Change background color of TextEditor in SwiftUI - swift

Question

TextEditor seems to have a default white background. So the following is not working and it displayed as white instead of defined red:
var body: some View {
TextEditor(text: .constant("Placeholder"))
.background(Color.red)
}
Is it possible to change the color to a custom one?

Answer 1

iOS 16
You should hide the default background to see your desired one:
TextEditor(text: .constant("Placeholder"))
.scrollContentBackground(.hidden) // <- Hide it
.background(.red) // To see this
iOS 15 and below
TextEditor is backed by UITextView. So you need to get rid of the UITextView's backgroundColor first and then you can set any View to the background.
struct ContentView: View {
init() {
UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear
}
var body: some View {
List {
TextEditor(text: .constant("Placeholder"))
.background(.red)
}
}
}
Demo
You can find my simple trick for growing TextEditor here in this answer

Answer 2

Pure SwiftUI solution on iOS and macOS
colorMultiply is your friend.
struct ContentView: View {
#State private var editingText: String = ""
var body: some View {
TextEditor(text: $editingText)
.frame(width: 400, height: 100, alignment: .center)
.cornerRadius(3.0)
.colorMultiply(.gray)
}
}

Answer 3

Update iOS 16 / SwiftUI 4.0
You need to use .scrollContentBackground(.hidden) instead of UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear
https://twitter.com/StuFFmc/status/1556561422431174656
Warning: This is an iOS 16 only so you'll probably need some if #available and potentially two different TextEditor component.

Answer 4

extension View {
/// Layers the given views behind this ``TextEditor``.
func textEditorBackground<V>(#ViewBuilder _ content: () -> V) -> some View where V : View {
self
.onAppear {
UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear
}
.background(content())
}
}

Answer 5

Custom Background color with SwiftUI on macOS
On macOS, unfortunately, you have to fallback to AppKit and wrap NSTextView.
You need to declare a view that conforms to NSViewRepresentable
This should give you pretty much the same behaviour as SwiftUI's TextEditor-View and since the wrapped NSTextView does not draw its background, you can use the .background-ViewModifier to change the background
struct CustomizableTextEditor: View {
#Binding var text: String
var body: some View {
GeometryReader { geometry in
NSScrollableTextViewRepresentable(text: $text, size: geometry.size)
}
}
}
struct NSScrollableTextViewRepresentable: NSViewRepresentable {
typealias Representable = Self
// Hook this binding up with the parent View
#Binding var text: String
var size: CGSize
// Get the UndoManager
#Environment(\.undoManager) var undoManger
// create an NSTextView
func makeNSView(context: Context) -> NSScrollView {
// create NSTextView inside NSScrollView
let scrollView = NSTextView.scrollableTextView()
let nsTextView = scrollView.documentView as! NSTextView
// use SwiftUI Coordinator as the delegate
nsTextView.delegate = context.coordinator
// set drawsBackground to false (=> clear Background)
// use .background-modifier later with SwiftUI-View
nsTextView.drawsBackground = false
// allow undo/redo
nsTextView.allowsUndo = true
return scrollView
}
func updateNSView(_ scrollView: NSScrollView, context: Context) {
// get wrapped nsTextView
guard let nsTextView = scrollView.documentView as? NSTextView else {
return
}
// fill entire given size
nsTextView.minSize = size
// set NSTextView string from SwiftUI-Binding
nsTextView.string = text
}
// Create Coordinator for this View
func makeCoordinator() -> Coordinator {
Coordinator(self)
}
// Declare nested Coordinator class which conforms to NSTextViewDelegate
class Coordinator: NSObject, NSTextViewDelegate {
var parent: Representable // store reference to parent
init(_ textEditor: Representable) {
self.parent = textEditor
}
// delegate method to retrieve changed text
func textDidChange(_ notification: Notification) {
// check that Notification.name is of expected notification
// cast Notification.object as NSTextView
guard notification.name == NSText.didChangeNotification,
let nsTextView = notification.object as? NSTextView else {
return
}
// set SwiftUI-Binding
parent.text = nsTextView.string
}
// Pass SwiftUI UndoManager to NSTextView
func undoManager(for view: NSTextView) -> UndoManager? {
parent.undoManger
}
// feel free to implement more delegate methods...
}
}
Usage
ContenView: View {
#State private var text: String
var body: some View {
VStack {
Text("Enter your text here:")
CustomizableTextEditor(text: $text)
.background(Color.red)
}
.frame(minWidth: 600, minHeight: 400)
}
}
Edit:
Pass reference to SwiftUI UndoManager so that default undo/redo actions are available.
Wrap NSTextView in NSScrollView so that it is scrollable. Set minSize property of NSTextView to enclosing SwiftUIView-Size so that it fills the entire allowed space.
Caveat: Only first line of this custom TextEditor is clickable to enable text editing.

Answer 6

This works for me on macOS
extension NSTextView {
open override var frame: CGRect {
didSet {
backgroundColor = .clear
drawsBackground = true
}
}
}
struct ContentView: View {
#State var text = ""
var body: some View {
TextEditor(text: $text)
.background(Color.red)
}
Reference this answer

Answer 7

To achieve this visual design here is the code I used.
iOS 16
TextField(
"free_form",
text: $comment,
prompt: Text("Type your feedback..."),
axis: .vertical
)
.lineSpacing(10.0)
.lineLimit(10...)
.padding(16)
.background(Color.themeSeashell)
.cornerRadius(16)
iOS 15
ZStack(alignment: .topLeading) {
RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 16)
.foregroundColor(.gray)
TextEditor(text: $comment)
.padding()
.focused($isFocused)
if !isFocused {
Text("Type your feedback...")
.padding()
}
}
.frame(height: 132)
.onAppear() {
UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear
}

Answer 8

You can use Mojtaba's answer (the approved answer). It works in most cases. However, if you run into this error:
"Return from initializer without initializing all stored properties"
when trying to use the init{ ... } method, try adding UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear to .onAppear{ ... } instead.
Example:
var body: some View {
VStack(alignment: .leading) {
...
}
.onAppear {
UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear
}
}

Answer 9

Using the Introspect library, you can use .introspectTextView for changing the background color.
TextEditor(text: .constant("Placeholder"))
.cornerRadius(8)
.frame(height: 100)
.introspectTextView { textView in
textView.backgroundColor = UIColor(Color.red)
}
Result

Answer 10

import SwiftUI
struct AddCommentView: View {
init() {
UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear
}
var body: some View {
VStack {
if #available(iOS 16.0, *) {
TextEditor(text: $viewModel.commentText)
.scrollContentBackground(.hidden)
} else {
TextEditor(text: $viewModel.commentText)
}
}
.background(Color.blue)
.frame(height: UIScreen.main.bounds.width / 2)
.overlay(
RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 5)
.stroke(Color.red, lineWidth: 1)
)
}
}

Answer 11

It appears the UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear trick in IOS 16,
only works for the first time you open the view and the effect disappear when the second time it loads.
So we need to provide both ways in the app. Answer from StuFF mc works.
var body: some View {
if #available(iOS 16.0, *) {
mainView.scrollContentBackground(.hidden)
} else {
mainView.onAppear {
UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear
}
}
}
// rename body to mainView
var mainView: some View {
TextEditor(text: $notes).background(Color.red)
}