# Creation methods Create attributed strings from existing content or raw text and apply the initial attributes. ## Topics ### Creating from another string [`init(string: String)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(string:)) Creates an attributed string with the specified text and no attribute information. [`init(string: String, attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key : Any]?)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(string:attributes:)) Creates an attributed string with the specified text and attributes. [`init(attributedString: NSAttributedString)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(attributedString:)) Creates a new attributed string from the contents of another attributed string. ### Creating from a Swift attributed string ### Creating a formatted string [`convenience init(AttributedString)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(_:)) Creates a reference-type attributed string from the specified value-type attributed string. [`convenience init(AttributedString, including: S.Type) throws`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(_:including:)-9gogq) Creates a reference-type attributed string from the specified value-type attributed string, including an attribute scope. [`convenience init(AttributedString, including: KeyPath) throws`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(_:including:)-8iy4i) Creates a reference-type attributed string from the specified value-type attributed string, including an attribute scope that a key path identifies. [`- (instancetype) initWithFormat:(NSAttributedString *) format options:(NSAttributedStringFormattingOptions) options locale:(NSLocale *) locale;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/initWithFormat:options:locale:) Initializes an attributed string by substituting arguments into a specially formatted string. [`- (instancetype) initWithFormat:(NSAttributedString *) format options:(NSAttributedStringFormattingOptions) options locale:(NSLocale *) locale arguments:(va_list) arguments;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/initWithFormat:options:locale:arguments:) Initializes an attributed string by substituting a list of function arguments into a specially formatted string. [`- (instancetype) initWithFormat:(NSAttributedString *) format options:(NSAttributedStringFormattingOptions) options locale:(NSLocale *) locale context:(NSDictionary *) context;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/initWithFormat:options:locale:context:) Initializes an attributed string by substituting arguments into a specially formatted string and applying additional contextual information. [`- (instancetype) initWithFormat:(NSAttributedString *) format options:(NSAttributedStringFormattingOptions) options locale:(NSLocale *) locale context:(NSDictionary *) context arguments:(va_list) arguments;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/initWithFormat:options:locale:context:arguments:) Initializes an attributed string by substituting a list of function arguments into a specially formatted string and applying additional contextual information. [`+ (instancetype) localizedAttributedStringWithFormat:(NSAttributedString *) format;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/localizedAttributedStringWithFormat:) Creates an attributed string by substituting arguments into a specially formatted string. [`+ (instancetype) localizedAttributedStringWithFormat:(NSAttributedString *) format options:(NSAttributedStringFormattingOptions) options;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/localizedAttributedStringWithFormat:options:) Creates an attributed string by substituting a list of function arguments into a specially formatted string. [`+ (instancetype) localizedAttributedStringWithFormat:(NSAttributedString *) format context:(NSDictionary *) context;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/localizedAttributedStringWithFormat:context:) Creates an attributed string by substituting arguments into a specially formatted string and applying additional contextual information. [`+ (instancetype) localizedAttributedStringWithFormat:(NSAttributedString *) format options:(NSAttributedStringFormattingOptions) options context:(NSDictionary *) context;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/localizedAttributedStringWithFormat:options:context:) Creates an attributed string by substituting a list of function arguments into a specially formatted string and applying additional contextual information. [`enum NSAttributedStringFormattingOptions : NSUInteger;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedStringFormattingOptions) Options to use when creating an attributed string from a format string and variable list of arguments. ### Creating from a data file [`init(data: Data, options: [NSAttributedString.DocumentReadingOptionKey : Any], documentAttributes: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer?) throws`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(data:options:documentAttributes:)) Creates an attributed string from the contents of the specified data object. [`init?(docFormat: Data, documentAttributes: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer?)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(docFormat:documentAttributes:)) Creates an attributed string from Microsoft Word format data in the specified data object. [`init(URL: URL, options: [NSAttributedString.DocumentReadingOptionKey : Any], documentAttributes: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer?) throws`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(URL:options:documentAttributes:)) Creates an attributed string from the contents of the specified URL. ### Creating from HTML [`class func loadFromHTML(request: URLRequest, options: [NSAttributedString.DocumentReadingOptionKey : Any], completionHandler: (NSAttributedString?, [NSAttributedString.DocumentAttributeKey : Any]?, (any Error)?) -> Void)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/loadFromHTML(request:options:completionHandler:)) Creates an attributed string by converting the contents of the specified HTML URL request. [`class func loadFromHTML(fileURL: URL, options: [NSAttributedString.DocumentReadingOptionKey : Any], completionHandler: (NSAttributedString?, [NSAttributedString.DocumentAttributeKey : Any]?, (any Error)?) -> Void)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/loadFromHTML(fileURL:options:completionHandler:)) Creates an attributed string by converting the content of a local HTML file at the specified URL. [`class func loadFromHTML(string: String, options: [NSAttributedString.DocumentReadingOptionKey : Any], completionHandler: (NSAttributedString?, [NSAttributedString.DocumentAttributeKey : Any]?, (any Error)?) -> Void)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/loadFromHTML(string:options:completionHandler:)) Creates an attributed string from the specified HTML string. [`class func loadFromHTML(data: Data, options: [NSAttributedString.DocumentReadingOptionKey : Any], completionHandler: (NSAttributedString?, [NSAttributedString.DocumentAttributeKey : Any]?, (any Error)?) -> Void)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/loadFromHTML(data:options:completionHandler:)) Creates an attributed string from the specified HTML data. [`typealias CompletionHandler`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/CompletionHandler) A completion handler for getting an asynchronous attributed string. [`init?(HTML: Data, documentAttributes: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer?)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(HTML:documentAttributes:)) Creates an attributed string from the HTML in the specified data object. [`init?(HTML: Data, baseURL: URL, documentAttributes: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer?)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(HTML:baseURL:documentAttributes:)) Creates an attributed string from the HTML in the specified data object and base URL. [`init?(HTML: Data, options: [NSAttributedString.DocumentReadingOptionKey : Any], documentAttributes: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer?)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(HTML:options:documentAttributes:)) Creates an attributed string from the HTML in the specified data object. ### Creating from RTF [`init?(RTF: Data, documentAttributes: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer?)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(RTF:documentAttributes:)) Creates an attributed string by decoding the stream of RTF commands and data in the specified data object. [`init?(RTFD: Data, documentAttributes: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer?)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(RTFD:documentAttributes:)) Creates an attributed string by decoding the stream of RTFD commands and data in the specified data object. [`init?(RTFDFileWrapper: FileWrapper, documentAttributes: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer?)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(RTFDFileWrapper:documentAttributes:)) Creates an attributed string from the specified file wrapper that contains an RTFD document. ### Creating from markdown [`convenience init(markdown: String, options: AttributedString.MarkdownParsingOptions, baseURL: URL?) throws`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(markdown:options:baseURL:)-m9n) Creates an attributed string from a Markdown-formatted string using the provided options. [`convenience init(markdown: Data, options: AttributedString.MarkdownParsingOptions, baseURL: URL?) throws`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(markdown:options:baseURL:)-5nru2) Creates an attributed string from Markdown-formatted data using the provided options. [`convenience init(contentsOf: URL, options: AttributedString.MarkdownParsingOptions, baseURL: URL?) throws`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(contentsOf:options:baseURL:)) Creates an attributed string from the contents of a specified URL that contains Markdown-formatted data using the provided options. [`- (instancetype) initWithMarkdownString:(NSString *) markdownString options:(NSAttributedStringMarkdownParsingOptions *) options baseURL:(NSURL *) baseURL error:(NSError **) error;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/initWithMarkdownString:options:baseURL:error:) Creates an attributed string from a Markdown-formatted string using the provided options. [`- (instancetype) initWithMarkdown:(NSData *) markdown options:(NSAttributedStringMarkdownParsingOptions *) options baseURL:(NSURL *) baseURL error:(NSError **) error;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/initWithMarkdown:options:baseURL:error:) Creates an attributed string from Markdown-formatted data using the provided options. [`- (instancetype) initWithContentsOfMarkdownFileAtURL:(NSURL *) markdownFile options:(NSAttributedStringMarkdownParsingOptions *) options baseURL:(NSURL *) baseURL error:(NSError **) error;`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/initWithContentsOfMarkdownFileAtURL:options:baseURL:error:) Creates an attributed string from the contents of a specified URL that contains Markdown-formatted data using the provided options. [`@interface NSAttributedStringMarkdownParsingOptions : NSObject`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedStringMarkdownParsingOptions) Options that affect the parsing of Markdown content into an attributed string. ### Creating a string with an attachment [`init(attachment: NSTextAttachment)`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(attachment:)) Creates an attributed string with an attachment. [`convenience init(attachment: NSTextAttachment, attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key : Any])`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(attachment:attributes:)) Creates an attributed string with an attachment and applies the specified attributes to it. [`convenience init(adaptiveImageGlyph: NSAdaptiveImageGlyph, attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key : Any])`](/documentation/Foundation/NSAttributedString/init(adaptiveImageGlyph:attributes:)) Creates an attributed string with an adaptive image glyph and applies the specified attributes to it. --- Copyright © 2026 Apple Inc. 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