# How do I place NSTextField at an x, y, point?

**URL:** <https://forums.swift.org/t/how-do-i-place-nstextfield-at-an-x-y-point/63456>\
**Category:** Using Swift\
**Tags:** off-topic\
**Created:** [March 1, 2023, 4:08pm UTC](https://forums.swift.org/t/how-do-i-place-nstextfield-at-an-x-y-point/63456 "2023-03-01T16:08:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Keith23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@Keith23](https://forums.swift.org/u/Keith23)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 4:08pm UTC](https://forums.swift.org/t/how-do-i-place-nstextfield-at-an-x-y-point/63456/1 "2023-03-01T16:08:45Z")

</div>

This seems like a simple question for this group, but I haven’t been able to find the answer via other searches.

Using Swift and a macOS application, I created a view and a class called Draw1 that inherits from NSView

It begins with the statement,

class Draw1: NSView {…

In Draw1 I am using NSBezierPath(), move(…), line(…) and stroke(…) to add lines in specific locations.

Now, I need to add some text at specific x and y points in the view.

I started with..

let S1 = NSTextField()  
S1.stringValue = "ABC"  
S1.textColor = .black  
S1.display()

These statements compile without errors.

I need something that does the same thing for the NSTextField as the move and line and stroke statements do for the lines.

How can I place S1 at a specific x,y location in the view?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gavin\_Eadie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/swift/user_avatar/forums.swift.org/gavin_eadie/32/40830_2.png) [@Gavin\_Eadie](https://forums.swift.org/u/Gavin_Eadie)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 10:34pm UTC](https://forums.swift.org/t/how-do-i-place-nstextfield-at-an-x-y-point/63456/2 "2023-03-01T22:34:56Z")

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.. does this existing extension to `NSString` do what you want (it's not a `NSTextField`, but do you care)?

```swift
extension NSString {
    @available(macOS 10.0, *)
    open func draw(at point: NSPoint, withAttributes attrs: [NSAttributedString.Key : Any]? = nil): NSRect, withAttributes attrs: [NSAttributedString.Key : Any]? = nil)
}

```

Your text color (font, etc) would be set via the `withAttributes` parameter, so:

```swift
NSString("ABC").draw(at: CGPoint(x: . . , y: . .),
      withAttributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: Color.black])

```

[this was extracted from some old code .. there may be prettier equivalent now]

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Keith23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@Keith23](https://forums.swift.org/u/Keith23)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 2:06am UTC](https://forums.swift.org/t/how-do-i-place-nstextfield-at-an-x-y-point/63456/3 "2023-03-02T02:06:26Z")

</div>

Thank you !!!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Keith23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@Keith23](https://forums.swift.org/u/Keith23)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 1:59pm UTC](https://forums.swift.org/t/how-do-i-place-nstextfield-at-an-x-y-point/63456/4 "2023-03-02T13:59:23Z")

</div>

I appreciate the assistance from Gavin\_Eadie. He pointed out that, what he posted, was old code. Fortunately, because of those comments, and that code, I was able to find code that works for me in macOS Swift 5. This ability to place text at a specific point of a view is very important for my project that builds geometric shapes, with labels, based on an equation.

In the interest of leaving this with a complete record, here are four examples of statements that worked in macOS Swift 5.

let S1: String = "ABC"

NSString(string: S1).draw(at: CGPoint(x: 100, y: 50))

let I1: Int = 42  
let S2 = String(I1)  
NSString(string: S2).draw(at: CGPoint(x: 200, y: 50))

NSString(string: S2).draw(at: CGPoint(x: 300, y: 50), withAttributes:[NSAttributedString.Key .foregroundColor: NSColor.red])

NSString(string: S2).draw(at: CGPoint(x: 400, y: 50), withAttributes:[NSAttributedString.Key .foregroundColor: NSColor.black, .font: NSFont(name: "Helvetica", size: 24)!])