Indent the text in a UITextField

Question

My question is as simple as the title, but here's a little more:

I have a UITextField, on which I've set the background image. The problem is that the text hugs so closely to it's edge, which is also the edge of the image. I want my text field to look like Apple's, with a bit of horizontal space between the background image and where the text starts.

Answer 1

This is the quickest way I've found without doing any subclasses:

UIView *spacerView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 10, 10)];
[textfield setLeftViewMode:UITextFieldViewModeAlways];
[textfield setLeftView:spacerView];

In Swift:

let spacerView = UIView(frame:CGRect(x:0, y:0, width:10, height:10))
textField.leftViewMode = UITextFieldViewMode.Always
textField.leftView = spacerView

Swift 5:

let spacerView = UIView(frame:CGRect(x:0, y:0, width:10, height:10))
textField.leftViewMode = .always
textField.leftView = spacerView

Answer 2

You have to subclass and override textRectForBounds: and editingRectForBounds:. Here is a UITextfield subclass with custom background and vertical and horizontal padding:

@interface MyUITextField : UITextField 
@property (nonatomic, assign) float verticalPadding;
@property (nonatomic, assign) float horizontalPadding;
@end

#import "MyUITextField.h"
@implementation MyUITextField
@synthesize horizontalPadding, verticalPadding;
- (CGRect)textRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
    return CGRectMake(bounds.origin.x + horizontalPadding, bounds.origin.y + verticalPadding, bounds.size.width - horizontalPadding*2, bounds.size.height - verticalPadding*2);
}
- (CGRect)editingRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
    return [self textRectForBounds:bounds];
}
@end

Usage:

UIImage *bg = [UIImage imageNamed:@"textfield.png"];
CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0, 0, bg.size.width, bg.size.height);
MyUITextField *textfield = [[[MyUITextField alloc] initWithFrame:rect] autorelease];
textfield.verticalPadding = 10; 
textfield.horizontalPadding = 10;
[textfield setBackground:bg];
[textfield setBorderStyle:UITextBorderStyleNone];
[self.view addSubview:textfield];

Answer 3

A good approach to add padding to UITextField is to subclass UITextField , overriding the rectangle methods and adding an edgeInsets property. You can then set the edgeInsets and the UITextField will be drawn accordingly. This will also function correctly with a custom leftView or rightView set.

OSTextField.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface OSTextField : UITextField

@property (nonatomic, assign) UIEdgeInsets edgeInsets;

@end

OSTextField.m

#import "OSTextField.h"

@implementation OSTextField

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
        self.edgeInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, 0, 0);
    }
    return self;
}

-(id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder{
    self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
    if(self){
        self.edgeInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, 0, 0);
    }
    return self;
}

- (CGRect)textRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
    return [super textRectForBounds:UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(bounds, self.edgeInsets)];
}

- (CGRect)editingRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
    return [super editingRectForBounds:UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(bounds, self.edgeInsets)];
}

@end

Answer 4

I turned this into a nice little extension for use inside Storyboards:

public extension UITextField {
    @IBInspectable public var leftSpacer:CGFloat {
        get {
            return leftView?.frame.size.width ?? 0
        } set {
            leftViewMode = .Always
            leftView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: newValue, height: frame.size.height))
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

My 2 cents:

class PaddedTextField : UITextField {
    var insets = UIEdgeInsets.zero
    var verticalPadding:CGFloat = 0
    var horizontalPadding:CGFloat = 0

    override func textRect(forBounds bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect {
        return CGRect(x: bounds.origin.x + insets.left, y: bounds.origin.y + insets.top, width: bounds.size.width - (insets.left + insets.right), height: bounds.size.height - (insets.top + insets.bottom));
    }

    override func editingRect(forBounds bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect {
        return textRect(forBounds: bounds)
    }
}

Answer 6

I suggest converting your UITextField to a UITextView and setting the contentInset. For example to indent by 10 spaces:

textview.contentInset=UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 10, 0, 0);

Answer 7

Sometimes the leftView of the textField is a Apple's magnifying glass image. If so, you can set an indent like this:

    UIView *leftView = textField.leftView;
    if (leftView && [leftView isKindOfClass:[UIImageView class]]) {
        leftView.contentMode = UIViewContentModeCenter;
        leftView.width = 20.0f;  //the space you want indented.
    }

Answer 8

If you don't want to create @IBOutlet's could simply subclass (answer in Swift):

class PaddedTextField: UITextField {

  override func awakeFromNib() {
      super.awakeFromNib()

      let spacerView = UIView(frame:CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 10, height: 10))
      leftViewMode = .always
      leftView = spacerView
   }
}