Multi-line NSAttributedString with truncated text

Question

I need a UILabel subcass with multiline attributed text with support for links, bold styles, etc. I also need tail truncation with an ellipsis. None of the open source co

Answer 1

Based on what I found here and over at https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/cocoa-unbound/Qin6gjYj7XU, I came up with the following which works very well.

- (void)drawString:(CFAttributedStringRef)attString inRect:(CGRect)frameRect inContext:    (CGContextRef)context
{
CGContextSaveGState(context);

// Flip the coordinate system
CGContextSetTextMatrix(context, CGAffineTransformIdentity);
CGContextTranslateCTM(context, 0, self.bounds.size.height);
CGContextScaleCTM(context, 1.0, -1.0);

CGFloat height = self.frame.size.height;
frameRect.origin.y = (height - frameRect.origin.y)  - frameRect.size.height ;

// Create a path to render text in
// don't set any line break modes, etc, just let the frame draw as many full lines as will fit
CGMutablePathRef framePath = CGPathCreateMutable();
CGPathAddRect(framePath, nil, frameRect);
CTFramesetterRef framesetter = CTFramesetterCreateWithAttributedString(attString);
CFRange fullStringRange = CFRangeMake(0, CFAttributedStringGetLength(attString));
CTFrameRef aFrame = CTFramesetterCreateFrame(framesetter, fullStringRange, framePath, NULL);
CFRelease(framePath);

CFArrayRef lines = CTFrameGetLines(aFrame);
CFIndex count = CFArrayGetCount(lines);
CGPoint *origins = malloc(sizeof(CGPoint)*count);
CTFrameGetLineOrigins(aFrame, CFRangeMake(0, count), origins);

// note that we only enumerate to count-1 in here-- we draw the last line separately
for (CFIndex i = 0; i < count-1; i++)
{
    // draw each line in the correct position as-is
    CGContextSetTextPosition(context, origins[i].x + frameRect.origin.x, origins[i].y + frameRect.origin.y);
    CTLineRef line = (CTLineRef)CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(lines, i);
    CTLineDraw(line, context);
}

// truncate the last line before drawing it
if (count) {
    CGPoint lastOrigin = origins[count-1];
    CTLineRef lastLine = CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(lines, count-1);

    // truncation token is a CTLineRef itself
    CFRange effectiveRange;
    CFDictionaryRef stringAttrs = CFAttributedStringGetAttributes(attString, 0, &effectiveRange);

    CFAttributedStringRef truncationString = CFAttributedStringCreate(NULL, CFSTR("\u2026"), stringAttrs);
    CTLineRef truncationToken = CTLineCreateWithAttributedString(truncationString);
    CFRelease(truncationString);

    // now create the truncated line -- need to grab extra characters from the source string,
    // or else the system will see the line as already fitting within the given width and
    // will not truncate it.

    // range to cover everything from the start of lastLine to the end of the string
    CFRange rng = CFRangeMake(CTLineGetStringRange(lastLine).location, 0);
    rng.length = CFAttributedStringGetLength(attString) - rng.location;

    // substring with that range
    CFAttributedStringRef longString = CFAttributedStringCreateWithSubstring(NULL, attString, rng);
    // line for that string
    CTLineRef longLine = CTLineCreateWithAttributedString(longString);
    CFRelease(longString);

    CTLineRef truncated = CTLineCreateTruncatedLine(longLine, frameRect.size.width, kCTLineTruncationEnd, truncationToken);
    CFRelease(longLine);
    CFRelease(truncationToken);

    // if 'truncated' is NULL, then no truncation was required to fit it
    if (truncated == NULL)
        truncated = (CTLineRef)CFRetain(lastLine);

    // draw it at the same offset as the non-truncated version
    CGContextSetTextPosition(context, lastOrigin.x + frameRect.origin.x, lastOrigin.y + frameRect.origin.y);
    CTLineDraw(truncated, context);
    CFRelease(truncated);
}
free(origins);

CGContextRestoreGState(context);

}