iphone - Adding a CGGradient as sublayer to UILabel hides the text of label

Question

I want to add the gradient as a background to label. I used the following code to acheive that. but the problem is that though the gradient color appears on the label, but the text is not visible. please help

lblPatientDetail.text=PatientsDetails;

lblPatientDetail.textColor=[UIColor blackColor];  

CAGradientLayer *gradient = [CAGradientLayer layer];
gradient.frame = lblPatientDetail.bounds;
gradient.colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:(id)[[UIColor whiteColor] CGColor],(id)[[UIColor colorWithRed:255/255.0 green:239/255.0 blue:215/255.0 alpha:1.0] CGColor],nil];  

[lblPatientDetail.layer addSublayer:gradient];

lblPatientDetail.backgroundColor=[UIColor clearColor];

Answer 1

Inserting a sublayer to a UILabel hides the text, so the best way to get what you want is to add the label and gradient layer to a UIView.

UIView *gradientLabelView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 100, 30)];

CAGradientLayer *gradient = [CAGradientLayer layer];
gradient.frame = gradientLabelView.bounds;
gradient.colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:(id)[[UIColor whiteColor] CGColor],(id)[[UIColor colorWithRed:255/255.0 green:239/255.0 blue:215/255.0 alpha:1.0] CGColor],nil];

[gradientLabelView.layer addSublayer:gradient];

lblPatientDetail.frame = gradientLabelView.bounds;
lblPatientDetail.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
[gradientLabelView addSubview:lblPatientDetail];

[self addSubview:gradientLabelView];