How to align text inside textView vertically?

Question

I want to align vertically the text inside my UITextView (so it will be in the middle of it). How can i achieve that? I looked up and could not find any answer that could help me.

Thanks in advance.

You have to be more specific do you want to do it from storyboard or from code and if you want from code what version of swift do you use? — mike vorisis, Dec 29 '16 at 21:54
I use Swift 3. It would be better if it was from storyboard but i couldn't see an option for that — Volkan, Dec 29 '16 at 21:57

score 61 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 06 '21 at 19:17

61

Link your Text View to your View Controller and name it as you want (let's say textView).

In viewDidLayoutSubviews function put this line:

textView.centerVertically()

Then under the last curly bracket of your class put this extension:

extension UITextView {
    func centerVertically() {
        let fittingSize = CGSize(width: bounds.width, height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude)
        let size = sizeThatFits(fittingSize)
        let topOffset = (bounds.size.height - size.height * zoomScale) / 2
        let positiveTopOffset = max(1, topOffset)
        contentOffset.y = -positiveTopOffset
    }   
}

To use this function in Swift 2.0 just change CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude to CGFloat.max

edited Feb 06 '21 at 19:17

אורי orihpt

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answered Dec 29 '16 at 22:00

mike vorisis

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I want to center it 'vertically' in the container not 'horizontally' – Volkan Dec 29 '16 at 22:04
@Volkan what do you mean vertically? – mike vorisis Dec 29 '16 at 22:05
1

lets say i have a text for 2 lines only and my textview has a height for 200. I want to center that text vertically – Volkan Dec 29 '16 at 22:06
There is no alignment specifically for vertical orientation. However, there are a number of strategies you can deploy see here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1054558/vertically-align-text-to-top-within-a-uilabel – Yohst Dec 29 '16 at 22:08
@Volkan I edited my answer, use this extension and you will be good to go! Remember to accept the answer if it works thanks. – mike vorisis Dec 29 '16 at 22:35
4

this answer is good, just put that code in layoutsubviews of the superview or viewdidlayoutsubviews in the controller – Stan Jul 24 '17 at 09:58
1

But this answer doesn't support multiline well no? – Happiehappie Mar 14 '19 at 09:00
@Happiehappie I updated my answer as stan said you have to put this code inside viewdidlayoutsubviews to perfectly work. – mike vorisis Mar 14 '19 at 09:58
and also, if you set new value to the .text also need to call method – miff Sep 06 '19 at 07:34
How do I use this in a separate class that creates a multiline UITextView? I tried putting ````textView.centerVertically()```` in ````override func layoutSubviews()```` but it doesn't work. – Greg Sep 29 '20 at 14:45
@Greg Hi, are you trying to use it inside a cell or controller? Do you get an error or you don't see any change after you run it? Finally either you using `layoutSubviews` or `viewDidLayoutSubviews` you have to call `super.layoutSubviews` or `super.viewDidLayoutSubviews` before you call the method. – mike vorisis Oct 06 '20 at 08:11
@mike vorisis, no, unfortunately, same problem with or without ````super.layoutSubviews()````. I can show you my code if you can tell me how to do so. – Greg Oct 06 '20 at 15:30
@Greg so I understand you tried to use it in a cell not a controller right? (I didnt try this in a cell try to use it inside draw) – mike vorisis Oct 07 '20 at 08:17
@mike vorisis - forgive me, I'm new with Xcode and Swift and some of the terminology has me baffled. It is inside ````class CreateTables: UIView{ ... }```` created by a ViewController. – Greg Oct 07 '20 at 19:57
Ok try to put it inside the draw (with super) – mike vorisis Oct 08 '20 at 22:03

Levan Karanadze · Answer 2 · 2022-02-07T06:55:43.367

4

src: https://github.com/soonin/IOS-Swift-UITextViewAlignTextVertically/blob/master/IOS-Swift-UITextViewAlignTextVertically/Extentions.swift

extension UITextView {
    func centerVerticalText() {
        var topCorrect = (self.bounds.size.height - self.contentSize.height * self.zoomScale) / 2
        topCorrect = topCorrect < 0.0 ? 0.0 : topCorrect
        self.contentInset.top = topCorrect
    }
 }

Edit: It's recommended to call it in layoutSubviews()

edited Feb 07 '22 at 06:55

answered Sep 20 '21 at 20:40

Levan Karanadze

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Thank you ! The accepted answer did not allow me to scroll the textView while yours did ( I just had to call it in layoutSubview and it was okay) – benjiii Feb 02 '22 at 11:31

Christian · Answer 3 · 2019-10-10T03:58:35.020

2

If you want to do this using the storyboard, you could add a view inside of your textView. Then, set the constraints that you used for the textView to the new view. Finally, add the following constraints to your text view:

(right and left) O and point to the new view
using the alignment constraints, add a vertically constraint.

edited Oct 10 '19 at 03:58

answered Feb 14 '19 at 23:45

Christian

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You can't put an UIView inside of UITextView. – Farkas Antal Apr 28 '20 at 16:37
Ahh this is really smart. He's saying put a textview (vertically aligned) inside a "parent" view. – Eric Oct 23 '22 at 02:58
1

This totally worked for me and was very easy to do. UNDERRATED ANSWER. I was would recommend having the "parent" view being a horizontal stack view, then set the alignment to "centered" so that the text view's height automatically adjusts to always keep it centered. – Eric Oct 23 '22 at 03:17

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 26 '19 at 20:09

The above answer is correct, just want to add solution for those updating the textView on real time/onEditing.

Use the above extension and add the delegate method as well.

func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) { textView.centerVertically() }

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 28 '20 at 17:05

Swift 5

Put the following extension below your last curly bracket in your ViewController:

// MARK: - UITextView extension
extension UITextView {

    func centerVerticalText() {
        self.textAlignment = .center
        let fitSize = CGSize(width: bounds.width, height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude)
        let size = sizeThatFits(fitSize)
        let calculate = (bounds.size.height - size.height * zoomScale) / 2
        let offset = max(1, calculate)
        contentOffset.y = -offset
    }
}

Call this function after you set the text.

yourTextView.centerVerticalText()

only this line worked for me self.textAlignment = .center – Akbar Khan Aug 22 '21 at 11:53 — Akbar Khan, Aug 22 '21 at 11:53

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 17 '21 at 23:36

1

Add this to your extension or extending class of UITextView

public func centerVertically()
{
    let iFont = font == nil ? UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: UIFont.systemFontSize) : font!
    textContainerInset.top = (frame.height - iFont.lineHeight) / 2
}

answered Jan 17 '21 at 23:36

Ben Levi

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 08 '21 at 10:46

textContainerInset worked for me instead of contentOffset.

extension UITextView {
    func centerVertically() {
        let fittingSize = CGSize(width: bounds.width, height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude)
        let size = sizeThatFits(fittingSize)
        let topOffset = (bounds.size.height - size.height * zoomScale) / 2
        let positiveTopOffset = max(1, topOffset)
        textContainerInset.top = positiveTopOffset
    }
}

score -1 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 27 '20 at 12:07

-1

This is used to center the text horizontal.

answered Nov 27 '20 at 12:07

maiordache

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How to align text inside textView vertically?

8 Answers8

Swift 5

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