Iphone CATextLayer doesn't show it's text.

Question

Here is my new bee issue: I was simply trying to add a CATextlayer in an UIView layer. However, according to the following code, I only get the CATextlayer's background color be displayed in the UIView, without any text. Just wonder what did I missed to display the text.

Could anyone ofter a hint/sample how to use CATextlayer? Thanks.

• (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil { if ((self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil])) { // Custom initialization

  CATextLayer *TextLayer = [CATextLayer layer];
  TextLayer.bounds = CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 100.0f, 100.0f);
  TextLayer.string = @"Test";
  TextLayer.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:18].fontName;
  TextLayer.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
  TextLayer.wrapped = NO;
  
  
  //TextLayer.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];
  self.view = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 100.0f, 100.0f)];
  self.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];
  [self.view.layer addSublayer:TextLayer];
  [self.view.layer layoutSublayers];
  

  } return self; }

Answer 1

According to the docs, the default text color of a CATextLayer is white. White on white is hard to see.

Answer 2

try this one:

...

self.view = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 100.0f, 100.0f)];

[self.view setWantsLayer:YES];

self.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];

...

Answer 3

Change your code to this:

CATextLayer *TextLayer = [CATextLayer layer];
TextLayer.bounds = CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 100.0f, 100.0f);
TextLayer.string = @"Test";
TextLayer.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:18].fontName;
TextLayer.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
TextLayer.position = CGPointMake(80.0, 80.0f);
TextLayer.wrapped = NO;
[self.view.layer addSublayer:TextLayer];

You should also be doing this in the view controller's -viewDidLoad. That way you know your view is loaded and valid and can now have layers added to it.