Text inset for UITextField?

Question

I would like to inset the text of a UITextField.

Is this possible?

Answer 1

Here is the same subclassed UITextField written in Swift 3. It is quite different from prior versions of Swift, as you'll see:

import UIKit

class MyTextField: UITextField
    {
    let inset: CGFloat = 10

    // placeholder position
    override func textRect(forBounds bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect
        {
        return bounds.insetBy(dx: inset, dy: inset)
        }

    // text position
    override func editingRect(forBounds bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect
        {
        return bounds.insetBy(dx: inset, dy: inset)
        }

    override func placeholderRect(forBounds bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect
        {
        return bounds.insetBy(dx: inset, dy: inset)
        }
    }

Incidentally, you can also do something like the following, if you want to control the inset of just one side. This particular example of adjusting only the left inset comes in handy if you place an image on top of the UITextField but you want it to appear to the user to be within the text field:

    override func editingRect(forBounds bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect
        {
        return CGRect.init(x: bounds.origin.x + inset, y: bounds.origin.y, width: bounds.width - inset, height: bounds.height)
        }

Answer 2

It's 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

Answer 3

A good approach to add padding to UITextField is to subclass UITextField and add an edgeInsets property. You 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

Overriding -textRectForBounds: will only change the inset of the placeholder text. To change the inset of the editable text, you need to also override -editingRectForBounds:

// placeholder position
- (CGRect)textRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
     return CGRectInset(bounds, 10, 10);
}

// text position
- (CGRect)editingRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
     return CGRectInset(bounds, 10, 10);
}

Answer 5

To throw in another solution that has no need for subclassing:

UITextField *txtField = [UITextField new];
txtField.borderStyle = UITextBorderStyleRoundedRect;

// grab BG layer
CALayer *bgLayer = txtField.layer.sublayers.lastObject;
bgLayer.opacity = 0.f;

// add new bg view
UIView *bgView = [UIView new];
bgView.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
bgView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
bgView.userInteractionEnabled = NO;

[txtField addSubview: bgView];
[txtField sendSubviewToBack: bgView];

Tested with iOS 7 and iOS 8. Both working. Still there might be the chance of Apple modifying the UITextField's layer hierarchy screwing up things badly.

Answer 6

Here's a comprehensive Swift answer that includes a leftView (custom icon) and a custom clear button, both set in Interface Builder with customizable insets.

import UIKit

@IBDesignable
class InsetTextField: UITextField {
@IBInspectable var leftInset:CGFloat = 0
@IBInspectable var rightInset:CGFloat = 0
@IBInspectable var icon:UIImage? { didSet {
    let imageView = UIImageView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 16, height: 16))
    imageView.image = icon
    self.leftView = imageView
    self.leftViewMode = .Always
} }

@IBInspectable var clearButton:UIImage? { didSet {
    let button = UIButton(type: .Custom)
    button.setImage(clearButton, forState: .Normal)
    button.addTarget(self, action: "clear", forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)
    button.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 18, height: 18)
    self.rightView = button
    self.rightViewMode = .WhileEditing
} }

func clear() {
    self.text = ""
}

override func leftViewRectForBounds(bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect {
    var height:CGFloat = 0
    var width:CGFloat = 0
    if let leftView = self.leftView {
        height = leftView.bounds.height
        width = leftView.bounds.width
    }

    return CGRect(x: leftInset, y: bounds.height/2 - height/2, width: width, height: height)
}

override func rightViewRectForBounds(bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect {
    var height:CGFloat = 0
    var width:CGFloat = 0
    if let rightView = self.rightView {
        height = rightView.bounds.height
        width = rightView.bounds.width
    }

    return CGRect(x: bounds.width - width - rightInset, y: bounds.height/2 - height/2, width: width, height: height)
}

}