NSTextField with shadow?

Question

I'd like the NSTextFields I set up in Interface Builder to have shadows. I've implemented a way to do this which seems to work, but I'm not sure if it's the right way.

What I did is subclass NSTextFieldCell as follows and then set my subclass as the NSTextField's cell's type in IB. Is there a problem with this approach? Is there a better way?

#import "ShadowTextFieldCell.h"

static NSShadow *kShadow = nil;

@implementation ShadowTextFieldCell

+ (void)initialize
{
    kShadow = [[NSShadow alloc] init];
    [kShadow setShadowColor:[NSColor colorWithCalibratedWhite:0.f alpha:0.08f]];
    [kShadow setShadowBlurRadius:0.f];
    [kShadow setShadowOffset:NSMakeSize(0.f, -2.f)];
}

- (void)drawInteriorWithFrame:(NSRect)cellFrame inView:(NSView *)controlView
{
    [kShadow set];
    [super drawInteriorWithFrame:cellFrame inView:controlView];
}

@end

That's exactly how you're supposed to do it. The fancier way is to put your shadow-field class in its own bundle with an IB plugin, and then IB can actually render the shadow for you during layout; but that's way overkill and IB plugins are (temporarily?) MIA in xcode 4 anyway. — rgeorge, Jul 09 '11 at 02:04

score 10 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

10

Rather than subclass, you can just use NSCell's setBackgroundStyle:

[[aTextField cell] setBackgroundStyle:NSBackgroundStyleRaised];

See this similar question;

edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

Community

1
1

answered Sep 14 '11 at 07:29

zpasternack

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score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 15 '11 at 04:40

There's nothing wrong with this approach. The other option would be to layer-back your text field (call [textField setWantsLayer:YES] and use CALayer's shadow properties, but this is often an undesirable way to do it because Core Animation's text rendering lacks subpixel antialiasing.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 18 '13 at 16:56

1

Easiest way is

[[yourTextField cell] setBackgroundStyle:NSBackgroundStyleRaised];

just like zpasternack said, but this is used only for default shadow-ing, for custom one subclass or use the layer...

answered May 18 '13 at 16:56

Catalin

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NSTextField with shadow?

3 Answers3