How to add spacing to lines in NSAttributedString

Question

I am making an app that formats screenplays, I am using a NSAttributedString to format the text entered into a UITextView, but some of the lines are too close together.

I was wondering if anyone could provide a code example or a tip on how to alter the margin between these lines so there is more space between them.

Below is an image of another desktop screenwriting program that demonstrates what I mean, notice how there is a bit of space before each bit where it says "DOROTHY".

enter image description here

score 52 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 07 '15 at 10:22

The following sample code uses paragraph style to adjust spacing between paragraphs of a text.

UIFont *font = [UIFont fontWithName:fontName size:fontSize];
NSMutableParagraphStyle *paragraphStyle = [[NSMutableParagraphStyle alloc] init];
paragraphStyle.paragraphSpacing = 0.25 * font.lineHeight;
NSDictionary *attributes = @{NSFontAttributeName:font,
                             NSForegroundColorAttributeName:[UIColor whiteColor],
                             NSBackgroundColorAttributeName:[UIColor clearColor],
                             NSParagraphStyleAttributeName:paragraphStyle,
                            };
NSMutableAttributedString *attributedText = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:text attributes:attributes];

To selectively adjust spacing for certain paragraphs, apply the paragraph style to only those paragraphs.

Hope this helps.

score 20 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 10 '17 at 09:34

20

Great answer @Joe Smith

In case anyone would like to see what this looks like in Swift 2.*:

    let font = UIFont(name: String, size: CGFloat)
    let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
    paragraphStyle.paragraphSpacing = 0.25 * font.lineHeight
    let attributes = [NSFontAttributeName:font, NSParagraphStyleAttributeName:paragraphStyle]

    let attributedText = NSAttributedString(string: String, attributes: attributes)
    self.textView.attributedText = attributedText

edited Mar 10 '17 at 09:34

Okan Kocyigit

13,203
18
70
129

answered Aug 23 '16 at 17:30

Nathaniel

836
9
19

Nathaniel, this is almost perfect - except the paragraph style needs to be initialized as NSMutableParagraphStyle(). NSParagraphStyle is immutable so it's spacing properties are read only and can't be modified – Natalia Aug 23 '16 at 20:14
Good point, @NataliaChodelski! I had fixed it in my code but not in my post. I have made the change. :) – Nathaniel Aug 24 '16 at 16:02

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 26 '18 at 11:20

Here is Swift 4.* version:

let string =
    """
    A multiline
    string here
    """
let font = UIFont(name: "Avenir-Roman", size: 17.0)
let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
paragraphStyle.paragraphSpacing = 0.25 * (font?.lineHeight)!

let attributes = [NSAttributedStringKey.font: font as Any, NSAttributedStringKey.paragraphStyle: paragraphStyle]

let attrText = NSAttributedString(string: string, attributes: attributes)
self.textView.attributedText = attrText

How to add spacing to lines in NSAttributedString

3 Answers3