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How to create rich formatted text strings using NSAttributedString

Swift version: 5.10

Paul Hudson    @twostraws   

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
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Available from iOS 6.0 – see Hacking with Swift tutorial 32

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