How to embed small icon in UILabel

Question

I need to embed small icons ( sort of custom bullets ) to my UILabel in iOS7. How can I do this in interface designer? Or at least in code?

In Android there are leftDrawable and rightDrawable for labels, but how it is done in iOS? Sample in android :

Answer 1

Swift 3 UILabel extention

Tip: If you need some space between the image and the text just use a space or two before the labelText.

extension UILabel {
    func addIconToLabel(imageName: String, labelText: String, bounds_x: Double, bounds_y: Double, boundsWidth: Double, boundsHeight: Double) {
        let attachment = NSTextAttachment()
        attachment.image = UIImage(named: imageName)
        attachment.bounds = CGRect(x: bounds_x, y: bounds_y, width: boundsWidth, height: boundsHeight)
        let attachmentStr = NSAttributedString(attachment: attachment)
        let string = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "")
        string.append(attachmentStr)
        let string2 = NSMutableAttributedString(string: labelText)
        string.append(string2)
        self.attributedText = string
    }
}

Answer 2

I've made an implementation of this feature in swift here: https://github.com/anatoliyv/SMIconLabel

Code is as simple as it's possible:

var labelLeft = SMIconLabel(frame: CGRectMake(10, 10, view.frame.size.width - 20, 20))
labelLeft.text = "Icon on the left, text on the left"

// Here is the magic
labelLeft.icon = UIImage(named: "Bell") // Set icon image
labelLeft.iconPadding = 5               // Set padding between icon and label
labelLeft.numberOfLines = 0             // Required
labelLeft.iconPosition = SMIconLabelPosition.Left // Icon position
view.addSubview(labelLeft)

Here is how it looks:

Answer 3

Swift 3 version

let attachment = NSTextAttachment()
attachment.image = UIImage(named: "plus")
attachment.bounds = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 10, height: 10)
let attachmentStr = NSAttributedString(attachment: attachment)
let myString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "")
myString.append(attachmentStr)
let myString1 = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "My label text")
myString.append(myString1)
lbl.attributedText = myString

Answer 4

Swift 4.2:

let attachment = NSTextAttachment()        
attachment.image = UIImage(named: "yourIcon.png")
let attachmentString = NSAttributedString(attachment: attachment)
let myString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: price)
myString.append(attachmentString)
label.attributedText = myString

Answer 5

 func atributedLabel(str: String, img: UIImage)->NSMutableAttributedString
{   let iconsSize = CGRect(x: 0, y: -2, width: 16, height: 16)
    let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString()
    let attachment = NSTextAttachment()
    attachment.image = img
    attachment.bounds = iconsSize
    attributedString.append(NSAttributedString(attachment: attachment))
    attributedString.append(NSAttributedString(string: str))

    return attributedString
} 

You can use this function to add images or small icons to the label

Answer 6

In Swift 2.0,

My solution to the problem is a combination of a couple of answers on this question. The problem I faced in @Phil's answer was that I couldn't change the position of the icon, and it always appeared in right the corner. And the one answer from @anatoliy_v, I couldn't resize the icon size I want to append to the string.

To make it work for me, I first did a pod 'SMIconLabel' and then created this function:

func drawTextWithIcon(labelName: SMIconLabel, imageName: String, labelText: String!,  width: Int, height: Int) {

        let newSize = CGSize(width: width, height: height)
        let image = UIImage(named: imageName)
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(newSize, false, 0.0)
        image?.drawInRect(CGRectMake(0, 0, newSize.width, newSize.height))
        let imageResized = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

        labelName.text = " \(labelText)"
        labelName.icon = imageResized
        labelName.iconPosition = .Left
    }

This solution will not only help you place the image but will also allow you to make necessary changes to the icon size and other attributes.

Thank You.