How to Set Kerning in iPhone Uilabel

What's the default kerning for UILabel (attributed text looks different)

According to the documentation for the UILabel attributed text property

To turn on auto-kerning on the label, set kern of the string to null.

Looks like auto-kerning for plain text is on by default, for attributed text is off by default. Here's how to turn auto-kerning back on for the attributed text property:

        let label = UILabel()
        let attributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.kern: kCFNull!]
        label.attributedText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Text", attributes: attributes)

iOS/Objective-C UILabel text kerning

You want to update your attributedText every time kerning is updated. So, your .h should look like:

IB_DESIGNABLE
@interface KerningLabel : UILabel

@property (nonatomic) IBInspectable CGFloat kerning;

@end

and your .m :

@implementation KerningLabel

- (void)setKerning:(CGFloat)kerning
{
    _kerning = kerning;

    if(self.attributedText)
    {
        NSMutableAttributedString *attribString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc]initWithAttributedString:self.attributedText];
        [attribString addAttribute:NSKernAttributeName value:@(kerning) range:NSMakeRange(0, self.attributedText.length)];
        self.attributedText = attribString;
     }
}

@end

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];

How to increase the character spacing in UILabel

You should probably use NSAttributedString with NSKernAttributeName attribute

Here is a small example:

UILabel *label = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:self.view.bounds];

NSString *string = @"Some important text";
NSMutableAttributedString *attributedString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:string];

float spacing = 5.0f;
[attributedString addAttribute:NSKernAttributeName
            value:@(spacing)
            range:NSMakeRange(0, [string length])];

label.attributedText = attributedString;
[self.view addSubview:label];

How to change an UILabel/UIFont's letter spacing?

I've come up with a solution for the letter spacing and the alignment to the right.

Here it goes:

    NSString *number = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", total];

    int lastPos = 85;

    NSUInteger i;
    for (i = number.length; i > 0; i--)
    {
        NSRange range = {i-1,1};
        NSString *n = [number substringWithRange:range];

        UILabel *digit = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(5, 10, 35, 50)] autorelease];
        digit.text = n;
        digit.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"Arial-BoldMT" size:60];
        digit.textColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:221/255.0 green:221/255.0 blue:221/255.0 alpha:1.0];
        digit.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
        [self addSubview:digit];

        CGSize textSize = [[digit text] sizeWithFont:[digit font]];
        CGFloat textWidth = textSize.width;

        CGRect rect = digit.frame;
        rect.origin.x = lastPos - textWidth;
        digit.frame = rect;

        lastPos = rect.origin.x + 10;
    }

The letter spacing is the "10" on the last line.
The alignment comes from the lastPos.

Hope this helps anyone out there.

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.

How do you adjust text kerning using Interface Builder in Xcode 7?

You can actually do this without the use of a subclass through an extension.

import UIKit

@IBDesignable
extension UILabel {
    @IBInspectable
    public var kerning:CGFloat {
        set{
            if let currentAttibutedText = self.attributedText {
                let attribString = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: currentAttibutedText)
                attribString.addAttributes([NSKernAttributeName:newValue], range:NSMakeRange(0, currentAttibutedText.length))
                self.attributedText = attribString
            }
        } get {
            var kerning:CGFloat = 0
            if let attributedText = self.attributedText {
                attributedText.enumerateAttribute(NSKernAttributeName,
                                                  in: NSMakeRange(0, attributedText.length),
                                                  options: .init(rawValue: 0)) { (value, range, stop) in
                                                    kerning = value as? CGFloat ?? 0
                }
            }
            return kerning
        }
    }
}

While this won't actually show up in interface builder it will show up and work when you run your app.

How to set kerning (spacing between characters) on UINavigationBar title - Swift or Objective-C

According to the documentation, the titleTextAttributes of UINavigationBar only lets you specify the font, text color, text shadow color, and text shadow offset.

If you want to use other attributes, you can create a UILabel with the NSAttributedString you want, and set it as the titleView for your controller's navigationItem

For example:

UILabel *titleLabel = [UILabel new];
NSDictionary *attributes = @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: [UIColor whiteColor],
                             NSFontAttributeName: [UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaNeue-Light" size:20.0],
                             NSKernAttributeName: @2};
titleLabel.attributedText = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:self.navigationItem.title attributes:attributes];
[titleLabel sizeToFit];
self.navigationItem.titleView = titleLabel;

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