add hyphens on word break in a UILabel
Elaborating on Matt's answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/16502598/196358 it can be done using NSAttributedString and NSParagraphStyle. See below:
NSMutableParagraphStyle *paragraphStyle = [[NSMutableParagraphStyle alloc] init];
paragraphStyle.hyphenationFactor = 1.0f;
NSMutableAttributedString *attributedString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:titleString attributes:@{ NSParagraphStyleAttributeName : paragraphStyle }];
self.titleLabel.attributedText = attributedString;
This will cause the label to break at logical places mid-word using hyphens. It looks great, and is pretty simple to do. It requires iOS 6.0, but I've only tried it under 7.0.
Swift 5.0
let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
paragraphStyle.hyphenationFactor = 1.0
let hyphenAttribute = [
NSAttributedString.Key.paragraphStyle : paragraphStyle,
] as [NSAttributedString.Key : Any]
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Your String", attributes: hyphenAttribute)
self.yourLabel.attributedText = attributedString
Swift 4.0
let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
paragraphStyle.hyphenationFactor = 1.0
let hyphenAttribute = [
NSAttributedStringKey.paragraphStyle : paragraphStyle,
] as [NSAttributedStringKey : Any]
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Your String", attributes: hyphenAttribute)
self.yourLabel.attributedText = attributedString
Swift 3.0
let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
paragraphStyle.hyphenationFactor = 1.0
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: “Your String”, attributes: [NSParagraphStyleAttributeName:paragraphStyle])
self.yourLabel.attributedText = attributedString
From Storyboard
Sometimes it's crucial to add a locale
attribute key.
NSString *lorem = @"Lorem ipsum <et cetera>.";
NSMutableParagraphStyle *paragraph = [[NSMutableParagraphStyle alloc] init];
paragraph.hyphenationFactor = 1;
paragraph.alignment = NSTextAlignmentJustified;
paragraph.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;
self.label.attributedText = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:lorem attributes:@{
NSFontAttributeName: [UIFont preferredFontForTextStyle:UIFontTextStyleBody],
NSForegroundColorAttributeName: [UIColor darkGrayColor],
NSParagraphStyleAttributeName: paragraph,
@"locale": @"la", // Latin, use @"en-US" for American English, for example.
}];