Adding space/padding to a UILabel

I have tried with it on Swift 4.2, hopefully it work for you!

@IBDesignable class PaddingLabel: UILabel {    @IBInspectable var topInset: CGFloat = 5.0    @IBInspectable var bottomInset: CGFloat = 5.0    @IBInspectable var leftInset: CGFloat = 7.0    @IBInspectable var rightInset: CGFloat = 7.0    override func drawText(in rect: CGRect) {        let insets = UIEdgeInsets(top: topInset, left: leftInset, bottom: bottomInset, right: rightInset)        super.drawText(in: rect.inset(by: insets))    }    override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {        let size = super.intrinsicContentSize        return CGSize(width: size.width + leftInset + rightInset,                      height: size.height + topInset + bottomInset)    }       override var bounds: CGRect {        didSet {            // ensures this works within stack views if multi-line            preferredMaxLayoutWidth = bounds.width - (leftInset + rightInset)        }    } }

Or you can use CocoaPods here https://github.com/levantAJ/PaddingLabel

pod 'PaddingLabel', '1.2'

If you want to stick with UILabel, without subclassing it, Mundi has given you a clear solution.

If alternatively, you would be willing to avoid wrapping the UILabel with a UIView, you could use UITextView to enable the use of UIEdgeInsets (padding) or subclass UILabel to support UIEdgeInsets.

Using a UITextView would only need to provide the insets (OBJ-C):

textView.textContainerInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(10, 0, 10, 0);

Alternative, if you subclass UILabel, an example to this approach would be overriding the drawTextInRect method
(OBJ-C)

- (void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)uiLabelRect {    UIEdgeInsets myLabelInsets = {10, 0, 10, 0};    [super drawTextInRect:UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(uiLabelRect, myLabelInsets)];}

You could additionally provide your new subclassed UILabel with insets variables for TOP, LEFT, BOTTOM and RIGHT.

An example code could be:

In .h (OBJ-C)

float topInset, leftInset,bottomInset, rightInset;

In .m (OBJ-C)

- (void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)uiLabelRect {    [super drawTextInRect:UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(uiLabelRect, UIEdgeInsetsMake(topInset,leftInset,bottomInset,rightInset))];}

EDIT #1:

From what I have seen, it seems you have to override the intrinsicContentSize of the UILabel when subclassing it.

So you should override intrinsicContentSize like:

- (CGSize) intrinsicContentSize {    CGSize intrinsicSuperViewContentSize = [super intrinsicContentSize] ;    intrinsicSuperViewContentSize.height += topInset + bottomInset ;    intrinsicSuperViewContentSize.width += leftInset + rightInset ;    return intrinsicSuperViewContentSize ;}

And add the following method to edit your insets, instead of editing them individually:

- (void) setContentEdgeInsets:(UIEdgeInsets)edgeInsets {    topInset = edgeInsets.top;    leftInset = edgeInsets.left;    rightInset = edgeInsets.right;     bottomInset = edgeInsets.bottom;    [self invalidateIntrinsicContentSize] ;}

It will update the size of your UILabel to match the edge insets and cover the multiline necessity you referred to.

Edit #2

After searching a bit I have found this Gist with an IPInsetLabel. If none of those solutions work you could try it out.

Edit #3

There was a similar question (duplicate) about this matter.
For a full list of available solutions, see this answer: UILabel text margin

Swift 3

import UIKitclass PaddingLabel: UILabel {   @IBInspectable var topInset: CGFloat = 5.0   @IBInspectable var bottomInset: CGFloat = 5.0   @IBInspectable var leftInset: CGFloat = 5.0   @IBInspectable var rightInset: CGFloat = 5.0   override func drawText(in rect: CGRect) {      let insets = UIEdgeInsets(top: topInset, left: leftInset, bottom: bottomInset, right: rightInset)      super.drawText(in: UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(rect, insets))   }   override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {      get {         var contentSize = super.intrinsicContentSize         contentSize.height += topInset + bottomInset         contentSize.width += leftInset + rightInset         return contentSize      }   }}