How to mimic UITableView's UITableViewStylePlain section header style

Question

My application uses abbreviations in UITableView section header titles that are hard for VoiceOver to pronounce. As I need to make these titles pronounceable by

Answer 1

Here's an implementation of a UILabel subclass which mimics the background programatically:

UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel.h

#import 

@interface UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel : UILabel

@property (nonatomic) CGFloat topInset;
@property (nonatomic) CGFloat leftInset;
@property (nonatomic) CGFloat bottomInset;
@property (nonatomic) CGFloat rightInset;

@end

UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel.m:

/*!
 * @class UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel
 * @brief Reimplementation of the UILabel used for a standard UITableView's group headers for customization purposes
 */

@implementation UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel

@synthesize topInset, leftInset, bottomInset, rightInset;

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];

    if (self) {
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    }

    return self;
}

- (void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    UIEdgeInsets insets = {self.topInset, self.leftInset, self.bottomInset, self.rightInset};

    return [super drawTextInRect:UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(rect, insets)];
}

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{   
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    CGGradientRef backgroundGradient;
    CGColorSpaceRef rgbColorspace;
    size_t num_locations = 2;
    CGFloat locations[2] = { 0.0f, 1.0f };
    CGFloat components[8] = { 144.0f/255.0f, 159.0f/255.0f, 171.0f/255.0f, 1.0f,
                              /* start */ 183.0f/255.0f, 192.0f/255.0f, 200.0f/255.0f, 1.0f /* end */ };

    rgbColorspace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    backgroundGradient = CGGradientCreateWithColorComponents(rgbColorspace, components, locations, num_locations);

    CGRect currentBounds = self.bounds;
    CGPoint topCenter = CGPointMake(CGRectGetMidX(currentBounds), CGRectGetMinY(currentBounds));
    CGPoint bottomCenter = CGPointMake(CGRectGetMidX(currentBounds), CGRectGetMaxY(currentBounds));

    CGContextDrawLinearGradient(context, backgroundGradient, topCenter, bottomCenter, 0);

    UIColor *topBorderLineColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:113.0f/255.0f  green:125.0f/255.0f blue:133.0f/255.0f alpha:1.0];
    UIColor *secondLineColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:165.0f/255.0f  green:177.0f/255.0f blue:187.0f/255.0f alpha:1.0];
    UIColor *bottomBorderLineColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:151.0f/255.0f  green:157.0f/255.0f blue:164.0f/255.0f alpha:1.0];

    [topBorderLineColor setFill];
    CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, CGRectGetMaxX(currentBounds), 1));

    [bottomBorderLineColor setFill];
    CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, CGRectGetMaxY(currentBounds)-1, CGRectGetMaxX(currentBounds), 1));

    [secondLineColor setFill];
    CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 1, CGRectGetMaxX(currentBounds), 1));

    [super drawRect:rect];
}

@end