mturner1721 / mtanimatedlabel

MTAnimatedLabel is a UILabel subclass that supports animated text similar to the iPhone/iPad lock screen.

MTAnimatedLabel

This codebase implements MTAnimatedLabel, a UILabel subclass that supports animation like the iPhone lock screen.

License

Copyright (c) 2012 Michael Turner. All rights reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Automatic Reference Counting (ARC)

The source code in this repository uses Automatic Reference Counting.

Required Frameworks

MTAnimatedLabel requires the following frameworks:

CoreText
QuartzCore
UIKit
Foundation
CoreGraphics

Design

MTAnimatedLabel

A UILabel subclass that uses CATextLayer & CAGradientLayer to accomplish an iPhone lock screen like animation.

So how do I use it?

Just as you would use any other UILabel, either from a nib or in code.

/*Example*/
MTAnimatedLabel *label = [[MTAnimatedLabel alloc] initWithFrome:CGRectMake(0,0,100,35)];
label.text = @"slide to unlock";
[self.view addSubview:label];
[label startAnimating]; //begins animation

//call animate again to stop the animation
[label stopAnimating];

It's is also possible to change the gradient tint, animation duration, and gradient width.

Performance Considerations

MTAnimatedLabel uses a CATextLayer to mask a CAGradientLayer which requires off screen rendering. Due to this MTAnimatedLabel should only be used when animation is required.

TODO's

MTAnimatedLabel does not currently respect the following UILabel properties:

1. lineBreakMode
2. shadows on text are not currently working
3. baselineAdjustment
4. highlighting
5. autosizeTextToFit
6. numberOfLines

If you feel like jumping in on some of these please feel free!

mtanimatedlabel's Issues

MTAnimatedLabel Crash

* Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '* -[__NSPlaceholderArray initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object from objects[1]'

NSString ownership issue

In MTAnimatedLabel/MTAnimatedLabel.m line 132 (method -(UIFont *)font) does that toll-free bridge need to be cast as __bridge_transfer so ARC can manage the font name string you're copying from ctFont? It seems like this might run into a potential leak with that CoreFoundation string object never getting CFReleased.

BTW, thanks for this lib!!

Pushing a modal view controller on top of view containing label stop animation

This is an awesome control - but how come the label stops animating as soon as I push a modal view controller on top of the view controller and then remove it? I tried to call stopAnimating and then startAnimating again when the modal is removed but still it does not work.

compatibility with iOS 7

Are you planning on supporting iOS 7? In my Project it no longer compiles using the iOS 7 SDK.

Crash

I try to do the most basic example and it throws an error:

'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** -[__NSPlaceholderArray initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object from objects[1]'

I'm creating the object programmatically by:

MTAnimatedLabel *label = [[MTAnimatedLabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,100,35)];
label.text = @"slide to unlock";
[self.view addSubview:label];
[label startAnimating];

The line it crashes on is:
gradientLayer.colors = @[(id)[textColor CGColor],(id)[self.tint CGColor], (id)[textColor CGColor]];