Scale text label by screen size

Question

Is there a way to scale text so that it takes up close to the same screen real estate no matter what the device size is? I\'ve found that the text on an iPad sized device is

Answer 1

I had my own fix and it's not one click, but I found it well worth it.

Step 1:

Test some font sizes for different screen sizes, recording the font size and the most relevant other dimension.

Here's what I mean...

I'd start with a normal iPad Screen and select a font size that worked.

Since I knew the entire height of the screen would determine what makes a font size comfortable or not, I'd record the font size along with the entire screen height.

So the font size was 50 with a height of 1024.

Then, I switched to the iPhone SE

This was pretty atrocious, so I fixed the font size:

After recording that the font size worked at 25 with a height of 568.

Step 2:

Bust out the calculator app and find a constant that relates the font sizes to the heights (in my case), giving or taking a bit.

Here's what I mean:

I knew 50 works with 1024 and that 25 works with 568.

Dividing 50/1024 gives you .048828125.

Multiplying that by 568 equals 27.734375, which would be a little fat of a font size for the SE.

Repeating that process but using the SE's values to do the division produced .0440140845, and checking that with the iPad's height produces a font size of 45, just a bit small for the mighty iPad screen.

So I split the quotients down the middle, resulting in a number around 0.46.

Step 3:

Connect the labels and change their font sizes programmatically using this number.

First, drag the labels into an outlet collection. I named my connection 'headerLabels' since they're all at the top of the screen.

Then, you can kinda steal my code, but just don't make too much money with it ;)

// Outlet collection of labels
@IBOutlet var headerLabels: [UILabel]!

// Who needs a short variable name when we can have a 
// painfully lengthy one to describe the number we calculated?
let relativeFontConstant:CGFloat = 0.046

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    
    // Should be in the viewDidLoad so it can load the same time as
    // the view does.
    
    // apply a font size to all the labels.
    for label in headerLabels {
        // multiply the height we based it on of the entire view 
        // to the number we calculated
        label.font = label.font.withSize(self.view.frame.height * relativeFontConstant)
    }
}

If you've got any questions, comments, compliments, or insults let me know :)