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# NSTextLayoutOrientationProvider

A set of methods that define the orientation of text for an object.

```
protocol NSTextLayoutOrientationProvider
```

## Overview

In macOS, the [`NSTextContainer`](/documentation/AppKit/NSTextContainer) and [`NSTextView`](/documentation/AppKit/NSTextView) classes adopt this protocol; in iOS, only the [`NSTextContainer`](/documentation/AppKit/NSTextContainer) class implements it. An [`NSTextContainer`](/documentation/AppKit/NSTextContainer) object returns the value from its associated text view when present; otherwise, it returns [`NSLayoutManager.TextLayoutOrientation.horizontal`](/documentation/AppKit/NSLayoutManager/TextLayoutOrientation/horizontal) by default. If you define a custom [`NSTextContainer`](/documentation/AppKit/NSTextContainer) object, you can override this method and return [`NSLayoutManager.TextLayoutOrientation.vertical`](/documentation/AppKit/NSLayoutManager/TextLayoutOrientation/vertical) to support laying out text vertically.

## Topics

### Getting layout orientation

[`layoutOrientation`](/documentation/AppKit/NSTextLayoutOrientationProvider/layoutOrientation)

The default layout orientation.

[`NSLayoutManager.TextLayoutOrientation`](/documentation/AppKit/NSLayoutManager/TextLayoutOrientation)

Constants that describe the text layout orientation.


---

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