apply attribute to string ***
attributedString.addAttribute(NSParagraphStyleAttributeName, value:paragraphStyle, range:NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length))

// *** Set Attributed String to your label ***
label.attributedText = attributedString

Swift 4.0

let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Your text")

// *** Create instance of `NSMutableParagraphStyle`
let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()

// *** set LineSpacing property in points ***
paragraphStyle.lineSpacing = 2 // Whatever line spacing you want in points

// *** Apply attribute to string ***
attributedString.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.paragraphStyle, value:paragraphStyle, range:NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length))

// *** Set Attributed String to your label ***
label.attributedText = attributedString

Swift 4.2

let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Your text")

// *** Create instance of `NSMutableParagraphStyle`
let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()

// *** set LineSpacing property in points ***
paragraphStyle.lineSpacing = 2 // Whatever line spacing you want in points

// *** Apply attribute to string ***
attributedString.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.paragraphStyle, value:paragraphStyle, range:NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length))

// *** Set Attributed String to your label ***
label.attributedText = attributedString

How do I change the letter spacing in a UILabel?

You can use the NSKernAttributeName attribute on an attributed string:

UILabel *label = [UILabel new];

NSMutableAttributedString *text = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] 
                                   initWithString:@"127"];

// The value paramenter defines your spacing amount, and range is 
// the range of characters in your string the spacing will apply to. 
// Here we want it to apply to the whole string so we take it from 0 to text.length.
[text addAttribute:NSKernAttributeName 
             value:@-0.5 
             range:NSMakeRange(0, text.length)];

[label setAttributedText:text];

Change character spacing on UILabel within Interface Builder

Ended up using this for now to get existing attributed text and modify to add character spacing:

let attributedString = discoveryTitle.attributedText as NSMutableAttributedString
attributedString.addAttribute(NSKernAttributeName, value: 1.0, range: NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length))
discoveryTitle.attributedText = attributedString

Swift 3:

let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: discoveryTitle.text)
attributedString.addAttribute(NSKernAttributeName, value: CGFloat(1.0), range: NSRange(location: 0, length: attributedString.length))
discoveryTitle.attributedText = attributedString

Using NSRange instead of NSMakeRange works in Swift 3.

Adding space/padding to a UILabel

If you want to stick with UILabel, without subclassing it, Mundi has given you a clear solution.

If alternatively, you would be willing to avoid wrapping the UILabel with a UIView, you could use UITextView to enable the use of UIEdgeInsets (padding) or subclass UILabel to support UIEdgeInsets.

Using a UITextView would only need to provide the insets (Objective-C):

textView.textContainerInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(10, 0, 10, 0);

Alternative, if you subclass UILabel, an example to this approach would be overriding the drawTextInRect method

(Objective-C)

- (void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)uiLabelRect {
    UIEdgeInsets myLabelInsets = {10, 0, 10, 0};
    [super drawTextInRect:UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(uiLabelRect, myLabelInsets)];
}

You could additionally provide your new subclassed UILabel with insets variables for TOP, LEFT, BOTTOM and RIGHT.

An example code could be:

In .h (Objective-C)

float topInset, leftInset,bottomInset, rightInset;

In .m (Objective-C)

- (void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)uiLabelRect {
    [super drawTextInRect:UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(uiLabelRect, UIEdgeInsetsMake(topInset,leftInset,bottomInset,rightInset))];
}

From what I have seen, it seems you have to override the intrinsicContentSize of the UILabel when subclassing it.

So you should override intrinsicContentSize like:

- (CGSize) intrinsicContentSize {
    CGSize intrinsicSuperViewContentSize = [super intrinsicContentSize] ;
    intrinsicSuperViewContentSize.height += topInset + bottomInset ;
    intrinsicSuperViewContentSize.width += leftInset + rightInset ;
    return intrinsicSuperViewContentSize ;
}

And add the following method to edit your insets, instead of editing them individually:

- (void) setContentEdgeInsets:(UIEdgeInsets)edgeInsets {
    topInset = edgeInsets.top;
    leftInset = edgeInsets.left;
    rightInset = edgeInsets.right;
    bottomInset = edgeInsets.bottom;
    [self invalidateIntrinsicContentSize] ;
}

It will update the size of your UILabel to match the edge insets and cover the multiline necessity you referred to.

After searching a bit I have found this Gist with an IPInsetLabel. If none of those solutions work you could try it out.

There was a similar question (duplicate) about this matter.

For a full list of available solutions, see this answer: UILabel text margin

How to Increase Line spacing in UILabel in Swift 4

In Swift 4 in this case you have to use NSAttributedStringKey.paragraphStyle instead of NSParagraphStyleAttributeName

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