iOS - How to set textfield hint to italic (with regular actual text)?

Question

Is there any easy way to set a text field's hint to italic, while keeping the actual text non-italicized? The image below shows what I'm trying to accomplish, but doesn't actually work, as text typed into the first text field is still italicized.

text fields

If there's no easy way to do this, I'm thinking that I'll have to implement methods on each of the text fields to check the length of the text, and if zero apply the italic font. This would work, right? Is there a better way?

Xavi Gil · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-14T00:33:04.430

5

Try this:

UIFont* italicFont = [UIFont italicSystemFontOfSize:[UIFont systemFontSize]];    
[yourTextField setValue:italicFont forKeyPath:@"_placeholderLabel.font"];

EDIT:

Ok, here is another (legal) way to do it:

1.Subclass UITextField and override drawPlaceholderInRect::

TextFieldSubclass.h:

@interface TextFieldSubclass : UITextField

@end

TextFieldSubclass.m:

- (void) drawPlaceholderInRect:(CGRect)rect 
{
    [[UIColor lightGrayColor] setFill];
    UIFont* italicFont = [UIFont italicSystemFontOfSize:[UIFont systemFontSize]];
    [[self placeholder] drawInRect:rect withFont:italicFont];
}

2.Change your UITextField class and set it to TextFieldSubclass:

enter image description here

And that's it. Enjoy.

edited Jul 14 '12 at 00:33

answered Jul 13 '12 at 23:41

Xavi Gil

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1

This may work, however it is accessing private instance variables, and as such, Apple may reject the application from the App Store... – thebarcodeproject Jul 13 '12 at 23:43
I know of something similar passing the review, so I think this code is fine. – Xavi Gil Jul 13 '12 at 23:49

iOS - How to set textfield hint to italic (with regular actual text)?

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