< How to stack modifiers to create more advanced effects

How to draw a border around a view

Paul Hudson @twostraws September 3rd 2021

Updated for Xcode 13.0

SwiftUI gives us a dedicated border() modifier to draw borders around views. It has a few variations depending on whether you want to specify a stroke width or a corner radius, so here are a few examples:

This adds a simple 1-point green border around a text view:

Text("Hacking with Swift")
    .border(Color.green)

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The text “Hacking with Swift” with a thin rectangular green border. There is almost no space between the text's edges and the border.

If you want to make the border so that it doesn’t sit right on the edges of your view, add some padding first:

Text("Hacking with Swift")
    .padding()
    .border(Color.green)

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The text “Hacking with Swift” with a thin rectangular green border. There is space around the text between its edges and the border.

This adds a 4-point red border:

Text("Hacking with Swift")
    .padding()
    .border(Color.red, width: 4)

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The text “Hacking with Swift” with a thick rectangular red border.

If you want anything more advanced – e.g., if you want to round the corners of your border – you need to use the overlay() modifier instead. For example, this adds a 4-point blue border with 16-point rounded corners:

Text("Hacking with Swift")
    .padding()
    .overlay(
        RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 16)
            .stroke(Color.blue, lineWidth: 4)
    )

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The text “Hacking with Swift” with a thick blue rounded-rectangular border.