Placeholder in UITextView

Question

My application uses an UITextView  Now I want the UITextView to have a placeholder similar to the one you can set for an UITextField  How to do this  Edit  Use this cocoapod  https   cocoapods org pods UITextView Placeholder

User · Answer

Simple way to use this within some line of code:

Take one label up to UITextView in .nib connecting this label to your code , After it.

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text{

    if (range.location>0 || text.length!=0) {
        placeholderLabel1.hidden = YES;
    }else{
        placeholderLabel1.hidden = NO;
    }
    return YES;
}

User · Answer

Based on some of the great suggestions here already  I was able to put together the following lightweight  Interface-Builder-compatible subclass of UITextView  which   Includes configurable placeholder text  styled just like that of UITextField  Doesn t require any additional subviews or constraints  Doesn t require any delegation or other behaviour from the ViewController  Doesn t require any notifications  Keeps that text fully separated from any outside classes looking at the field s text property   Improvement suggestions are welcome  Edit 1  Updated to reset placeholder formatting if actual text is set programmatically  Edit 2  The placeholder text color can now be retrieved programmatically  Swift v5  import UIKit  IBDesignable class TextViewWithPlaceholder  UITextView            override var text  String       Ensures that the placeholder text is never returned as the field s text         get               if showingPlaceholder                   return  quot  quot     When showing the placeholder  there s no real text to return               else   return super text                     set               if showingPlaceholder                   removePlaceholderFormatting      If the placeholder text is what s being changed  it s no longer the placeholder                           super text   newValue                      IBInspectable var placeholderText  String    quot  quot       IBInspectable var placeholderTextColor  UIColor    placeholderText     private var showingPlaceholder  Bool   true    Keeps track of whether the field is currently showing a placeholder          override func didMoveToWindow             super didMoveToWindow           if text isEmpty               showPlaceholderText      Load up the placeholder text when first appearing  but not if coming back to a view where text was already entered                          override public func becomeFirstResponder   - gt  Bool                       If the current text is the placeholder  remove it         if showingPlaceholder               text   nil             removePlaceholderFormatting                     return super becomeFirstResponder                  override public func resignFirstResponder   - gt  Bool                       If there s no text  put the placeholder back         if text isEmpty               showPlaceholderText                     return super resignFirstResponder                  private func showPlaceholderText                      text   placeholderText         showingPlaceholder   true         textColor   placeholderTextColor                private func removePlaceholderFormatting                      showingPlaceholder   false         textColor   nil    Put the text back to the default  unmodified color

User · Answer

I recommend use pod  UITextView Placeholder   pod  UITextView Placeholder    on your code   import  UITextView Placeholder h             UITextView  textView     UITextView alloc  init   textView placeholder     How are you    textView placeholderColor    UIColor lightGrayColor

User · Answer

It is not possible to create placeholder in UITextView but you can generate effect like place holder by this     -  void viewDidLoad                      commentTxtView text     Comment                 commentTxtView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor                 commentTxtView delegate   self                 -  BOOL  textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView   textView                 commentTxtView text                 commentTxtView textColor    UIColor blackColor            return YES               - void  textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView             if commentTxtView text length    0           commentTxtView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor           commentTxtView text     Comment            commentTxtView resignFirstResponder                 OR you can add label in textview just like         lbl     UILabel alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 10 0  0 0 textView frame size width - 10 0  34 0       lbl setText kDescriptionPlaceholder    lbl setBackgroundColor  UIColor clearColor     lbl setTextColor  UIColor lightGrayColor    textView delegate   self    textView addSubview lbl     and set   -  void textViewDidEndEditing  UITextView   theTextView        if    textView hasText          lbl hidden   NO       -  void  textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView       if   textView hasText           lbl hidden   NO    else      lbl hidden   YES

User · Answer

I have wrote a class in swift  You can import this class whenever required   import UIKit   public class CustomTextView  UITextView    private struct Constants       static let defaultiOSPlaceholderColor   UIColor red  0 0  green  0 0  blue  0 0980392  alpha  0 22    private let placeholderLabel  UILabel   UILabel    private var placeholderLabelConstraints    NSLayoutConstraint      IBInspectable public var placeholder  String            didSet           placeholderLabel text   placeholder           IBInspectable public var placeholderColor  UIColor   CustomTextView Constants defaultiOSPlaceholderColor       didSet           placeholderLabel textColor   placeholderColor          override public var font  UIFont        didSet           placeholderLabel font   font          override public var textAlignment  NSTextAlignment       didSet           placeholderLabel textAlignment   textAlignment          override public var text  String        didSet           textDidChange            override public var attributedText  NSAttributedString        didSet           textDidChange            override public var textContainerInset  UIEdgeInsets       didSet           updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel            override public init frame  CGRect  textContainer  NSTextContainer         super init frame  frame  textContainer  textContainer      commonInit      required public init  coder aDecoder  NSCoder        super init coder  aDecoder      commonInit      private func commonInit         NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter   addObserver self                                                       selector   selector textDidChange                                                        name  UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification                                                       object  nil       placeholderLabel font   font     placeholderLabel textColor   placeholderColor     placeholderLabel textAlignment   textAlignment     placeholderLabel text   placeholder     placeholderLabel numberOfLines   0     placeholderLabel backgroundColor   UIColor clearColor       placeholderLabel translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false     addSubview placeholderLabel      updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel      private func updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel         var newConstraints   NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat  H  -   textContainerInset left   textContainer lineFragmentPadding  - placeholder                                                                            options                                                                              metrics  nil                                                                          views    placeholder   placeholderLabel       newConstraints    NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat  V  -   textContainerInset top  - placeholder                                                                         options                                                                           metrics  nil                                                                       views    placeholder   placeholderLabel       newConstraints append NSLayoutConstraint          item  placeholderLabel          attribute   Width          relatedBy   Equal          toItem  self          attribute   Width          multiplier  1 0          constant  - textContainerInset left   textContainerInset right   textContainer lineFragmentPadding   2 0                 removeConstraints placeholderLabelConstraints      addConstraints newConstraints      placeholderLabelConstraints   newConstraints     objc private func textDidChange         placeholderLabel hidden    text isEmpty    public override func layoutSubviews         super layoutSubviews       placeholderLabel preferredMaxLayoutWidth   textContainer size width - textContainer lineFragmentPadding   2 0    deinit       NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter   removeObserver self                                                          name  UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification                                                          object  nil

User · Answer

What you can do is set up the text view with some initial value in the text property  and change the textColor to  UIColor grayColor  or something similar  Then  whenever the text view becomes editable  clear the text and present a cursor  and if the text field is ever empty again  put your placeholder text back  Change the color to  UIColor blackColor  as appropriate   It s not exactly the same as the placeholder functionality in a UITextField  but it s close

User · Answer

-  BOOL  textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView   textView         NSLog   textViewShouldBeginEditing        if   tvComment text isEqualToString   Comment    amp  amp   tvComment textColor isEqual  UIColor lightGrayColor              tvComment text                tvComment textColor    UIColor blackColor             return YES     -  void keyboardWillBeHidden  NSNotification  aNotification        NSLog   keyboardWillBeHidden           Manage comment field placeholdertext     if tvComment text length    0           tvComment textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor           tvComment text     Comment            -  void viewDidLoad        super viewDidLoad       tvComment textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor       TVComment is the property that holds the textView in question  This will do the trick

User · Answer

I extended KmKndy s answer  so that the placeholder remains visible until the user starts editing the UITextView rather than just taps on it  This mirrors the functionality in the Twitter and Facebook apps  My solution doesn t require you to subclass and works if the user types directly or pastes text      -  void textViewDidChangeSelection  UITextView   textView      if   textView text isEqualToString   What s happening     amp  amp   textView textColor isEqual  UIColor lightGrayColor    textView setSelectedRange NSMakeRange 0  0        -  void textViewDidBeginEditing  UITextView   textView        textView setSelectedRange NSMakeRange 0  0       -  void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView       if  textView text length    0  amp  amp    textView text substringFromIndex 1  isEqualToString   What s happening     amp  amp   textView textColor isEqual  UIColor lightGrayColor             textView text    textView text substringToIndex 1           textView textColor    UIColor blackColor     optional            else if textView text length    0           textView text     What s happening            textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor            textView setSelectedRange NSMakeRange 0  0             -  void textViewDidEndEditing  UITextView   textView       if   textView text isEqualToString                 textView text     What s happening            textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor     optional            textView resignFirstResponder      -  BOOL textView  UITextView   textView shouldChangeTextInRange  NSRange range replacementText  NSString   text      if  textView text length  gt  1  amp  amp   textView text isEqualToString   What s happening                textView text                 textView textColor    UIColor blackColor              return YES      just remember to set myUITextView with the exact text on creation e g   UITextView  myUITextView     UITextView alloc  init   myUITextView delegate   self  myUITextView text     What s happening    myUITextView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor     optional   and make the parent class a UITextView delegate before including these methods e g    interface MyClass     lt UITextViewDelegate gt   end

User · Answer

OK my ansewer is a bit different  I create a small class to do it for you   TextViewShader m file   import  TextViewShader h    implementation TextViewShader - id initWithShadedTextView  NSString   text textViewToShade  UITextView   textview       self    super initWithFrame textview frame       if  self            if  shadeLabel  nil                        shadeLabel    UILabel alloc initWithFrame CGRectMake 10  0  textview frame size width  30                shadeLabel text  text      Enter Your Support Request       shadeLabel textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor        textview setDelegate  self        textview addSubview shadeLabel     return self     - void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView          if  textView text length  0                        shadeLabel hidden false                     else                       shadeLabel hidden true                 end   TextViewShader h file   import  lt UIKit UIKit h gt    interface TextViewShader   UIView lt UITextViewDelegate gt       UILabel  shadeLabel     - id initWithShadedTextView  NSString   text textViewToShade  UITextView   textview    end   this is the simple one line of code usage  dont forget to add  import  TextViewShader h     TextViewShader  shader     TextViewShader alloc initWithShadedTextView   Enter Your Support Request  textViewToShade  youruitextviewToshade     have fun

User · Answer

I found myself a very easy way to imitate a place-holder   in the NIB or code set your textView s textColor to lightGrayColor  most of the time  make sure that your textView s delegate is linked to file s owner and implement UITextViewDelegate in your header file set the default text of your text view to  example   Foobar placeholder   implement   BOOL  textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView   textView   Edit   Changed if statements to compare tags rather than text  If the user deleted their text it was possible to also accidentally delete a portion of the place holder   Foobar placeholder  This meant if the user re-entered the textView the following delegate method  - BOOL  textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView    textView  it would not work as expected  I tried comparing by the color of the text in the if statement but found that light grey color set in interface builder is not the same as light grey color set in code with  UIColor lightGreyColor    -  BOOL  textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView   textView       if textView tag    0            textView text                textView textColor    UIColor blackColor           textView tag   1            return YES      It is also possible to reset the placeholder text when the keyboard returns and the  textView length     0  EDIT   Just to make the last part clearer - here s is how you can set the placeholder text back   -  void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView      if  textView text length     0              textView text     Foobar placeholder          textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor          textView tag   0

User · Answer

I was able to do add a  place holder  to a UITextView with ALOT less code  This is what I did    UITextView  textView     UITextView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 60  800  200  60    textView text     Write characters here      textView textColor  UIColor grayColor   textView font    UIFont fontWithName   Hevlatica  size 15   textView delegate self    I guess it s not an actual placeholder because you have to delete the text before you write but it could help if you wanted something a bit more simple

User · Answer

I found own solution  -  void textViewDidBeginEditing  UITextView   textView       if   textView text isEqualToString PLACEHOLDER TEXT                 textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor           dispatch async dispatch get main queue                                                          textView selectedRange   NSMakeRange 0  0                                        else               textView textColor    UIColor blackColor               textView becomeFirstResponder      -  void textViewDidEndEditing  UITextView   textView       if   textView text isEqualToString                     textView text   PLACEHOLDER TEXT          textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor               textView resignFirstResponder      -  BOOL textView  UITextView   textView shouldChangeTextInRange  NSRange range  replacementText  NSString   text       if  range location    0  amp  amp  range length      textView text  length   amp  amp   text isEqualToString                     textView text   PLACEHOLDER TEXT          textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor            dispatch async dispatch get main queue                                                          textView selectedRange   NSMakeRange 0  0                                       return NO             if   textView text isEqualToString PLACEHOLDER TEXT                 textView text                textView textColor    UIColor blackColor              return YES

User · Answer

Here is code for swift 3 1  Original code by Jason George in first answer    Don t forget to set your custom class for TextView in interface builder to UIPlaceHolderTextView and then set placeholder and placeHolder properties   import UIKit   IBDesignable class UIPlaceHolderTextView  UITextView     IBInspectable var placeholder  String       IBInspectable var placeholderColor  UIColor   UIColor lightGray  private let uiPlaceholderTextChangedAnimationDuration  Double   0 05 private let defaultTagValue   999  private var placeHolderLabel  UILabel   override func awakeFromNib         super awakeFromNib       NotificationCenter default addObserver          self          selector   selector textChanged           name  NSNotification Name UITextViewTextDidChange          object  nil          override init frame  CGRect  textContainer  NSTextContainer         super init frame  frame  textContainer  textContainer      NotificationCenter default addObserver          self          selector   selector textChanged           name  NSNotification Name UITextViewTextDidChange          object  nil          required init  coder aDecoder  NSCoder        super init coder  aDecoder      NotificationCenter default addObserver          self          selector   selector textChanged           name  NSNotification Name UITextViewTextDidChange          object  nil          deinit       NotificationCenter default removeObserver          self          name  NSNotification Name UITextViewTextDidChange          object  nil           objc private func textChanged         guard  placeholder isEmpty else           return           UIView animate withDuration  uiPlaceholderTextChangedAnimationDuration            if self text isEmpty               self viewWithTag self defaultTagValue   alpha   CGFloat 1 0                    else               self viewWithTag self defaultTagValue   alpha   CGFloat 0 0                     override var text  String        didSet          super text   text         textChanged            override func draw   rect  CGRect        if  placeholder isEmpty           if placeHolderLabel    nil               placeHolderLabel   UILabel init frame  CGRect x  0  y  8  width  bounds size width - 16  height  0               placeHolderLabel  lineBreakMode    byWordWrapping             placeHolderLabel  numberOfLines   0             placeHolderLabel  font   font             placeHolderLabel  backgroundColor   UIColor clear             placeHolderLabel  textColor   placeholderColor             placeHolderLabel  alpha   0             placeHolderLabel  tag   defaultTagValue             self addSubview placeHolderLabel                      placeHolderLabel  text   placeholder         placeHolderLabel  sizeToFit           self sendSubview toBack  placeHolderLabel            if text isEmpty  amp  amp   placeholder isEmpty               viewWithTag defaultTagValue   alpha   1 0                      super draw rect

User · Answer

I ve written a cleaner implementation after trying some of the proposed approaches and posted it to Github  Pull requests and issues are welcome   Some key improvements that versus other approaches presented here    Doesn t allocate a UILabel inside drawRect    Please don t ever do that   Doesn t compare the text view s current text to a desired placeholder to swap colors  Hides the placeholder while dictation is active  like UITextField

User · Answer

A simpler approach is to create a secondary UITextView with all of the same attributes as the original text view except for a different textColor  with constraints to ensure they stay aligned  Then when any characters are entered into the main text view  hide the cloned text view  otherwise show the cloned text view with some text   This can be achieved in several ways  but a relatively clean way would be to subclass UITextView and keep all of this logic within the subclass    So  subclass UITextView and allow it to create it s place holder view lazily   Interface file    interface FOOTextView   UITextView  lt UITextViewDelegate gt    property  nonatomic  copy  NSString  placeholderText   -  void checkPlaceholder    end   Implementation file    import  FOOTextView h    interface FOOTextView      property  nonatomic  strong  UITextView  placeholderTextView    end   implementation FOOTextView  -  void checkPlaceholder          Hide the placeholder text view if we ve got any text     self placeholderTextView hidden    self text length  gt  0    self attributedText length  gt  0      -  void setPlaceholderText  NSString   placeholderText        placeholderText    placeholderText copy           Setup the placeholder text view if we haven t already      self setupPlaceholderTextView           Apply the placeholder text to the placeholder text view     self placeholderTextView text   placeholderText     -  void setupPlaceholderTextView       if   self placeholderTextView                Setup the place holder text view  duplicating our visual setup         self placeholderTextView     UITextView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectZero           self placeholderTextView translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO          self placeholderTextView textColor   self placeholderTextColor   self placeholderTextColor    UIColor colorWithRed 199 f 255 f green 199 f 255 f blue 205 f 255 f alpha 1 f           self placeholderTextView userInteractionEnabled   NO          self placeholderTextView font   self font          self placeholderTextView textAlignment   self textAlignment          self placeholderTextView backgroundColor   self backgroundColor          self placeholderTextView editable   NO              Our background color must be clear for the placeholder text view to show through         self backgroundColor    UIColor clearColor               Insert the placeholder text view into our superview  below ourself so it shows through          self superview insertSubview self placeholderTextView belowSubview self               Setup constraints to ensure the placeholder text view stays aligned with us         NSLayoutConstraint  constraintCenterX    NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem self placeholderTextView attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem self attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX multiplier 1 f constant 0 f           NSLayoutConstraint  constraintCenterY    NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem self placeholderTextView attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem self attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY multiplier 1 f constant 0 f           NSLayoutConstraint  constraintWidth    NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem self placeholderTextView attribute NSLayoutAttributeWidth relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem self attribute NSLayoutAttributeWidth multiplier 1 f constant 0 f           NSLayoutConstraint  constraintHeight    NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem self placeholderTextView attribute NSLayoutAttributeHeight relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem self attribute NSLayoutAttributeHeight multiplier 1 f constant 0 f           NSArray  constraints     constraintCenterX  constraintCenterY  constraintWidth  constraintHeight            self superview addConstraints constraints             -  void setPlaceholderTextColor  UIColor   placeholderTextColor        placeholderTextColor   placeholderTextColor      self placeholderTextView textColor    placeholderTextColor     -  void setBackgroundColor  UIColor   backgroundColor          We don t want a background color ourselves  instead we want our placeholder text view to have the desired background color      self placeholderTextView setBackgroundColor backgroundColor      -  void removeFromSuperview          Ensure we also remove our placeholder text view      self placeholderTextView removeFromSuperview       self placeholderTextView   nil       super removeFromSuperview       pragma mark - Text View Delegation  -  void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView        self checkPlaceholder       end   Using the above class  if you set an instance of FOOTextView s delegate to itself  everything will work out of the box   FOOTextView  myTextView       myTextView placeholderText     What s on your mind    myTextView placeholderTextColor    UIColor lightGrayColor   myTextView delegate   myTextView    If you d like another object to take over as the delegate  then you just need to call the text view s checkPlaceholder method in the textViewDidChange  delegate method  eg   FOOTextView  myTextView       myTextView placeholderText     What s on your mind    myTextView placeholderTextColor    UIColor lightGrayColor   myTextView delegate   self  self myTextView   myTextView   -  void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView          Call the checkPlaceholder method to update the visuals      self myTextView checkPlaceholder

User · Answer

First take a label in  h file    Here I take   UILabel   lbl    Then in  m under viewDidLoad declare it  lbl     UILabel alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 8 0  0 0 250  34 0     lbl font  UIFont systemFontOfSize 14 0     lbl setText   Write a message         lbl setBackgroundColor  UIColor clearColor      lbl setTextColor  UIColor lightGrayColor      textview addSubview lbl     textview is my TextView   Now declare   - void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView     if    textView hasText         lbl hidden   NO       else      lbl hidden   YES          And your Textview placeholder is ready

User · Answer

Sorry to add another answer  But I just pulled something like this off and this created the closest-to-UITextField kind of placeholder   Hope this helps someone     - void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView      if textView textColor     UIColor lightGrayColor            textView textColor     UIColor blackColor      look at the comment section in this answer         textView text          textView text substringToIndex  0     look at the comment section in this answer      else if textView text length    0           textView text           This is some placeholder text            textView textColor     UIColor lightGrayColor           textView selectedRange   NSMakeRange 0  0            - void textViewDidChangeSelection  UITextView   textView      if textView textColor     UIColor lightGrayColor   amp  amp   textView selectedRange location    0    textView selectedRange length    0            textView selectedRange   NSMakeRange 0  0

User · Answer

You can set the label on the UITextView by    UITextView addSubView lblPlaceHoldaer     and hide it on TextViewdidChange method   This is the simple  amp  easy way

User · Answer

Lets make it easy  Create one UILabel and place it on your text view Give the text as Placeholder-set color gray-you can do all this in your xib  Now in you header file declare the UILabel and also the the textviewDelegate Now you can simply hide the label when you click on the textview  complete code below  header   interface ViewController  UIViewController lt UITextViewDelegate gt          property  nonatomic strong  IBOutlet UILabel  PlceHolder label      property  nonatomic strong  IBOutlet UITextView  TextView    end   implementation    implementation UploadFoodImageViewController  synthesize PlceHolder label TextView     -  void viewDidLoad               super viewDidLoad            -  BOOL textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView   textView          if  textView isEqual TextView                 PlceHolder label setHidden YES                self tabScrlVw setContentOffset CGPointMake 0 150  animated YES                     return YES           end  Dont forget to connect the textView and UILabel to filesowner from xib

User · Answer

You can just set a label on the textview   MyUITextView h   interface MyUITextView   UITextView       UILabel   placeholderLabel      property nonatomic  assign NSString  placeholder    MyUITextView m   implementation MyUITextView  -  id initWithFrame  CGRect frame       if  self    super initWithFrame frame                Create placeholder         viewFrame   CGRectMake 0  0  frame size width  15            placeholderLabel     UILabel alloc  initWithFrame viewFrame            placeholderLabel textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor            self addSubview  placeholderLabel               Add text changed notification            NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  addObserver self selector  selector textChanged   name UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object nil             return self     -  void setPlaceholder  NSString   placeholder        placeholderLabel text   placeholder     -  NSString  placeholder       return  placeholderLabel text      pragma mark UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification  -  void textChanged  NSNotification   notification        placeholderLabel hidden     self text lenght     0       end

User · Answer

I wasn t too happy with any of the solutions posted as they were a bit heavy  Adding views to the view isn t really ideal  especially in drawRect    They both had leaks  which isn t acceptable either   Here is my solution  SAMTextView  SAMTextView h         SAMTextView h     SAMTextView        Created by Sam Soffes on 8 18 10      Copyright 2010-2013 Sam Soffes  All rights reserved       import  lt UIKit UIKit h gt        UITextView subclass that adds placeholder support like UITextField has       interface SAMTextView   UITextView       The string that is displayed when there is no other text in the text view    The default value is  nil        property  nonatomic  strong  NSString  placeholder        The color of the placeholder    The default is   UIColor lightGrayColor         property  nonatomic  strong  UIColor  placeholderTextColor        Returns the drawing rectangle for the text views   s placeholder text     param bounds The bounding rectangle of the receiver    return The computed drawing rectangle for the placeholder text      -  CGRect placeholderRectForBounds  CGRect bounds    end   SAMTextView m         SAMTextView m     SAMTextView        Created by Sam Soffes on 8 18 10      Copyright 2010-2013 Sam Soffes  All rights reserved       import  SAMTextView h    implementation SAMTextView   pragma mark - Accessors   synthesize placeholder    placeholder   synthesize placeholderTextColor    placeholderTextColor   -  void setText  NSString   string      super setText string      self setNeedsDisplay       -  void insertText  NSString   string      super insertText string      self setNeedsDisplay       -  void setAttributedText  NSAttributedString   attributedText      super setAttributedText attributedText      self setNeedsDisplay       -  void setPlaceholder  NSString   string     if   string isEqual  placeholder         return          placeholder   string     self setNeedsDisplay       -  void setContentInset  UIEdgeInsets contentInset      super setContentInset contentInset      self setNeedsDisplay       -  void setFont  UIFont   font      super setFont font      self setNeedsDisplay       -  void setTextAlignment  NSTextAlignment textAlignment      super setTextAlignment textAlignment      self setNeedsDisplay        pragma mark - NSObject  -  void dealloc       NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  removeObserver self name UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object self        pragma mark - UIView  -  id initWithCoder  NSCoder   aDecoder     if   self    super initWithCoder aDecoder           self initialize         return self      -  id initWithFrame  CGRect frame     if   self    super initWithFrame frame           self initialize         return self      -  void drawRect  CGRect rect      super drawRect rect      if  self text length    0  amp  amp  self placeholder        rect    self placeholderRectForBounds self bounds        UIFont  font   self font   self font   self typingAttributes NSFontAttributeName           Draw the text      self placeholderTextColor set        self placeholder drawInRect rect withFont font lineBreakMode NSLineBreakByTruncatingTail alignment self textAlignment            pragma mark - Placeholder  -  CGRect placeholderRectForBounds  CGRect bounds        Inset the rect   CGRect rect   UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect bounds  self contentInset      if  self typingAttributes        NSParagraphStyle  style   self typingAttributes NSParagraphStyleAttributeName       if  style          rect origin x    style headIndent        rect origin y    style firstLineHeadIndent               return rect       pragma mark - Private  -  void initialize       NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  addObserver self selector  selector textChanged   name UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object self      self placeholderTextColor    UIColor colorWithWhite 0 702f alpha 1 0f       -  void textChanged  NSNotification   notification      self setNeedsDisplay       end   It s a lot simpler than the others  as it doesn t use subviews  or have leaks   Feel free to use it   Update 11 10 11  It is now documented and supports use in Interface Builder   Update 11 24 13  Point to new repo

User · Answer

I know there are already a lot of answers to this one  but I didn t really find any of them sufficient  at least in Swift    I needed the  placeholder  functionality of the UITextField in my UITextView  I wanted the exact behavior  including text display attributes  animations  etc  and didn t want to have to maintain this over time    I also wanted a solution that provided the same exact border as a UITextField  not an approximated one that looks sort of like it looks right now  but one that looks exactly like it and will always look exactly like it    So while I was not initially a fan of jamming an extra control into the mix  it seemed that in order to meet my goals I had to use an actual UITextField and let it do the work   This solution handles positioning the placeholder and keeping the font in sync between the two controls so that the placeholder text is the exact font and position as text entered into the control  something a lot of the other solutions don t address       This class is necessary to support  inset   required to position placeholder     appropriately in TextView     class TextField  UITextField       var inset  UIEdgeInsets   UIEdgeInsets top  0  left  0  bottom  0  right  0        override func textRectForBounds bounds  CGRect  - gt  CGRect               return UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect bounds  inset              override func placeholderRectForBounds bounds  CGRect  - gt  CGRect               return UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect bounds  inset               This class implements a UITextView that has a UITextField behind it  where the     UITextField provides the border and the placeholder text functionality  so that the    TextView looks and works like a UITextField      class TextView   UITextView  UITextViewDelegate       var textField   TextField         required init  coder  NSCoder                super init coder  coder              override init frame  CGRect  textContainer  NSTextContainer                 super init frame  frame  textContainer  textContainer            self delegate   self              Create a background TextField with clear  invisible  text and disabled         self textField borderStyle   UITextBorderStyle RoundedRect          self textField textColor   UIColor clearColor            self textField userInteractionEnabled   false              Align the background TextView to where text appears in the TextField  so            that any placeholder will be in the correct position          self textField contentVerticalAlignment   UIControlContentVerticalAlignment Top          self textField inset   UIEdgeInsets              top  self textContainerInset top              left  self textContainerInset left   self textContainer lineFragmentPadding              bottom  self textContainerInset bottom              right  self textContainerInset right                        The background TextField should use the same font  for the placeholder          self textField font   self font           self addSubview textField           self sendSubviewToBack textField              convenience init                 self init frame  CGRectZero  textContainer  nil             override var font  UIFont                didSet                          Keep the font of the TextView and background textField in sync             self textField font   self font                       var placeholder  String    nil               didSet                       self textField placeholder   self placeholder                       override func layoutSubviews                 super layoutSubviews              Do not scroll the background textView         self textField frame   CGRectMake 0  self contentOffset y  self frame width  self frame height                 UITextViewDelegate - Note  If you replace delegate  your delegate must call this     func scrollViewDidScroll scrollView  UIScrollView                   Do not scroll the background textView         self textField frame   CGRectMake 0  self contentOffset y  self frame width  self frame height                 UITextViewDelegate - Note  If you replace delegate  your delegate must call this     func textViewDidChange textView  UITextView                   Updating the text in the background textView will cause the placeholder to             appear disappear  including any animations of that behavior - since the            textView is doing this itself           self textField text   self text

User · Answer

I ve modified Sam Soffes  implementation to work with iOS7   -  void drawRect  CGRect rect        super drawRect rect        if   shouldDrawPlaceholder                UIEdgeInsets insets   self textContainerInset                  CGRect placeholderRect   CGRectMake                  insets left   self textContainer lineFragmentPadding                  insets top                  self frame size width - insets left - insets right                  self frame size height - insets top - insets bottom              placeholderText drawWithRect placeholderRect                            options NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin   NSStringDrawingTruncatesLastVisibleLine                         attributes self placeholderAttributes                            context nil            -  NSDictionary   placeholderAttributes       if   placeholderAttributes    nil                 placeholderAttributes                           NSFontAttributeName   self font              NSForegroundColorAttributeName   self placeholderColor                       return  placeholderAttributes      Remember to set  placeholderAttribues   nil in methods that might change the font and other thigns that might affect them  You might also want to skip  lazy  making of the attributes dictionary if that doesn t bug you   EDIT   Remember to call setNeedsDisplay in a overridden version of setBounds if you like the placeholder to look good after autolayout animations and the like

User · Answer

Swift 3 1  After trying all swift answers  this answer would have saved me 3 hours of research  Hope this helps    Make sure your textField  no matter the custom name you have  is pointing to its delegate in Storyboard and has an  IBOutlet with yourCustomTextField Add to viewDidLoad   the following  it will appear when loading the view    Show me what looks to be a placeholder   yourCustomTextField    Start typing      yourCustomTextField textColor    lightGray    Outside the viewDidLoad but inside the same class add the following declarations  UIViewController  UITextViewDelegate  UINavigationControllerDelegate    This code will make yourCustomTextField go away when typing in the textField    func textViewDidBeginEditing    textView  UITextView          if  textView text     Start typing                 textView text              textView textColor    black            textView becomeFirstResponder      func textViewDidEndEditing   textView  UITextView        if  textView text                   textView text    Start typing             textView textColor    lightGray            textView resignFirstResponder

User · Answer

Jason s answer will looks a little bit off in iOS7  fix it by adjust the offset of  placeHolderLabel   -  void drawRect  CGRect rect       if    self placeholder  length   gt  0                 if   placeHolderLabel    nil                         if    UIDevice currentDevice  systemVersion floatValue   gt   7                   placeHolderLabel     UILabel alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 4 8 self bounds size width - 8 0                else                  placeHolderLabel     UILabel alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 8 8 self bounds size width - 16 0                 placeHolderLabel lineBreakMode   NSLineBreakByWordWrapping               placeHolderLabel numberOfLines   0               placeHolderLabel font   self font               placeHolderLabel backgroundColor    UIColor clearColor                placeHolderLabel textColor   self placeholderColor               placeHolderLabel alpha   0               placeHolderLabel tag   999               self addSubview  placeHolderLabel                       placeHolderLabel text   self placeholder            placeHolderLabel sizeToFit            self sendSubviewToBack  placeHolderLabel              if    self text  length     0  amp  amp    self placeholder  length   gt  0                   self viewWithTag 999  setAlpha 1               super drawRect rect

User · Answer

One more simple answer for this  using CATextLayer  Add CATextLayer to UITextView s layer  With UITextViewDelegate methods  simply change colour of CATextLayer  func txtViewPlaceholder         let textlayer   CATextLayer        textlayer frame   CGRect x  5  y  5  width  200  height  18      textlayer contentsScale   UIScreen main scale     textlayer fontSize   12     textlayer alignmentMode   kCAAlignmentLeft     textlayer string    quot Enter here quot      textlayer isWrapped   true     textlayer name    quot placeholder quot      textlayer backgroundColor   UIColor white cgColor     textlayer foregroundColor   UIColor black cgColor      yourTxtVw layer insertSublayer textlayer  at  0     func removeAddPlaceholder remove  Bool  textView  UITextView        for layers in textView layer sublayers  where layers name     quot placeholder quot                     if remove                layers as  CATextLayer  foregroundColor   UIColor white cgColor           else                layers as  CATextLayer  foregroundColor   UIColor black cgColor                              extension YourViewController   UITextViewDelegate        func textViewShouldBeginEditing   textView  UITextView  - gt  Bool                removeAddPlaceholder remove  true  textView  textView               return true            func textViewDidEndEditing   textView  UITextView                 if textView text count  lt   0               removeAddPlaceholder remove  false  textView  textView

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-  void viewDidLoad        super viewDidLoad        self textViewEmpty   YES          Text view     self textView     UITextView alloc  init       self textView translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO     For AutoLayout     self textView delegate   self      self textView textColor    UIColor grayColor       self textView text     Placeholder           Add subview and constraints     pragma mark - UITextView  -  BOOL textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView   textView       if  self isTextViewEmpty            textView textColor    UIColor blackColor           textView text                   return YES     -  void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView       if  textView text length  gt  0            self textViewEmpty   NO        else           self textViewEmpty   YES           -  BOOL textViewShouldEndEditing  UITextView   textView       if  self isTextViewEmpty            textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor           textView text   placeholderText             return YES

User · Answer

The easiest method to modify the placeholder text color is through the XCode storyboard interface builder  Select the UITextField of interest and open the identity inspector on the right  Click on the plus symbol in the User Defined Runtime Attributes and add a new row with Key Path as  placeholderLabel textColor  Type as Color and Value to your desired color

User · Answer

Here s a simple and clever way to get the perfect behavior   Let s borrow the placeholder from UITextField      Set up a textField and set its text transparent   self placeholderTextField     UITextField alloc  init       adjust the frame to fit it in the first line of your textView    self placeholderTextField frame   CGRectMake 0 0  0 0  yourTextView width  30 0    self placeholderTextField textColor    UIColor clearColor   self placeholderTextField userInteractionEnabled   NO  self placeholderTextField font   yourTextView font  self placeholderTextField placeholder     sample placeholder    yourTextView addSubview self placeholderTextField    Set textView s delegate and synchronize the textField and textView   yourTextView delegate   self    then  -  void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView        self placeholderTextField text   textView text      That s all

User · Answer

Easy way  just create placeholder text in UITextView by using the following UITextViewDelegate methods   -  void textViewDidBeginEditing  UITextView   textView       if   textView text isEqualToString   placeholder text here                  textView text                 textView textColor    UIColor blackColor     optional            textView becomeFirstResponder      -  void textViewDidEndEditing  UITextView   textView       if   textView text isEqualToString                 textView text     placeholder text here              textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor     optional            textView resignFirstResponder       just remember to set myUITextView with the exact text on creation e g   UITextView  myUITextView     UITextView alloc  init   myUITextView delegate   self  myUITextView text     placeholder text here      myUITextView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor     optional   and make the parent class a UITextViewDelegate before including these methods e g    interface MyClass     lt UITextViewDelegate gt   end   Code for Swift 3 1  func textViewDidBeginEditing   textView  UITextView         if  textView text     placeholder text here      amp  amp  textView textColor     lightGray                textView text              textView textColor    black           textView becomeFirstResponder     Optional    func textViewDidEndEditing   textView  UITextView        if  textView text                      textView text    placeholder text here             textView textColor    lightGray           textView resignFirstResponder       just remember to set myUITextView with the exact text on creation e g    let myUITextView   UITextView init    myUITextView delegate   self  myUITextView text    placeholder text here      myUITextView textColor    lightGray   and make the parent class a UITextViewDelegate before including these methods e g   class MyClass  UITextViewDelegate

User · Answer

Yet another answer   https   github com gcamp GCPlaceholderTextView  Change Class of UITextView in IB to GCPlaceholderTextView and set the placeholder property

User · Answer

I created an instance variable to check whether I ll show the placeholder or not   BOOL showPlaceHolder  UITextView   textView     and also the textView   On viewDidLoad I set     self setPlaceHolder      Here s what this does   -  void setPlaceholder       textView text   NSLocalizedString   Type your question here     placeholder        textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor       self showPlaceHolder   YES    we save the state so it won t disappear in case you want to re-edit it     I also created a button to resign the keyboard  You don t have to do this but the cool thing here is that the placeholder is shown again if nothing was entered  -  void textViewDidBeginEditing  UITextView   txtView        self navigationItem rightBarButtonItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle   Done  style UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target self action  selector resignKeyboard        if  self showPlaceHolder    YES                 textView textColor    UIColor blackColor           textView text                self showPlaceHolder   NO           -  void resignKeyboard         textView resignFirstResponder         here if you created a button like I did to resign the keyboard  you should hide it     if  textView text length    0             self setPlaceholder

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TextView PlaceHolder In swift  import UIKit   IBDesignable open class KMPlaceholderTextView  UITextView        private struct Constants           static let defaultiOSPlaceholderColor   UIColor red  0 0  green  0 0  blue  0 0980392  alpha  0 22             public let placeholderLabel  UILabel   UILabel        private var placeholderLabelConstraints    NSLayoutConstraint          IBInspectable open var placeholder  String                didSet               placeholderLabel text   placeholder                       IBInspectable open var placeholderColor  UIColor   KMPlaceholderTextView Constants defaultiOSPlaceholderColor           didSet               placeholderLabel textColor   placeholderColor                      override open var font  UIFont            didSet               if placeholderFont    nil                   placeholderLabel font   font                                    open var placeholderFont  UIFont            didSet               let font    placeholderFont    nil    placeholderFont   self font             placeholderLabel font   font                      override open var textAlignment  NSTextAlignment           didSet               placeholderLabel textAlignment   textAlignment                      override open var text  String            didSet               textDidChange                        override open var attributedText  NSAttributedString            didSet               textDidChange                        override open var textContainerInset  UIEdgeInsets           didSet               updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel                        override public init frame  CGRect  textContainer  NSTextContainer             super init frame  frame  textContainer  textContainer          commonInit              required public init  coder aDecoder  NSCoder            super init coder  aDecoder          commonInit              private func commonInit              if swift  gt  4 2          let notificationName   UITextView textDidChangeNotification          else         let notificationName   NSNotification Name UITextView textDidChangeNotification          endif          NotificationCenter default addObserver self                                                 selector   selector textDidChange                                                  name  notificationName                                                 object  nil           placeholderLabel font   font         placeholderLabel textColor   placeholderColor         placeholderLabel textAlignment   textAlignment         placeholderLabel text   placeholder         placeholderLabel numberOfLines   0         placeholderLabel backgroundColor   UIColor clear         placeholderLabel translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false         addSubview placeholderLabel          updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel              private func updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel             var newConstraints   NSLayoutConstraint constraints withVisualFormat   H  -   textContainerInset left   textContainer lineFragmentPadding  - placeholder                options                  metrics  nil              views    placeholder   placeholderLabel           newConstraints    NSLayoutConstraint constraints withVisualFormat   V  -   textContainerInset top  - placeholder                options                  metrics  nil              views    placeholder   placeholderLabel           newConstraints append NSLayoutConstraint              item  placeholderLabel              attribute   width              relatedBy   equal              toItem  self              attribute   width              multiplier  1 0              constant  - textContainerInset left   textContainerInset right   textContainer lineFragmentPadding   2 0                     removeConstraints placeholderLabelConstraints          addConstraints newConstraints          placeholderLabelConstraints   newConstraints             objc private func textDidChange             placeholderLabel isHidden    text isEmpty         self layoutIfNeeded              open override func layoutSubviews             super layoutSubviews           placeholderLabel preferredMaxLayoutWidth   textContainer size width - textContainer lineFragmentPadding   2 0            deinit            if swift  gt  4 2          let notificationName   UITextView textDidChangeNotification          else         let notificationName   NSNotification Name UITextView textDidChangeNotification          endif          NotificationCenter default removeObserver self                                                    name  notificationName                                                    object  nil             Usage

User · Answer

Simply create  IBDesignable subclass of your UITextView    IBDesignable class AttributedTextView  UITextView        private let placeholderLabel   UILabel         IBInspectable var placeholder  String                 didSet                setupPlaceholderLabelIfNeeded               textViewDidChange                        override var text  String             didSet               textViewDidChange                          MARK  - Initialization      override func awakeFromNib             super awakeFromNib            setupPlaceholderLabelIfNeeded           NotificationCenter default addObserver self  selector   selector textViewDidChange   name   UITextViewTextDidChange  object  nil               MARK  - Deinitialization      deinit           NotificationCenter default removeObserver self               MARK  - Internal      func textViewDidChange              placeholderLabel isHidden    text isEmpty         layoutIfNeeded                MARK  - Private      private func setupPlaceholderLabelIfNeeded              placeholderLabel removeFromSuperview           placeholderLabel frame   CGRect x  0  y  8  width  frame size width  height  0          placeholderLabel textColor   UIColor lightGray         placeholderLabel text   placeholder          placeholderLabel sizeToFit            insertSubview placeholderLabel  at  0            and then simply setup your placeholder in identity inspector

User · Answer

In  h class    interface RateCommentViewController   UIViewController lt UITextViewDelegate gt  IBoutlet UITextview  commentTxtView     In  m class   -  void viewDidLoad            commentTxtView text     Comment       commentTxtView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor       commentTxtView delegate   self     -  BOOL  textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView   textView       commentTxtView text            commentTxtView textColor    UIColor blackColor       return YES     - void  textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView       if commentTxtView text length    0           commentTxtView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor           commentTxtView text     Comment            commentTxtView resignFirstResponder

User · Answer

I have created a swift 3 version of highest ranked answer  You just need to do subclassing of UITextView   import UIKit   class UIPlaceHolderTextView  UITextView       MARK  - Properties  IBInspectable var placeholder  String   IBInspectable var placeholderColor  UIColor  var placeholderLabel  UILabel      MARK  - Initializers override func awakeFromNib         super awakeFromNib        required init  coder aDecoder  NSCoder        super init coder  aDecoder          Use Interface Builder User Defined Runtime Attributes to set        placeholder and placeholderColor in Interface Builder      if self placeholder    nil           self placeholder                 if self placeholderColor    nil           self placeholderColor   UIColor black            NotificationCenter default addObserver self  selector   selector textChanged       name  NSNotification Name UITextViewTextDidChange  object  nil      func textChanged   notification  Notification  - gt  Void       if self placeholder  count    0           return            UIView animate withDuration  0 25            if self text count    0               self viewWithTag 999   alpha   1                   else               self viewWithTag 999   alpha   0                       Only override draw   if you perform custom drawing     An empty implementation adversely affects performance during animation  override func draw   rect  CGRect        super draw rect       if  self placeholder  count    0   gt  0           if placeholderLabel    nil               placeholderLabel   UILabel init               placeholderLabel  lineBreakMode    byWordWrapping             placeholderLabel  numberOfLines   0             placeholderLabel  font   self font             placeholderLabel  backgroundColor   self backgroundColor             placeholderLabel  textColor   self placeholderColor             placeholderLabel  alpha   0             placeholderLabel  tag   999             self addSubview placeholderLabel                placeholderLabel  translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false             placeholderLabel  topAnchor constraint equalTo  self topAnchor  constant  7  isActive   true             placeholderLabel  leftAnchor constraint equalTo  self leftAnchor  constant  4  isActive   true             placeholderLabel  bottomAnchor constraint equalTo  self bottomAnchor  isActive   true             placeholderLabel  rightAnchor constraint equalTo  self rightAnchor  isActive   true                    placeholderLabel  text   self placeholder         placeholderLabel  sizeToFit           self sendSubview toBack  self placeholderLabel              if self text count    0  amp  amp   self placeholder  count    0   gt  0           self viewWithTag 999   alpha   1

User · Answer

If someone needs a Solution for Swift    Add UITextViewDelegate to your class  var placeHolderText    Placeholder Text      override func viewDidLoad         super viewDidLoad       textView delegate   self    func textViewShouldBeginEditing textView  UITextView  - gt  Bool        self textView textColor    black      if self textView text    placeHolderText            self textView text                 return true    func textViewDidEndEditing textView  UITextView        if textView text                  self textView text   placeHolderText         self textView textColor    lightGray          override func viewWillAppear animated  Bool         if currentQuestion answerDisplayValue                  self textView text   placeHolderText         self textView textColor    lightGray       else           self textView text    xxx     load default text   or stored          self textView textColor    black

User · Answer

This thread has had plenty of answers  but here s the version I prefer   It extends the existing UITextView class so is easily reuseable  and it doesn t intercept the events like textViewDidChange  which might break user s code  if they were already intercepting these events elsewhere    Using my code  shown below   you can easily add a placeholder to any of your UITextViews like this   self textViewComments placeholder      Enter some comments here       When you set this new placeholder value  it quietly adds a UILabel on top of your UITextView  then hide shows it as necessary     Okay  to make these changes  add a  UITextViewHelper h  file containing this code       UITextViewHelper h     Created by Michael Gledhill on 13 02 15    import  lt Foundation Foundation h gt    interface UITextView  UITextViewHelper    property  nonatomic  strong  NSString  placeholder   property  nonatomic  strong  UILabel  placeholderLabel   property  nonatomic  strong  NSString  textValue   - void checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder    end      and a UITextViewHelper m file containing this       UITextViewHelper m     Created by Michael Gledhill on 13 02 15         This UITextView category allows us to easily display a PlaceHolder string in our UITextView      The downside is that  your code needs to set the  textValue  rather than the  text  value to safely set the UITextView s text      import  UITextViewHelper h   import  lt objc runtime h gt    implementation UITextView  UITextViewHelper    define UI PLACEHOLDER TEXT COLOR  UIColor colorWithRed 170 0 255 0 green 170 0 255 0 blue 170 0 255 0 alpha 1 0    dynamic placeholder   dynamic placeholderLabel   dynamic textValue   - void setTextValue  NSString   textValue           Change the text of our UITextView  and check whether we need to display the placeholder      self text   textValue       self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder     - NSString  textValue       return self text     - void checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder           If our UITextView is empty  display our Placeholder label  if we have one      if  self placeholderLabel    nil          return       self placeholderLabel hidden      self text isEqualToString           - void onTap           When the user taps in our UITextView  we ll see if we need to remove the placeholder text       self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder            Make the onscreen keyboard appear       self becomeFirstResponder      - void keyPressed  NSNotification  notification           The user has just typed a character in our UITextView  or pressed the delete key           Do we need to display our Placeholder label       self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder       pragma mark - Add a  placeHolder  string to the UITextView class  NSString const  kKeyPlaceHolder     kKeyPlaceHolder   - void setPlaceholder  NSString    placeholder           Sets our  placeholder  text string  creates a new UILabel to contain it  and modifies our UITextView to cope with         showing hiding the UILabel when needed      objc setAssociatedObject self   amp kKeyPlaceHolder   id  placeholder  OBJC ASSOCIATION RETAIN NONATOMIC        self placeholderLabel     UILabel alloc  initWithFrame self frame       self placeholderLabel numberOfLines   1      self placeholderLabel text    placeholder      self placeholderLabel textColor   UI PLACEHOLDER TEXT COLOR      self placeholderLabel backgroundColor    UIColor clearColor       self placeholderLabel userInteractionEnabled   true      self placeholderLabel font   self font       self addSubview self placeholderLabel         self placeholderLabel sizeToFit            Whenever the user taps within the UITextView  we ll give the textview the focus  and hide the placeholder if necessary       self addGestureRecognizer   UITapGestureRecognizer alloc  initWithTarget self action  selector onTap              Whenever the user types something in the UITextView  we ll see if we need to hide show the placeholder label        NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  addObserver self selector   selector keyPressed   name UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object nil         self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder     - NSString  placeholder           Returns our  placeholder  text string     return objc getAssociatedObject self   amp kKeyPlaceHolder       pragma mark - Add a  UILabel  to this UITextView class  NSString const  kKeyLabel     kKeyLabel   - void setPlaceholderLabel  UILabel   placeholderLabel           Stores our new UILabel  which contains our placeholder string      objc setAssociatedObject self   amp kKeyLabel   id placeholderLabel  OBJC ASSOCIATION RETAIN NONATOMIC          NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  addObserver self selector   selector keyPressed   name UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object nil         self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder     - UILabel  placeholderLabel           Returns our new UILabel     return objc getAssociatedObject self   amp kKeyLabel      end   Yup  it s a lot of code  but once you ve added it to your project and included the  h file      import  UITextViewHelper h       you can easily use placeholders in UITextViews   There s one gotcha though   If you do this   self textViewComments placeholder      Enter some comments here     self textViewComments text     Ooooh  hello there        the placeholder will appear on top of the text   When you set the text value  none of the regular notifications gets called  so I couldn t work out how to call my function to decide whether to show hide the placeholder   The solution is to set the textValue rather than text   self textViewComments placeholder      Enter some comments here     self textViewComments textValue     Ooooh  hello there     Alternatively  you can set the text value  then call checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder   self textViewComments text     Ooooh  hello there    self textViewComments checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder     I like solutions like this  as they  fill the gap  between what Apple provides us with  and what we  as developers  actually need in our apps   You write this code once  add it to your library of  helper   m  h files  and  over time  the SDK actually starts becoming less frustrating    I wrote a similar helper for adding a  clear  button to my UITextViews  another thing which annoyingly exists in UITextField but not in UITextView

User · Answer

this is how I did it   UITextView2 h   import  lt UIKit UIKit h gt    interface UITextView2   UITextView  lt UITextViewDelegate gt     NSString  placeholder   UIColor  placeholderColor      property nonatomic  retain  NSString  placeholder   property nonatomic  retain  UIColor  placeholderColor   - void textChanged  NSNotification  notif    end   UITextView2 m   implementation UITextView2   synthesize placeholder  placeholderColor   -  id initWithFrame  CGRect frame       if  self    super initWithFrame frame              self setPlaceholder                self setPlaceholderColor  UIColor lightGrayColor              NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  addObserver self selector  selector textChanged   name UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object nil             return self     - void textChanged  NSNotification  notif       if    self placeholder  length   0          return      if    self text  length   0              self viewWithTag 999  setAlpha 1         else             self viewWithTag 999  setAlpha 0             -  void drawRect  CGRect rect       if    self placeholder  length  gt 0            UILabel  l     UILabel alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 8  8  0  0             l setFont self font            l setTextColor self placeholderColor            l setText self placeholder            l setAlpha 0            l setTag 999            self addSubview l            l sizeToFit            self sendSubviewToBack l            l release             if    self text  length   0  amp  amp    self placeholder  length  gt 0              self viewWithTag 999  setAlpha 1              super drawRect rect      -  void dealloc         NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  removeObserver self        super dealloc        end

User · Answer

Another solution  import UIKit  protocol PlaceholderTextViewDelegate  class        func placeholderTextViewDidChangeText   text  String      func placeholderTextViewDidEndEditing   text  String     final class PlaceholderTextView  UITextView        weak var notifier  PlaceholderTextViewDelegate      var ignoreEnterAction  Bool   true      var placeholder  String            didSet               text   placeholder             selectedRange   NSRange location  0  length  0                       var placeholderColor   UIColor lightGray           didSet               if text    placeholder                   textColor   placeholderColor                                   var normalTextColor   UIColor lightGray      var placeholderFont   UIFont sfProRegular 28       fileprivate var placeholderLabel  UILabel          MARK  - LifeCycle      override var text  String            didSet               if text    placeholder                   textColor   placeholderColor               else                   textColor   normalTextColor                                    init             super init frame  CGRect zero  textContainer  nil          awakeFromNib              required init  coder aDecoder  NSCoder            super init coder  aDecoder             override func awakeFromNib             super awakeFromNib            self delegate   self          extension PlaceholderTextView  UITextViewDelegate           MARK  - UITextViewDelegate     func textView   textView  UITextView  shouldChangeTextIn range  NSRange  replacementText text  String  - gt  Bool            if text        amp  amp  textView text    placeholder               return false                    if let placeholder   placeholder              textView text    placeholder              range location  lt   placeholder count               textView text                         if ignoreEnterAction  amp  amp  text      n                textView resignFirstResponder               return false                   return true            func textViewDidChange   textView  UITextView            if let placeholder   placeholder               textView text   textView text replacingOccurrences of  placeholder  with                         if let placeholder   placeholder              text  isEmpty    true               text   placeholder             textColor   placeholderColor              selectedRange   NSRange location  0  length  0            else               textColor   normalTextColor                    notifier  placeholderTextViewDidChangeText textView text             func textViewDidChangeSelection   textView  UITextView            if let placeholder   placeholder              text    placeholder               selectedRange   NSRange location  0  length  0                       func textViewDidEndEditing   textView  UITextView            notifier  placeholderTextViewDidEndEditing textView text           if let placeholder   placeholder              text  isEmpty    true               text   placeholder             textColor   placeholderColor             selectedRange   NSRange location  0  length  0            else               textColor   normalTextColor                     result

User · Answer

In swift 5  Works fine   class BaseTextView  UITextView           MARK  - Views     private var placeholderLabel  UIlabel          MARK  - Init     override init frame  CGRect  textContainer  NSTextContainer             super init frame  frame  textContainer  textContainer          setupUI           startupSetup              required init  coder aDecoder  NSCoder            super init coder  aDecoder          setupUI           startupSetup              deinit           NotificationCenter default removeObserver self                  MARK  - Setup UI private extension BaseTextView       func setupUI             addPlaceholderLabel            textColor    textColor            func addPlaceholderLabel             placeholderLabel   BaseLabel frame   zero          placeholderLabel translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false         insertSubview placeholderLabel  at  0           placeholderLabel alpha   0         placeholderLabel numberOfLines   0         placeholderLabel backgroundColor    clear         placeholderLabel textColor    lightTextColor         placeholderLabel lineBreakMode    byWordWrapping         placeholderLabel isUserInteractionEnabled   false         placeholderLabel font   UIFont openSansSemibold withSize 12           placeholderLabel topAnchor constraint equalTo  topAnchor  constant  8  isActive   true         placeholderLabel leftAnchor constraint equalTo  leftAnchor  constant  5  isActive   true         placeholderLabel rightAnchor constraint lessThanOrEqualTo  rightAnchor  constant  -8  isActive   true         placeholderLabel bottomAnchor constraint lessThanOrEqualTo  bottomAnchor  constant  -8  isActive   true             MARK  - Startup private extension BaseTextView       func startupSetup             addObservers           textChanged nil          font   UIFont openSansSemibold withSize 12                 func addObservers             NotificationCenter default addObserver self  selector   selector textChanged       name  UITextView textDidChangeNotification  object  nil              MARK  - Actions private extension BaseTextView        objc func textChanged   sender  Notification             UIView animate withDuration  0 2                self placeholderLabel alpha   self text count    0   1   0                           MARK  - Public methods extension BaseTextView       public func setPlaceholder   placeholder  String            placeholderLabel text   placeholder

User · Answer

Hi you can use IQTextView available in IQKeyboard Manager it s simple to use and integrate just set class of your textview to IQTextView and you can use its property for setting placeholder label with color you want  You can download the library from IQKeyboardManager   or you can install it from cocoapods

User · Answer

Here s yet another way to do it  one that reproduces the slight indentation of UITextField s placeholder   Drag a UITextField right under the UITextView so that their top left corners are aligned  Add your placeholder text to the text field    In viewDidLoad  add    tView setDelegate self   tView contentInset   UIEdgeInsetsMake -8 -8 0 0   tView backgroundColor    UIColor clearColor     Then add   -  void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView       if  textView text length    0            textView backgroundColor    UIColor clearColor                     else           textView backgroundColor    UIColor whiteColor

User · Answer

I ve just found that as of iOS 10 you can now actually cast an UITextView to a method as an UITextField and set inside the method the placeholder  Just tried and it works without having to subclass UITextView    This is an example of what worked for me   - void customizeTextField  UITextField   textField placeholder  NSString   pText withColor  UIColor   pTextColor           textField attributedPlaceholder     NSAttributedString alloc                                            initWithString pText                                           attributes   NSForegroundColorAttributeName pTextColor            And to use it for a UITextView you just have to pass it to the method using a cast like this    self customizeTextField  UITextField   myTextView placeholder   Placeholder  withColor  UIColor blackColor      N B  After a test I ve found out that the solution works fine also on iOS9 x but causes a crash on iOS8 x

User · Answer

Simpler and still accounting for some text entered by the user at some point  BOOL placeHolderTextVisible   on viewDidLoad  set it to YES  or DidMoveToSuperview  or awakeFromNib   then  on  -  BOOL  textView  UITextView  textView shouldBeginEditing      -  BOOL textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView   textView       if  placeHolderTextVisible        placeHolderTextVisible   NO      textView text              return YES

User · Answer

Below is a Swift port of  SAMTextView  ObjC code posted as one of the first handful of replies to the question  I tested it on iOS 8   I tweaked a couple of things  including the bounds offset for the placement of the placeholder text  as the original was too high and too far right  used suggestion in one of the comments to that post      I know there are a lot of simple solutions  but I like the approach of subclassing UITextView because it s reusable and I don t have to clutter classes utilizing it with the mechanisms   Swift 2 2   import UIKit  class PlaceholderTextView  UITextView         IBInspectable var placeholderColor  UIColor   UIColor lightGrayColor        IBInspectable var placeholderText  String           override var font  UIFont            didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        override var contentInset  UIEdgeInsets           didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        override var textAlignment  NSTextAlignment           didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        override var text  String            didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        override var attributedText  NSAttributedString            didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        required init  coder aDecoder  NSCoder            super init coder  aDecoder          setUp              override init frame  CGRect  textContainer  NSTextContainer             super init frame  frame  textContainer  textContainer             private func setUp             NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter   addObserver self  selector   selector PlaceholderTextView textChanged                                                                name  UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification  object  self             func textChanged notification  NSNotification            setNeedsDisplay              func placeholderRectForBounds bounds  CGRect  - gt  CGRect           var x   contentInset left   4 0         var y   contentInset top    9 0         let w   frame size width - contentInset left - contentInset right - 16 0         let h   frame size height - contentInset top - contentInset bottom - 16 0          if let style   self typingAttributes NSParagraphStyleAttributeName  as  NSParagraphStyle               x    style headIndent             y    style firstLineHeadIndent                   return CGRect x  x  y  y  width  w  height  h             override func drawRect rect  CGRect            if text  isEmpty  amp  amp   placeholderText isEmpty               let paragraphStyle   NSMutableParagraphStyle               paragraphStyle alignment   textAlignment             let attributes    String  AnyObject                       NSFontAttributeName   font                   NSForegroundColorAttributeName   placeholderColor                  NSParagraphStyleAttributeName    paragraphStyle               placeholderText drawInRect placeholderRectForBounds bounds   withAttributes  attributes                    super drawRect rect            Swift 4 2   import UIKit  class PlaceholderTextView  UITextView         IBInspectable var placeholderColor  UIColor   UIColor lightGray      IBInspectable var placeholderText  String           override var font  UIFont            didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        override var contentInset  UIEdgeInsets           didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        override var textAlignment  NSTextAlignment           didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        override var text  String            didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        override var attributedText  NSAttributedString            didSet               setNeedsDisplay                        required init  coder aDecoder  NSCoder            super init coder  aDecoder          setUp              override init frame  CGRect  textContainer  NSTextContainer             super init frame  frame  textContainer  textContainer             private func setUp             NotificationCenter default addObserver self           selector   selector self textChanged notification              name  Notification Name  UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification             object  nil              objc func textChanged notification  NSNotification            setNeedsDisplay              func placeholderRectForBounds bounds  CGRect  - gt  CGRect           var x   contentInset left   4 0         var y   contentInset top    9 0         let w   frame size width - contentInset left - contentInset right - 16 0         let h   frame size height - contentInset top - contentInset bottom - 16 0          if let style   self typingAttributes NSAttributedString Key paragraphStyle  as  NSParagraphStyle               x    style headIndent             y    style firstLineHeadIndent                   return CGRect x  x  y  y  width  w  height  h             override func draw   rect  CGRect            if text  isEmpty  amp  amp   placeholderText isEmpty               let paragraphStyle   NSMutableParagraphStyle               paragraphStyle alignment   textAlignment             let attributes   NSAttributedString Key  Any                  NSAttributedString Key rawValue  NSAttributedString Key font rawValue    font               NSAttributedString Key rawValue  NSAttributedString Key foregroundColor rawValue    placeholderColor              NSAttributedString Key rawValue  NSAttributedString Key paragraphStyle rawValue     paragraphStyle               placeholderText draw in  placeholderRectForBounds bounds  bounds   withAttributes  attributes                    super draw rect

User · Answer

After looking through  and trying out  most of the proposed solutions to this seemingly obvious - but missing - feature of UITextView  the  best  closest I found was that from BobDickinson  But I didnt like having to resort to a whole new subclass  I prefer drop-in categories for such simple functional additions   nor that it intercepted UITextViewDelegate methods  which is probably going to mess up your existing UITextView handling code  So here s my take on a drop-in category that ll work on any existing UITextView instance      import  lt objc runtime h gt      Private subclass needed to override placeholderRectForBounds  to correctly position placeholder  interface  TextField   UITextField  property UIEdgeInsets insets   end  implementation  TextField -  CGRect placeholderRectForBounds  CGRect bounds       CGRect rect    super placeholderRectForBounds bounds       return UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect rect   insets      end   implementation UITextView  Placeholder   static const void  KEY   -  void setPlaceholder  NSString   placeholder        TextField  textField   objc getAssociatedObject self   amp KEY       if   textField            textField     TextField alloc initWithFrame self bounds           textField autoresizingMask   UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth   UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight          textField userInteractionEnabled   NO          textField font   self font           textField contentVerticalAlignment   UIControlContentVerticalAlignmentTop          textField insets   UIEdgeInsetsMake self textContainerInset top                                              self textContainerInset left   self textContainer lineFragmentPadding                                              self textContainerInset bottom                                              self textContainerInset right            self addSubview textField            self sendSubviewToBack textField            objc setAssociatedObject self   amp KEY  textField  OBJC ASSOCIATION RETAIN             NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter addObserver self selector  selector updatePlaceholder   name UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object nil             textField placeholder   placeholder     -  NSString  placeholder       UITextField  textField   objc getAssociatedObject self   amp KEY       return textField placeholder     -  void updatePlaceholder  NSNotification   notification       UITextField  textField   objc getAssociatedObject self   amp KEY       textField font   self font       textField setAlpha self text length  0   1       end   Its simple to use  just the obvious  UITextView  myTextView   UITextView new      myTextView placeholder     enter text here     It works by adding a UITextField - in the right location - behind your UITextView  and exploiting it s placeholder instead  hence you dont have to worry about getting the color right  etc   then listening for notifications whenever your UITextView is changed to show hide this UITextField  and hence it doesnt interfere with your existing UITextViewDelegate calls   And there s no magic numbers involved     -   The objc setAssociatedObject   objc getAssociatedObject   is to avoid having to subclass UITextView   Unfortunately  to position the UITextField correctly  it was necessary to introduce a  private  subclass  to override placeholderRectForBounds    Adapted from BobDickinson s Swift answer

User · Answer

I made my own version of the subclass of  UITextView   I liked Sam Soffes s idea of using the notifications  but I didn t liked the drawRect  overwrite  Seems overkill to me  I think I made a very clean implementation   You can look at my subclass here  A demo project is also included

User · Answer

This mimics UITextField s placeholder perfectly  where the place holder text stays until you actually type something   private let placeholder    Type here    IBOutlet weak var textView  UITextView        didSet           textView textColor   UIColor lightGray         textView text   placeholder         textView selectedRange   NSRange location  0  length  0           extension ViewController  UITextViewDelegate        func textViewDidChangeSelection   textView  UITextView               Move cursor to beginning on first tap         if textView text    placeholder               textView selectedRange   NSRange location  0  length  0                       func textView   textView  UITextView  shouldChangeTextIn range  NSRange  replacementText text  String  - gt  Bool           if textView text    placeholder  amp  amp   text isEmpty               textView text   nil             textView textColor   UIColor black             textView selectedRange   NSRange location  0  length  0                    return true            func textViewDidChange   textView  UITextView            if textView text isEmpty               textView textColor   UIColor lightGray             textView text   placeholder

User · Answer

This is my version of UITextView with placeholder support  Swift 4 2 https   gist github com hlung c5dda3a0c2087e5ae6c1fce8822c4713     A UITextView subclass with placeholder text support  It uses another   UILabel to show the placeholder  shown when text is empty

User · Answer

Simple class to support icon attribted placeholders in UITextView PlaceholderTextView   IBOutlet weak var tvMessage  PlaceholderTextView      TODO  - Create Icon Text Attachment let icon  NSTextAttachment   NSTextAttachment   icon image   UIImage named   paper-plane   let iconString   NSMutableAttributedString attributedString  NSAttributedString attachment  icon    tvMessage icon   icon      TODO  - Attributes let textColor   UIColor gray let lightFont   UIFont name   Helvetica-Light   size  tvMessage font  pointSize  let italicFont   UIFont name   Helvetica-LightOblique   size  tvMessage font  pointSize       TODO  - Placeholder Attributed String let message   NSAttributedString string         Personal Message   attributes    NSFontAttributeName  lightFont     NSForegroundColorAttributeName  textColor   iconString append message     TODO  - Italic Placeholder Part let option   NSAttributedString string         Optional   attributes    NSFontAttributeName  italicFont   NSForegroundColorAttributeName  textColor   iconString append option   tvMessage attributedPlaceHolder   iconString  tvMessage layoutSubviews

User · Answer

Here s a way easier solution that behaves exactly like UITextField s placeholder but doesn t require drawing custom views  or resigning first responder   -  void  textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView       if  textView text length    0           textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor           textView text   placeholderText           textView setSelectedRange NSMakeRange 0  0            isPlaceholder   YES         else if  isPlaceholder  amp  amp    textView text isEqualToString placeholderText             textView text    textView text substringToIndex 1           textView textColor    UIColor blackColor           isPlaceholder   NO              the second check in the else if statement is for the case where nothing is entered and the user presses backspace   Just set your class as a UITextViewDelegate   In viewDidLoad you should initialize like  -  void  viewDidLoad         initialize placeholder text     placeholderText     some placeholder       isPlaceholder   YES      self someTextView text   placeholderText      self someTextView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor        self someTextView setSelectedRange NSMakeRange 0  0            assign UITextViewDelegate     self someTextView delegate   self

User · Answer

Simple Swift 3 solution  Add UITextViewDelegate to your class  Set yourTextView delegate   self  Create placeholderLabel and position it inside yourTextView  Now just animate placeholderLabel alpha on textViewDidChange     func textViewDidChange   textView  UITextView        let newAlpha  CGFloat   textView text isEmpty   1   0     if placeholderLabel alpha    newAlpha         UIView animate withDuration  0 3            self placeholderLabel alpha   newAlpha                     you might have to play with placeholderLabel position to set it up right  but that shouldn t be too hard

User · Answer

I recommend to use SZTextView   https   github com glaszig SZTextView  Add your default UITextView from storyboard and then change its custom class to SZTextView like below     Then you will see two new option in the Attribute Inspector

User · Answer

Take a look at UTPlaceholderTextView   This is a convenient subclass of UITextView that supports placeholder similiar to that of UITextField  Main peculiarities    Does not use subviews Does not override drawRect  Placeholder could be of arbitrary length  and rendered just the same way as usual text

User · Answer

I made a few minor modifications to bcd s solution to allow for initialization from a Xib file  text wrapping  and to maintain background color   Hopefully it will save others the trouble   UIPlaceHolderTextView h    import  lt Foundation Foundation h gt  IB DESIGNABLE  interface UIPlaceHolderTextView   UITextView   property  nonatomic  retain  IBInspectable NSString  placeholder   property  nonatomic  retain  IBInspectable UIColor  placeholderColor   - void textChanged  NSNotification  notification    end   UIPlaceHolderTextView m    import  UIPlaceHolderTextView h    interface UIPlaceHolderTextView      property  nonatomic  retain  UILabel  placeHolderLabel    end   implementation UIPlaceHolderTextView  CGFloat const UI PLACEHOLDER TEXT CHANGED ANIMATION DURATION   0 25   -  void dealloc         NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  removeObserver self    if   has feature objc arc   else       placeHolderLabel release    placeHolderLabel   nil        placeholderColor release    placeholderColor   nil        placeholder release    placeholder   nil       super dealloc    endif    -  void awakeFromNib        super awakeFromNib             Use Interface Builder User Defined Runtime Attributes to set          placeholder and placeholderColor in Interface Builder      if   self placeholder             self setPlaceholder                  if   self placeholderColor             self setPlaceholderColor  UIColor lightGrayColor                 NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  addObserver self selector  selector textChanged   name UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object nil      -  id initWithFrame  CGRect frame       if   self    super initWithFrame frame                    self setPlaceholder                self setPlaceholderColor  UIColor lightGrayColor              NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter  addObserver self selector  selector textChanged   name UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object nil             return self     -  void textChanged  NSNotification   notification       if   self placeholder  length     0                return              UIView animateWithDuration UI PLACEHOLDER TEXT CHANGED ANIMATION DURATION animations        if   self text  length     0                  self viewWithTag 999  setAlpha 1             else                 self viewWithTag 999  setAlpha 0                    -  void setText  NSString   text        super setText text        self textChanged nil      -  void drawRect  CGRect rect       if    self placeholder  length   gt  0                 if   placeHolderLabel    nil                          placeHolderLabel     UILabel alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 8 8 self bounds size width - 16 0                 placeHolderLabel lineBreakMode   NSLineBreakByWordWrapping               placeHolderLabel numberOfLines   0               placeHolderLabel font   self font               placeHolderLabel backgroundColor    UIColor clearColor                placeHolderLabel textColor   self placeholderColor               placeHolderLabel alpha   0               placeHolderLabel tag   999               self addSubview  placeHolderLabel                       placeHolderLabel text   self placeholder            placeHolderLabel sizeToFit            self sendSubviewToBack  placeHolderLabel              if    self text  length     0  amp  amp    self placeholder  length   gt  0                   self viewWithTag 999  setAlpha 1               super drawRect rect       end

User · Answer

Simulating Native Placeholders  A common gripe is that iOS doesn t provide a native placeholder feature for textviews  The UITextView extension below attempts to address that concern by offering the convenience one would expect from a native feature  requiring only one line of code to add a placeholder to a textview instance  The downside of this solution is  because it daisy chains delegate calls  it is vulnerable to  unlikely  changes to the UITextViewDelegate protocol in an iOS update  Specifically  if iOS adds new protocol methods and you implement any of them in the delegate for a text view with a placeholder  those methods won t be called unless you ve also updated the extension to forward those calls  Alternatively  the Inline Placeholder  answer is a rock-solid and about as simple as can be   Usage examples             If the text view gaining the placeholder doesn t use a UITextViewDelegate         Swift 3         class NoteViewController   UIViewController            IBOutlet weak var noteView  UITextView          override func viewDidLoad                 noteView addPlaceholder  quot Enter some text    quot    color  UIColor lightGray                                                                                                           -- OR --           If the text view gaining the placeholder does use a UITextViewDelegate         Swift 3         class NoteViewController   UIViewController  UITextViewDelegate            IBOutlet weak var noteView  UITextView          override func viewDidLoad                 noteView addPlaceholder  quot Phone   quot   color  UIColor lightGray  delegate  self                    Implementation  UITextView extension       Swift 3     extension UITextView  UITextViewDelegate        func addPlaceholder   placeholderText   String                         color   UIColor    UIColor lightGray                        delegate   UITextViewDelegate    nil             self delegate   self                Make receiving textview instance a delegate         let placeholder   UITextView        Need delegate storage ULabel doesn t provide         placeholder isUserInteractionEnabled   false        so we  simulate  UILabel         self addSubview placeholder         Add to text view instance s view tree                        placeholder sizeToFit               Constrain to fit inside parent text view         placeholder tintColor   UIColor clear    Unused in textviews  Can host our  tag          placeholder frame origin   CGPoint x  5  y  0     Don t cover I-beam cursor         placeholder delegate   delegate     Use as cache for caller s delegate          placeholder font   UIFont italicSystemFont ofSize   self font  pointSize            placeholder text   placeholderText         placeholder textColor   color                   func findPlaceholder   - gt  UITextView       find placeholder by its tag          for subview in self subviews               if let textview   subview as  UITextView                   if textview tintColor    UIColor clear      sneaky tagging scheme                     return textview                                                   return nil                            Safely daisychain to caller delegate methods as appropriate                 public func textViewDidChange   textView  UITextView          need this delegate method         if let placeholder   findPlaceholder                 placeholder isHidden    self text isEmpty          to do this             placeholder delegate  textViewDidChange  textView                                   Since we re becoming a delegate on behalf of this placeholder-enabled        text view instance  we must forward  all  that protocol s activity expected        by the instance  not just the particular optional protocol method we need to        intercept  above               public func textViewDidEndEditing   textView  UITextView            if let placeholder   findPlaceholder                 placeholder delegate  textViewDidEndEditing  textView                        public func textViewDidBeginEditing   textView  UITextView            if let placeholder   findPlaceholder                 placeholder delegate  textViewDidBeginEditing  textView                        public  func textViewDidChangeSelection   textView  UITextView            if let placeholder   findPlaceholder                 placeholder delegate  textViewDidChangeSelection  textView                        public func textViewShouldEndEditing   textView  UITextView  - gt  Bool           if let placeholder   findPlaceholder                 guard let retval   placeholder delegate  textViewShouldEndEditing  textView  else                   return true                           return retval                   return true            public func textViewShouldBeginEditing   textView  UITextView  - gt  Bool           if let placeholder   findPlaceholder                 guard let retval   placeholder delegate  textViewShouldBeginEditing  textView  else                   return true                           return retval                    return true            public func textView   textView  UITextView  shouldChangeTextIn range  NSRange  replacementText text  String  - gt  Bool           if let placeholder   findPlaceholder                 guard let retval   placeholder delegate  textView  textView  shouldChangeTextIn  range  replacementText  text  else                   return true                           return retval                    return true            public func textView   textView  UITextView  shouldInteractWith URL  URL  in characterRange  NSRange  interaction  UITextItemInteraction  - gt  Bool           if let placeholder   findPlaceholder                     guard let retval   placeholder delegate  textView  textView  shouldInteractWith  URL  in  characterRange  interaction                      interaction  else                           return true                           return retval                   return true            public func textView   textView  UITextView  shouldInteractWith textAttachment  NSTextAttachment  in characterRange  NSRange  interaction  UITextItemInteraction  - gt  Bool           if let placeholder   findPlaceholder                 guard let retval   placeholder delegate  textView  textView  shouldInteractWith  textAttachment  in  characterRange  interaction  interaction  else                   return true                           return retval                   return true          1  As an extension of an essential iOS class like UITextView  it s important to know that this code has no interaction with any textviews that don t activate a placeholder  e g textview instances that haven t been initialized with a call addPlaceholder   2  Placeholder-enabled text views transparently become a UITextViewDelegate to track character count  in order to control placeholder visibility  If a delegate is passed to addPlaceholder    this code daisy-chains  i e  forwards  delegate callbacks to that delegate  3  The author is investigating ways to inspect the UITextViewDelegate protocol and proxy it automatically without having to hardcode each method  That would inoculate the code from method signature changes and new methods being added to the  protocol

User · Answer

You could also create a new class TextViewWithPlaceholder as a subclass of UITextView    This code is kind of rough -- but I think it s on the right track     interface TextViewWithPlaceholder   UITextView        NSString  placeholderText      make a property     UIColor  placeholderColor      make a property     UIColor  normalTextColor       cache text color here whenever you switch to the placeholderColor    -  void  setTextColor   UIColor   color      normalTextColor   color      super setTextColor  color      -  void  updateForTextChange       if   self text length     0                 normalTextColor   self textColor          self textColor   placeholderColor          self text   placeholderText            else               self textColor   normalTextColor             In your delegate  add this   -  void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView       if   textView respondsToSelector   selector updateForTextChange                   textView updateForTextChange

User · Answer

I followed the code from this link  There are only 7 easy steps  It adds a UILabel to the textView and hides shows the label when text is entered or removed from the textView via the textView s textViewDidChangeSelection   textView  UITextView  delegate method  I put the steps in the comments above the code      1  make sure to include the UITextViewDelegate class YourClass  UITextViewDelegate         IBOutlet weak var textView   UITextView          2  create placeholder textLabel     let placeHolderTextLabel  UILabel             let placeholderLabel   UILabel           placeholderLabel text    Placeholder text             placeholderLabel sizeToFit           placeholderLabel textColor   UIColor lightGray         return placeholderLabel              override func viewDidLoad             super viewDidLoad               3  set textView delegate         textView delegate   self          configurePlaceholderTextLabel               func configurePlaceholderTextLabel                 4  add placeholder label to textView  set it s frame and font         textView addSubview placeHolderTextLabel          placeHolderTextLabel frame origin   CGPoint x  5  y   textView font  pointSize     2          placeHolderTextLabel font   UIFont systemFont ofSize   textView font  pointSize                5  decide wether the placeHolderTextLabel is hidden or not depending on if there is or isn t text inside the textView         placeHolderTextLabel isHidden    textView text isEmpty                6  implement textView delegate method to update the placeHolderTextLabel when the text is changed     func textViewDidChangeSelection   textView  UITextView                7  decide wether the placeHolderTextLabel is hidden or not depending on if there is or isn t text inside the textView when text in textView is changed         placeHolderTextLabel isHidden    textView text isEmpty

User · Answer

-  void textViewDidChange  UITextView   textView       placeholderLabel hidden   YES      put a label over the textview

User · Answer

I read through all of these  but came up with a very short  Swift 3  solution that has worked in all of my tests  It could stand a little more generality  but the process is simple  Here s the entire thing which I call  TextViewWithPlaceholder    import UIKit  class TextViewWithPlaceholder  UITextView        public var placeholder  String      public var placeholderColor   UIColor lightGray      private var placeholderLabel  UILabel          Set up notification listener when created from a XIB or storyboard         You can also set up init   functions if you plan on creating        these programmatically      override func awakeFromNib             super awakeFromNib            NotificationCenter default addObserver self                                             selector   selector TextViewWithPlaceholder textDidChangeHandler notification                                                name   UITextViewTextDidChange                                             object  self           placeholderLabel   UILabel           placeholderLabel  alpha   0 85         placeholderLabel  textColor   placeholderColor               By using layoutSubviews  you can size and position the placeholder        more accurately  I chose to hard-code the size of the placeholder        but you can combine this with other techniques shown in previous replies      override func layoutSubviews             super layoutSubviews            placeholderLabel  textColor   placeholderColor         placeholderLabel  text   placeholder          placeholderLabel  frame   CGRect x  6  y  4  width  self bounds size width-16  height  24           if text isEmpty               addSubview placeholderLabel               bringSubview toFront  placeholderLabel             else               placeholderLabel  removeFromSuperview                           Whenever the text changes  just trigger a new layout pass      func textDidChangeHandler notification  Notification            layoutSubviews

User · Answer

If your looking for a simple way to achieve this   try my approach   -  BOOL textViewShouldBeginEditing  UITextView   textView       if    textView text  isEqualToString PLACE HOLDER TEXT               textView text                  textView textColor    UIColor blackColor              return YES     - BOOL textViewShouldEndEditing  UITextView   textView       if    textView text  length     0            textView text   PLACE HOLDER TEXT          textView textColor    UIColor lightGrayColor             return YES      Yes  that s it PLACE HOLDER TEXT is an NSString containing your placeholder

[ios] Placeholder in UITextView

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