iPhone UILabel text soft shadow

Question

I know soft shadows are not supported by the UILabel our of the box, on the iPhone. So what would be the best way to implement my own one?

EDIT: Obviously I will subclass the UILabel and draw in the -drawRect: My question is, how do I get the contents of the label as graphics and draw around them, blur them etc...

Answer 1

Subclass UILabel, and override -drawInRect:

Answer 2

This answer to this similar question provides code for drawing a blurred shadow behind a UILabel. The author uses CGContextSetShadow() to generate the shadow for the drawn text.

Answer 3

Subclass UILabel, as stated, then, in drawRect:, do [self drawTextInRect:rect]; to get the text drawn into the current context. Once it is in there, you can start working with it by adding filters and whatnot. If you want to make a drop shadow with what you just drew into the context, you should be able to use:

CGContextSetShadowWithColor()

Look that function up in the docs to learn how to use it.

Answer 4

I suppose you to use shadowColor, shadowOffset in UILabel.

UILabel* label = [[UILabel alloc] init];
label.shadowColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
label.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0,1);

Answer 5

Apply the (soft) shadow on the view's layer, like this:

UILabel *label = [[UIabel alloc] init];
label.layer.shadowColor = [[UIColor whiteColor] CGColor];
label.layer.shadowOpacity = 1.0;