Question

To add a UILabel to a table cell I use

UILabel *timeLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(270, 10, 40, 12)];
timeLabel.text = @"2s";
timeLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
timeLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:12];
timeLabel.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
timeLabel.highlightedTextColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
timeLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentRight;
timeLabel.frame = CGRectIntegral(timeLabel.frame);
[cell.contentView addSubview:timeLabel]; 

in - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath.

This works fine until I scroll the table or select a cell. Then the label becomes pixelated.

At load:

after action:

I also tried to add the label by subclassing UITableViewCell and load it in
- (void) layoutSubviews.

I already found related questions here and here but nothing worked.

EDIT: It’s not possible to use the standard cell labels since they’re already in use. I need to add an additional label.

Answer 1

I finally got it working with a dirty fix.

In – (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

I set

cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone;.

In a subclass of UITableViewCell I load the timeLabel in initWithStyle as follows:

timeLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(270, 10, 40, 12)];
timeLabel.text = @"2s";
timeLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
timeLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:12];
timeLabel.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
timeLabel.highlightedTextColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
timeLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentRight;
[self.contentView addSubview:timeLabel];

then I override these two functions:

#define UIColorFromRGB(rgbValue) [UIColor colorWithRed:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 green:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255.0 blue:((float)(rgbValue & 0xFF))/255.0 alpha:1.0]

- (void)setHighlighted:(BOOL)highlighted animated:(BOOL)animated
{
    if(highlighted == YES){
        UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"[e-mail]"];
        //scale custom cell background to necessary height
        UIImage *scaledImage = [image scaleToSize:CGSizeMake(1,self.contentView.frame.size.height)];
        //set cell background
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithPatternImage:scaledImage];
        //set textcolor for default labels
        self.textLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        self.detailTextLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        //set textcolor for custom label
        timeLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor]; 
        //cope background for custom label background since timeLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor] doesnt work
        CGImageRef ref = CGImageCreateWithImageInRect(scaledImage.CGImage, CGRectMake(0, 10, 12, 20));
        UIImage *img = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:ref];
        //set custom label background
        timeLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithPatternImage:img];
    } else {
        //set unselected colors
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        self.textLabel.textColor = [UIColor darkGrayColor];
        self.detailTextLabel.textColor = UIColorFromRGB(0x808080);
        timeLabel.textColor = UIColorFromRGB(0x808080);
        //white background works without the label pixelates
        timeLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    }
}

- (void)setSelected:(BOOL)selected animated:(BOOL)animated
{
    if(selected == YES){
        UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"[e-mail]"];
        UIImage *scaledImage = [image scaleToSize:CGSizeMake(1,self.contentView.frame.size.height)];
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithPatternImage:scaledImage];
        self.textLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        self.detailTextLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        timeLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        CGImageRef ref = CGImageCreateWithImageInRect(scaledImage.CGImage, CGRectMake(0, 10, 12, 20));
        UIImage *img = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:ref];  
        timeLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithPatternImage:img];
    } else {
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        self.textLabel.textColor = [UIColor darkGrayColor];
        self.detailTextLabel.textColor = UIColorFromRGB(0x808080);
        timeLabel.textColor = UIColorFromRGB(0x808080);
        timeLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    }
}

hope this helps some people!