Vertically align UILabel

You'll need to subclass UILabel. Try this:

- (void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    CGSize sizeThatFits = [self sizeThatFits:rect.size];
    rect.size.height = MIN(rect.size.height, sizeThatFits.height);

    [super drawTextInRect:rect];
}

As you've discovered, UILabel vertically centers text within its bounds. Here we ask -sizeThatFits for the text block size and uses it to constrain the drawing rectangle passed to UILabel, so that text is drawn from the top of the label bounds.

You could even support the ignored (sigh) contentMode property like this:

- (void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    CGSize sizeThatFits = [self sizeThatFits:rect.size];

    if (self.contentMode == UIViewContentModeTop) {
        rect.size.height = MIN(rect.size.height, sizeThatFits.height);
    }
    else if (self.contentMode == UIViewContentModeBottom) {
        rect.origin.y = MAX(0, rect.size.height - sizeThatFits.height);
        rect.size.height = MIN(rect.size.height, sizeThatFits.height);
    }

    [super drawTextInRect:rect];
}

There's a bunch of other solutions and discussion here: Vertically align text to top within a UILabel

I'm the author of FXLabel, and whilst I don't know Manish, I believe he was trying to help (if he was advertising for me, I certainly didn't ask him to, and I'm not paying him - sorry Manish!).

One of FXLabel's features is that it respects the UIContentMode property of the label, as set in Interface builder. This means you can set label.contentMode = UIViewContentModeTop; to align the text to the top of the label view (which doesn't work for a regular UILabel). The relevant example is here:

https://github.com/nicklockwood/FXLabel/tree/master/Examples/Text%20Alignment

FXLabel is a drop-in subclass of UILabel, so I think it's a pretty good solution for the question being posed. However if the poster would rather solve the problem without using a 3rd party library (which is understandable) then here is the code to do it:

CGRect labelFrame = CGRectMake(22, 50, 280, 150);
UILabel *myLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:labelFrame];
[myLabel setText:finalRecipe];
[myLabel setBackgroundColor: [UIColor lightGrayColor]];
[myLabel setNumberOfLines:0];

CGFloat fontSize = 0.0f;
labelFrame.size = [myLabel.text sizeWithFont:myLabel.font
                                minFontSize:myLabel.minimumFontSize
                             actualFontSize:&fontSize
                                   forWidth:labelFrame.width
                            lineBreakMode:myLabel.lineBreakMode];

myLabel.frame = labelFrame;
[self.view addSubview:myLabel];

Note:(This is untested, so apologies if there are any typos)

dont use UILabel for this. Use UIButton with UserInteractionEnabled = NO; and that has options to vertical or horizontal align text inside it.

Here you go:

Swift:

btnDetail.titleLabel?.numberOfLines = 5
btnDetail.titleLabel?.lineBreakMode = .byCharWrapping
btnDetail.contentVerticalAlignment = .top
btnDetail.contentHorizontalAlignment = .left
btnDetail.isUserInteractionEnabled = false
btnDetail.autoresizesSubviews = true
btnDetail.autoresizingMask = .flexibleWidth

---

Obj-C

[btnDetail.titleLabel setNumberOfLines:5];
[btnDetail.titleLabel setLineBreakMode:NSLineBreakByCharWrapping];
[btnDetail setContentVerticalAlignment:UIControlContentVerticalAlignmentTop];
[btnDetail setContentHorizontalAlignment:UIControlContentHorizontalAlignmentLeft];
[btnDetail setUserInteractionEnabled:NO];
btnDetail.autoresizesSubviews = YES;
btnDetail.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;

In Swift, JRC’s solution of subclassing UILabel, overriding drawTextInRect and conforming to UIViewContentMode would look like this:

class AlignableUILabel: UILabel {

    override func drawText(in rect: CGRect) {

        var newRect = CGRect(x: rect.origin.x,y: rect.origin.y,width: rect.width, height: rect.height)
        let fittingSize = sizeThatFits(rect.size)

        if contentMode == UIViewContentMode.top {
            newRect.size.height = min(newRect.size.height, fittingSize.height)
        } else if contentMode == UIViewContentMode.bottom {
            newRect.origin.y = max(0, newRect.size.height - fittingSize.height)
        }

        super.drawText(in: newRect)
    }

}

Implementing is simply a matter of:

yourLabel.contentMode = UIViewContentMode.top

For me, it worked like a charm.