Attributed string with custom fonts in storyboard does not load correctly

Question

We are using custom fonts in our project. It works well in Xcode 5. In Xcode 6, it works in plain text, attributed string in code. But those attributed strings set in storyboard all revert to Helvetica when running on simulator or device, although they look all right in storyboard.

I'm not sure if it's a bug of Xcode 6 or iOS 8 SDK, or the way to use custom fonts is changed in Xcode 6 / iOS 8?

Answer 1

The simplest answer that worked for is to drag the fonts into FontBook. If the fonts are in your project but not in your computer's FontBook, IB sometimes has trouble finding it. Weird, but has worked for me on several occasions.

Answer 2

The fix for me was to use an IBDesignable class:

import UIKit

@IBDesignable class TIFAttributedLabel: UILabel {

    @IBInspectable var fontSize: CGFloat = 13.0

    @IBInspectable var fontFamily: String = "DIN Light"

    override func awakeFromNib() {
        var attrString = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: self.attributedText)
        attrString.addAttribute(NSFontAttributeName, value: UIFont(name: self.fontFamily, size: self.fontSize)!, range: NSMakeRange(0, attrString.length))
        self.attributedText = attrString
    }
}

Giving you this in the Interface Builder:

You can set up your attributedstring just as you normal do, but you'll have to set your fontsize and fontfamily once again in the new available properties.

As the Interface Builder is working with the custom font by default, this results in a what you see is what you get, which I prefer when building apps.

Note

The reason I'm using this instead of just the plain version is that I'm setting properties on the attributed label like the linespacing, which are not available when using the plain style.

Answer 3

You can add custom fonts to font book.

Step1: Click on manage fonts. It opens the font book.

Step2: Click on plus and add your fonts.

Next time when you click on font with attributed text newly added font also will show in the list. But make sure your custom font added in info.plist and bundle resources.

Answer 4

My solution is a bit of a work around. The real solution is for apple to fix Interface Builder.

With it you can mark all the bold and italic text in interface builder using a system font, then at runtime render your custom font. May not be optimal in all cases.

 NSMutableAttributedString* ApplyCustomFont(NSAttributedString *attributedText,
                     UIFont* boldFont,
                     UIFont* italicFont,
                     UIFont* boldItalicFont,
                     UIFont* regularFont)
{

    NSMutableAttributedString *attrib = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithAttributedString:attributedText];
    [attrib beginEditing];
    [attrib enumerateAttribute:NSFontAttributeName inRange:NSMakeRange(0, attrib.length) options:0
                    usingBlock:^(id value, NSRange range, BOOL *stop)
    {
        if (value)
        {
            UIFont *oldFont = (UIFont *)value;
            NSLog(@"%@",oldFont.fontName);

            [attrib removeAttribute:NSFontAttributeName range:range];

            if([oldFont.fontName rangeOfString:@"BoldItalic"].location != NSNotFound && boldItalicFont != nil)
                [attrib addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:boldItalicFont range:range];
            else if([oldFont.fontName rangeOfString:@"Italic"].location != NSNotFound && italicFont != nil)
                [attrib addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:italicFont range:range];
            else if([oldFont.fontName rangeOfString:@"Bold"].location != NSNotFound && boldFont != nil)
                [attrib addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:boldFont range:range];
            else if(regularFont != nil)
                [attrib addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:regularFont range:range];
        }
    }];
    [attrib endEditing];

    return attrib;
}

Inspired by this post

Answer 5

Thanks to this thread, I've come to this solution:

private let fontMapping = [
    "HelveticaNeue-Medium": "ITCAvantGardePro-Md",
    "HelveticaNeue": "ITCAvantGardePro-Bk",
    "HelveticaNeue-Bold": "ITCAvantGardePro-Demi",
]

func switchFontFamily(string: NSAttributedString) -> NSAttributedString {
    var result = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: string)
    string.enumerateAttribute(NSFontAttributeName, inRange: NSRange(location: 0, length: string.length), options: nil) { (font, range, _) in
        if let font = font as? UIFont {
            result.removeAttribute(NSFontAttributeName, range: range)
            result.addAttribute(NSFontAttributeName, value: UIFont(name: fontMapping[font.fontName]!, size: font.pointSize)!, range: range)
        }
    }
    return result
}

Answer 6

I have struggled with this bug: UILabel displays correctly in IB with custom font but does not display correctly on device or simulator (font is included in the project and is used in plain UILabels).

Finally found Attributed String Creator on (Mac) App Store. Generates code to be placed in your app in the appropriate place. Fantastic. I am not the creator, just a happy user.

Answer 7

Met the same problem: the attribute font set for TextView in storyboard didn't work in run time with XCode 6.1 & iOS 8 SDK.

This is how I solved this issue, might be a workaround for you:

1. open the attribute inspector of your textview, change text to "Plain"

2. click on the cross to delete the "wC hR"(red below)

   

3. change text to "Attributed", and then you can set the font and size for your text.

4. run to check if it works

Answer 8

Try this it will work

In my case when i try to set "Silversky Technology" as Attributed text for label from interface builder its not show when i run in simulator but its show in interface builder. So i used one trick i made Silversky font with 1 pixel bigger then Technology text.

Attribute text have issue with same size of font so change size of 1 word this thing work with me.

May be this is xcode bug but this trick work for me.

Answer 9

Met the same problem: the attribute font for UILabel in storyboard didn't work in run time. Using this UIFont+IBCustomFonts.m works for me https://github.com/deni2s/IBCustomFonts

Answer 10

The same problem.

Solved: Just check Selectable in TextView. Without this i have standard System font.

Answer 11

Double click and install the font to the system. It will work (Xcode 8.2)

Answer 12

@Hamidptb solution works, make sure to get the correct name of the font (once you've added it to Font Book)

• Open the Font Book application, navigate to your font then press Command+I. The PostScript name is the font name you want to use here:

  UILabel.appearance().font = UIFont(name: "PostScriptName", size: 17)

Answer 13

I was trying to get tableView cells with text having multiple paragraphs. The attributed strings seemed to be a way to get extra space between the paragraphs (something a bit nicer looking than doing two line-feeds in the string). Came across this and other posts when I discovered that the IB settings didn't apply at run time when you wanted to put different text in the cell.

The main thing I came up with was adding an extension to String (using Swift) to create an attributed string with certain characteristics. Example here uses the Marker Felt font, as it is easily distinguishable from Helvetica. The example also shows a little extra bit of spacing between paragraphs to make them more distinct from each other.

extension String {
func toMarkerFelt() -> NSAttributedString {
    var style = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
    style.paragraphSpacing = 5.0
    let markerFontAttributes : [NSObject : AnyObject]? = [
        NSFontAttributeName : UIFont(name: "Marker Felt", size: 14.0)!,
        NSParagraphStyleAttributeName: style,
        NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.blackColor()
    ]
    let s = NSAttributedString(string: self, attributes: markerFontAttributes)
    return s
    }
}

Then, in my custom tableViewCell, you send it the text you want and it converts it to an attributed string on the UILabel.

//  MarkerFeltCell.swift
class MarkerFeltCell: UITableViewCell {
@IBOutlet weak var myLabel: UILabel!
func configureCellWithString(inputString : String) {
    myLabel.attributedText = inputString.toMarkerFelt()
}}

In the view controller with the tableView, you should register your cell in viewDidLoad() -- I used a nib, so something like:

let cellName = "MarkerFeltCell"
tableView.registerNib(UINib(nibName: cellName, bundle: nil), forCellReuseIdentifier: cellName)

To get the cell to figure out how tall it should be, make a prototype cell that is used to get size info, and is never added into the tableView. So, in your view controller's variables:

var prototypeSummaryCell : MarkerFeltCell? = nil

Then in (probably override - depending on your view controller) heightForRowAtIndexPath:

override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, heightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat {
        // ...
    if xib == "MarkerFeltCell" {
            if prototypeCell == nil {
                prototypeCell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier(xib) as? MarkerFeltCell
            }
            let width : CGFloat = tableView.bounds.width
            let height : CGFloat = prototypeCell!.bounds.height
            prototypeCell?.bounds = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: width, height: height)
            configureCell(prototypeCell!, atIndexPath: indexPath)
            prototypeSummaryCell?.layoutIfNeeded()
            let size = prototypeSummaryCell!.contentView.systemLayoutSizeFittingSize(UILayoutFittingCompressedSize)
            let nextHeight : CGFloat = ceil(size.height + 1.0)
            return nextHeight
    } else {  // ...

In the above code, the prototypeCell will be filled in the first time it is needed. The prototypeCell is then used to figure out the height for the cell after going through the autosizing process. You will need to round up the height with the ceil() function. I also added in some extra fudge factor.

The final code bit is how you configure the text for the cell. For this example, simply:

func configureCell(cell :UITableViewCell, atIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
    if let realCell = cell as? MarkerFeltCell  {
        realCell.configureCellWithString("Multi-line string.\nLine 2.\nLine 3.")    // Use \n to separate lines
    }
}

Also, here is a shot of the nib. Pinned the label to the edges of the cell (with margin desired), but used a "Greater Than or Equal" constraint, with a less than "Required" priority for the bottom constraint.

Set the label's font to Attributed. Actual IB font didn't matter.

The result in this case:

Answer 14

In case of attributed string you can add custom font in font list as - Click on font icon this will display following dialog .In the following dialog you can add your own category or existing one for custom font.attributed font dialog

After it click on Manage Fonts it open the following dialog select category in you created or existing one . Click on + sign to add font in the category. Manage font dialog

Answer 15

that's have a simple and quick solition and that's work in my case . that solution is add a code line in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions func in AppDelegate.swift file :

for textViews :

UITextView.appearance().font = UIFont(name: "IranSans", size: 17)

for labels :

UILabel.appearance().font = UIFont(name: "IranSans", size: 17)

and for rest of UiView like this two ☝️

Answer 16

For anyone applying custom fonts to attributed string in code: Try setting it in viewDidLayoutSubviews. My mistake was doing it in viewDidLoad, it won't be applied there.