Inner shadow in a UILabel

Question

What's the easiest way to draw an inner shadow in a UILabel, without using images?

I know you can use shadowColor and shadowOffset for drop shadows, but I didn't see any such properties for inner shadows.

Answer 1

Check out FXLabel. I've been using it recently and it works great.

https://github.com/nicklockwood/FXLabel

Answer 2

I do not believe there is any easy way to accomplish this appearance. You will either need to use an image or a custom view that draws the shadow.

I would use your favorite image editor to make an image of the inner shadow composited against transparency (or a color if you need it) and load it into a stretchable UIImage. For example here is an inner shadow image (17px x 17px):

You can load it like this:

UIImage* innerShadow = [ [ UIImage imageNamed: "innershadow.png" ] 
        stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth: 8 topCapHeight: 8 ];
UIImageView* innerShadowView = [ [ [ UIImageView alloc ] initWithImage: innerShadow ] 
        autorelease ];
myLabel.backgroundColor = [ UIColor clearColor ];

Then place innerShadowView behind the label. You could generate the image programmatically as well if you wanted to avoid an image resource.

** Update based on comments follows **

Ah, based on your latest comment the effect you are looking for is completely different than the picture in the earlier comment.

In this case you will have to make a UILabel subclass and do your own drawing to composite the effect you are looking for. Take a look at this answer for how to composite the inner shadow effect.

Answer 3

What you mean by any such properties for inner shadows. shadowOffset is the option to set the shadows (vertical or horizontal shadow) of the UILabel.

I do not know but this answer may be long to implement.