iPhone UILabel text soft shadow

Question

I know soft shadows are not supported by the UILabel out of the box, on the iPhone. So what would be the best way to implement my own one?

EDIT:

Answer 1

As of 3.2 there is direct support for shadows in the SDK.

label.layer.shadowColor = [label.textColor CGColor];
label.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0.0, 0.0);

#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h> and play with some parameters:

label.layer.shadowRadius = 3.0;
label.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5;

And, if you find your shadow clipped by the label bounds:

label.layer.masksToBounds = NO;

finally set

label.layer.shouldRasterize = YES;

Answer 2

I advise you to use the shadowColor and shadowOffset properties of UILabel:

UILabel* label = [[UILabel alloc] init];
label.shadowColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
label.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0,1);

Answer 3

Subclass UILabel, as stated, then, in drawRect:, do [self drawTextInRect:rect]; to get the text drawn into the current context. Once it is in there, you can start working with it by adding filters and whatnot. If you want to make a drop shadow with what you just drew into the context, you should be able to use:

CGContextSetShadowWithColor()

Look that function up in the docs to learn how to use it.

Answer 4

_nameLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
_nameLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:19.0f];
_nameLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
_nameLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
_nameLabel.shadowColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0 alpha:0.2];
_nameLabel.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0, 1);

i think you should use the [UIColor colorWithWhite:0 alpha:0.2] to set the alpha value.

Answer 5

In Swift 3, you can create an extension:

import UIKit

extension UILabel {
    func shadow() {
        self.layer.shadowColor = self.textColor.cgColor
        self.layer.shadowOffset = CGSize.zero
        self.layer.shadowRadius = 3.0
        self.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5
        self.layer.masksToBounds = false
        self.layer.shouldRasterize = true
    }
}

and use it via:

label.shadow()

Answer 6

This answer to this similar question provides code for drawing a blurred shadow behind a UILabel. The author uses CGContextSetShadow() to generate the shadow for the drawn text.