vertically align text in a CATextLayer?

Question

I am working on a CATextLayer that I want to use in both Mac and iOS. Can I control the vertical alignment of the text within the layer?

In this particular case, I

Answer 1

gbk's code works. below is gbk's code updated for XCode 8 beta 6. Current as of 1 Oct 2016

Step 1. Subclass CATextLayer. In the code below I've named the subclass "MyCATextLayer" Outside your view controller class copy/paste the below code.

class MyCATextLayer: CATextLayer {

// REF: http://lists.apple.com/archives/quartz-dev/2008/Aug/msg00016.html
// CREDIT: David Hoerl - https://github.com/dhoerl
// USAGE: To fix the vertical alignment issue that currently exists within the CATextLayer class. Change made to the yDiff calculation.

override init() {
    super.init()
}

required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    super.init(layer: aDecoder)
}

override func draw(in ctx: CGContext) {
    let height = self.bounds.size.height
    let fontSize = self.fontSize
    let yDiff = (height-fontSize)/2 - fontSize/10

    ctx.saveGState()
    ctx.translateBy(x: 0.0, y: yDiff)
    super.draw(in: ctx)
    ctx.restoreGState()
   }
}

Step 2. Within your view controller class in your ".swift" file, create your CATextLabel. In the code example I've named the subclass "MyDopeCATextLayer."

let MyDopeCATextLayer: MyCATextLayer = MyCATextLayer()

Step 3. Set your new CATextLayer with desired text/color/bounds/frame.

MyDopeCATextLayer.string = "Hello World"    // displayed text
MyDopeCATextLayer.foregroundColor = UIColor.purple.cgColor //color of text is purple
MyDopeCATextLayer.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y:0, width: self.frame.width, height: self.frame.height)  
MyDopeCATextLayer.font = UIFont(name: "HelveticaNeue-UltraLight", size: 5) //5 is ignored, set actual font size using  ".fontSize" (below)
MyDopeCATextLayer.fontSize = 24
MyDopeCATextLayer.alignmentMode = kCAAlignmentCenter //Horizontally centers text.  text is automatically centered vertically because it's set in subclass code
MyDopeCATextLayer.contentsScale = UIScreen.main.scale  //sets "resolution" to whatever the device is using (prevents fuzzyness/blurryness)

Step 4. done