Keep kerning constant on UILabel's text when justified

Question

Nasonov OP

Created Oct ’19

Replies 11

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Views 4.2k

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Hi,

I'm trying to keep a constant kerning on a UILabel's text when I set it as justified.

I've tried setting it explicitly as an attribute, and it works just fine for all the alignment modes but justified.

let attributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.kern: 1.0]
let attributedString = NSAttributedString(string: label.text!, attributes: attributes)
label.attributedText = attributedString

Any clue to how should I tackle this?
As a test, I'm working on a blank iPhone Xr screen. UILabel centered horizontally and vertically. Set its width to 280, lines to 0 and text to: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua."

I'd like it to keep a constant kerning while varying the space between words in order to satisfy the alignment mode of justified.

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Answer 1

Claude31 OP

Oct ’19

What do you mean by constant kerning ?

If you want no-kerning, set value to 0 (as default).

Kerning of 1 will reduce space by 1 point.

Kerning is a constant, anyway, so do you want variable kerning ?

I tested wityh kern of 1 and -1 and 5.

I do not understand what your problem is (a picture on imgur pointing out the issue would help).

Note: that's more a Cocoa Touch question than a Swift.

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Answer 2

Nasonov OP

Oct ’19

>that's more a Cocoa Touch question than a Swift.

Thank you I didn't realize it. I'll take it into account next time I'm having issues on this matter.

> I do not understand what your problem is (a picture on imgur pointing out the issue would help).

I know, but I tried posting screenshots in the past and they are probably still being moderated by Apple. Anyway I'll try again with a further post down below.

The issue is that the kerning is not fixed. It changes when the label's text is justified. The space between characters varies: "l i k e th is".
I only want a variable space between words, not characters, to keep it being justified.
As I said above, I'm going to post a reply to this comment with a couple of screenshots to explain it visually.

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Answer 3

Claude31 OP

Oct ’19

You cannot post images on this forum, unfortunately

I tested: changing the justification does not seem to change the kerning, but only the words spacing.

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Answer 4

Nasonov OP

Oct ’19

Ok, but are you reffering to a native photo uploader or to linking imgur links?
By the way, above I've tried explaining myslef a little bit better and I've additionally posted a comment with the imgur links, currently being moderated

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Answer 5

Claude31 OP

Oct ’19

If you need to post a link here, just write with some space

h ttps://

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Answer 6

Nasonov OP

Oct ’19

This is what I'm looking at: imgur com/2y5tJ8h -> As you see the first sentence has a different kerning compared to the other ones.

This is what I'm looking for: imgur com/ABeJpW9 -> A justified text that doesn't vary the kerning between characters.

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Answer 7

Claude31 OP

Oct ’19

You are right, there is a very clear difference of space between characters.

The point is that kerning sets a difference from the "natural" kerning, not an absolute value.

I found this article that speaks of tracking parameter, but could not find how to use in Swift. May be you'll be better than me on this.

h ttps://www.rightpoint.com/rplabs/ios-tracking-typography

EDITED

I tried a lot of things, to have different attributes for a word (Lorem, that I repeated in text).

But could not get it.

It really seems that justify and fix spacing are incompatible: justify enlarge the spaces everywhere, then kern may reduce / augment, but found no way to set a fix value.

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Answer 8

Nasonov OP

Oct ’19

Thank you Claude, I'll look into it.

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Answer 9

Claude31 OP

Oct ’19

Accepted Answer

I've found something more.

Not sure that will answer totally, but that does improve.

Add

        paragraphStyle.hyphenationFactor = 1

Look here for details

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30300323/justify-text-in-ios-swift-or-objective-c-without-breaking-tracking-kerning-let

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Answer 10

Nasonov OP

Oct ’19

Hi Claude,

This is the closest I can get. I'm further looking into it. If I come to an even better way of coping with this issue I'm going to post here.
In the meantime I'm gonna keep the solution you linked.
Thank you.

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Answer 11

Claude31 OP

Oct ’19

Thanks for the feedback and good continuation.

Don't forget to close the thread.

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