Cocoa Touch: How To Change UIView's Border Color And Thickness?

Question

I saw in the inspector that I can change the background color, but I'd like to also change the border color and thickness, is this possible?

Answer 1

You need to use view's layer to set border property. e.g:

#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>
...
view.layer.borderColor = [UIColor redColor].CGColor;
view.layer.borderWidth = 3.0f;

You also need to link with QuartzCore.framework to access this functionality.

Answer 2

Xcode 6 update

Since Xcode's newest version there is a better solution to this:

With @IBInspectable you can set Attributes directly from within the Attributes Inspector.

This sets the User Defined Runtime Attributes for you:

There are two approaches to set this up:

Option 1 (with live updating in Storyboard)

1. Create MyCustomView.
2. This inherits from UIView.
3. Set @IBDesignable (this makes the View update live).*
4. Set your Runtime Attributes (border, etc.) with @IBInspectable
5. Change your Views Class to MyCustomView
6. Edit in Attributes Panel and see changes in Storyboard :)

`

@IBDesignable
class MyCustomView: UIView {
    @IBInspectable var cornerRadius: CGFloat = 0 {
        didSet {
            layer.cornerRadius = cornerRadius
            layer.masksToBounds = cornerRadius > 0
        }
    }
    @IBInspectable var borderWidth: CGFloat = 0 {
        didSet {
            layer.borderWidth = borderWidth
        }
    }
    @IBInspectable var borderColor: UIColor? {
        didSet {
            layer.borderColor = borderColor?.CGColor
        }
    }
}

* @IBDesignable only works when set at the start of class MyCustomView

Option 2 (not working since Swift 1.2, see comments)

Extend your UIView Class:

extension UIView {
    @IBInspectable var cornerRadius: CGFloat = 0 {
        didSet {
            layer.cornerRadius = cornerRadius
            layer.masksToBounds = cornerRadius > 0
        }
    }
    @IBInspectable var borderWidth: CGFloat = 0 {
        didSet {
            layer.borderWidth = borderWidth
        }
    }
    @IBInspectable var borderColor: UIColor? {
        didSet {
            layer.borderColor = borderColor?.CGColor
        }
    }
}

This way, your default View always has those extra editable fields in Attributes Inspector. Another advantage is that you don't have to change the class to MycustomView every time. However, one drawback to this is that you will only see your changes when you run your app.

Answer 3

You can also create border with the color of your wish..

view.layer.borderColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:r/255.0 green:g/255.0 blue:b/255.0 alpha:1.0].CGColor;

*r,g,b are the values between 0 to 255.

Answer 4

Add following @IBInspectables in UIView extension

extension UIView {

  @IBInspectable var borderWidth: CGFloat {
    get {
      return layer.borderWidth
    }
    set(newValue) {
      layer.borderWidth = newValue
    }
  }

  @IBInspectable var borderColor: UIColor? {
    get {
      if let color = layer.borderColor {
        return UIColor(CGColor: color)
      }
      return nil
    }
    set(newValue) {
      layer.borderColor = newValue?.CGColor
    }
  }
}

And then you should be able to set borderColor and borderWidth attributes directly from Attribute inspector. See attached image

Attributes Inspector

Answer 5

view.layer.borderWidth = 1.0
view.layer.borderColor = UIColor.lightGray.cgColor

Answer 6

When I use Vladimir's CALayer solution, and on top of the view I have an animation, like a modal UINavigationController dismissing, I see a lot of glitches happening and having drawing performance issues.

So, another way to achieve this, but without the glitches and performance loss, is to make a custom UIView and implement the drawRect message like so:

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    CGContextRef contextRef = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
    CGContextSetLineWidth(contextRef, 1);
    CGContextSetRGBStrokeColor(contextRef, 255.0, 255.0, 255.0, 1.0);
    CGContextStrokeRect(contextRef, rect);    
}

Answer 7

Try this code:

view.layer.borderColor =  [UIColor redColor].CGColor;
view.layer.borderWidth= 2.0;
[view setClipsToBounds:YES];

Answer 8

I wouldn't suggest overriding the drawRect due to causing a performance hit.

Instead, I would modify the properties of the class like below (in your custom uiview):

  - (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
      self.layer.borderWidth = 2.f;
      self.layer.borderColor = [UIColor redColor].CGColor;
    }
  return self;

I didn't see any glitches when taking above approach - not sure why putting in the initWithFrame stops these ;-)

Answer 9

I wanted to add this to @marczking's answer (Option 1) as a comment, but my lowly status on StackOverflow is preventing that.

I did a port of @marczking's answer to Objective C. Works like charm, thanks @marczking!

UIView+Border.h:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

IB_DESIGNABLE
@interface UIView (Border)

-(void)setBorderColor:(UIColor *)color;
-(void)setBorderWidth:(CGFloat)width;
-(void)setCornerRadius:(CGFloat)radius;

@end

UIView+Border.m:

#import "UIView+Border.h"

@implementation UIView (Border)
// Note: cannot use synthesize in a Category

-(void)setBorderColor:(UIColor *)color
{
    self.layer.borderColor = color.CGColor;
}

-(void)setBorderWidth:(CGFloat)width
{
    self.layer.borderWidth = width;
}

-(void)setCornerRadius:(CGFloat)radius
{
    self.layer.cornerRadius = radius;
    self.layer.masksToBounds = radius > 0;
}

@end

Answer 10

@IBInspectable is working for me on iOS 9 , Swift 2.0

extension UIView {

@IBInspectable var borderWidth: CGFloat {
get {
        return layer.borderWidth
    }
    set(newValue) {
        layer.borderWidth = newValue
    }
}

@IBInspectable var cornerRadius: CGFloat {
    get {
        return layer.cornerRadius
    }
    set(newValue) {
        layer.cornerRadius = newValue
    }
}

@IBInspectable var borderColor: UIColor? {
    get {
        if let color = layer.borderColor {
            return UIColor(CGColor: color)
        }
        return nil
    }
    set(newValue) {
        layer.borderColor = newValue?.CGColor
    }
}

Answer 11

If you didn't want to edit the layer of a UIView, you could always embed the view within another view. The parent view would have its background color set to the border color. It would also be slightly larger, depending upon how wide you want the border to be.

Of course, this only works if your view isn't transparent and you only want a single border color. The OP wanted the border in the view itself, but this may be a viable alternative.

Answer 12

item's border color in swift 4.2:

let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "Cell_lastOrderId") as! Cell_lastOrder
cell.layer.borderWidth = 1
cell.layer.borderColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
cell.layer.cornerRadius = 10

Answer 13

[self.view.layer setBorderColor: [UIColor colorWithRed:0.265 green:0.447 blue:0.767 alpha:1.0f].CGColor];

Answer 14

If you want to add different border on different sides, may be add a subview with the specific style is a way easy to come up with.