Xamarin Forms Label - Justify?

Question

I just wanted to ask if there is any way to justify text in a Label. I am using Xamarin Forms Xaml.

Thanks.

UPDATE: As for now, it is not possible to justify text. Most of the answers were about centering the text, but it is not what I asked. One way could be to use Renderer as by Timothy.

Answer 1

Try this:

<StackLayout HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand" Padding="0, 10, 0, 10" Spacing="0">
      <Label Text="Test message" XAlign="Center"/>
      <Label FontSize="Small" Text="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat." LineBreakMode="WordWrap"
XAlign="Center" />
</StackLayout>

Answer 2

The current way to do this is by using HorizontalTextAlignment and the values for the TextAlignment enumeration are:

• Center = Center-aligned text
• Start = Left-aligned
• End = Right-aligned

Center a label and its text example:

<Label x:Name="Description" HorizontalTextAlignment="Center" VerticalOptions="Center" HorizontalOptions="Center" />

Answer 3

What sort of container are you using to hold the text? Having a StackLayout with HorizontalOptions of FillAndExpand, along with the XAlign, might do it, but only if your text is only one line long per control.

Answer 4

Though you can't stretch label's text to a full width using Xamarin.Forms features, it's easily achieved with a platform renderer.

Most Xamarin platforms have the text justification feature available in corresponding native elements, and it's just a matter of setting a single attribute of a native element. I suppose the reason for not adding this feature to standard Xamarin.Forms label is lagging of platforms in that capability, e.g. Android had Android.Text.JustificationMode.InterWord flag added only in 8.1

Below you can see Android renderer implementation for Android:

using Android.Content;
using Saplin.CPDT.UICore.Controls;
using Xamarin.Forms;
using Xamarin.Forms.Platform.Android;

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(Saplin.CPDT.UICore.Controls.ExtendedLabel), typeof(Saplin.CPDT.Droid.ExtnededLabelRenderer))]
namespace Saplin.CPDT.Droid
{
    public class ExtnededLabelRenderer : Xamarin.Forms.Platform.Android.LabelRenderer
    {
        public ExtnededLabelRenderer(Context context) : base(context)
        {
        }

        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<Label> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);

            var el = (Element as ExtendedLabel);

            if (el != null && el.JustifyText)
            {
                if (Android.OS.Build.VERSION.SdkInt >= Android.OS.BuildVersionCodes.O)
                {
                    Control.JustificationMode = Android.Text.JustificationMode.InterWord;
                }

            }
        }
    }
}

1. Your create renderer class in native project
2. You add assembly: ExportRenderer attribute
3. You set TextView's JustificationMode

In my example I used ExtenedLabel subclass of Xamarin.Forms.Label with extra property JustifyText to let setting the justification of the text. That's how the subclassed control can be declared:

using System;
using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace Saplin.CPDT.UICore.Controls
{
    public class ExtendedLabel : Label
    {
        public static readonly BindableProperty JustifyTextProperty =
            BindableProperty.Create(
                propertyName: nameof(JustifyText),
                returnType: typeof(Boolean),
                declaringType: typeof(ExtendedLabel),
                defaultValue: false,
                defaultBindingMode: BindingMode.OneWay
         );

        public bool JustifyText
        {
            get { return (Boolean)GetValue(JustifyTextProperty); }
            set { SetValue(JustifyTextProperty, value); }
        }
    }
}

• Examples of platform renderers for WPF and macOS.

Answer 5

If you use the Label under relativeLayout you can justify the label..

The trick is you must fill the width & height as per parent..

So I use HeightConstraint,WidthConstraint with factor=1.. so it take full width & height of the parent..

  <RelativeLayout >

    <Label Text="My text"
           FontSize="20" 
           HorizontalOptions="Center" 
           VerticalOptions="Center"
           RelativeLayout.HeightConstraint="{ConstraintExpression Type=RelativeToParent,Property=Height,Factor=1,Constant=0}"
           RelativeLayout.WidthConstraint="{ConstraintExpression Type=RelativeToParent,Property=Width,Factor=1,Constant=0}" />
  </RelativeLayout>

Answer 6

Use the XAlign property

Label lbl = new Label();
lbl.Text = "I'm a Label!";
lbl.XAlign = TextAligntment.Start; // Start, Center, End are valid