How to create rich formatted text strings using NSAttributedString

Swift version: 5.10

Paul Hudson @twostraws May 28th 2019

Attributed strings are strings with formatting attached, which means fonts, colors, alignment, line spacing and more. They are supported in many places around iOS, which means you can assign a fully formatted string to a UILabel and have it look great with no further work.

Please keep in mind, when working with fonts it's preferable to use Dynamic Type where possible so that a user's font size settings are honored. The example code below creates an attributed string using the "Headline" Dynamic Type size, then colors it purple. That is then placed into a UILabel by setting its attributedText property:

let titleAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.font: UIFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle: .headline), NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.purple]

let titleString = NSAttributedString(string: "Read all about it!", attributes: titleAttributes)
yourLabel.attributedText = titleString