还有一个简单的答案，使用CATextLayer。

添加CATextLayer到UITextView的层。 使用UITextViewDelegate方法，简单地改变CATextLayer的颜色。

func txtViewPlaceholder() {
    let textlayer = CATextLayer()

    textlayer.frame = CGRect(x: 5, y: 5, width: 200, height: 18)
    textlayer.contentsScale = UIScreen.main.scale
    textlayer.fontSize = 12
    textlayer.alignmentMode = kCAAlignmentLeft
    textlayer.string = "Enter here"
    textlayer.isWrapped = true
    textlayer.name = "placeholder"
    textlayer.backgroundColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
    textlayer.foregroundColor = UIColor.black.cgColor

    yourTxtVw.layer.insertSublayer(textlayer, at: 0)
}

func removeAddPlaceholder(remove: Bool, textView: UITextView) {
    for layers in textView.layer.sublayers! where layers.name == "placeholder" {
        
        if remove {
            (layers as! CATextLayer).foregroundColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
        } else {
            (layers as! CATextLayer).foregroundColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
        }
        
    }
}


extension YourViewController : UITextViewDelegate {

    func textViewShouldBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) -> Bool {
    
        removeAddPlaceholder(remove: true, textView: textView)
    
        return true
    }

    func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
    
        if textView.text.count <= 0 {
            removeAddPlaceholder(remove: false, textView: textView)
        }
    }

}

TextView占位符

import UIKit

@IBDesignable
open class KMPlaceholderTextView: UITextView {

    private struct Constants {
        static let defaultiOSPlaceholderColor = UIColor(red: 0.0, green: 0.0, blue: 0.0980392, alpha: 0.22)
    }

    public let placeholderLabel: UILabel = UILabel()

    private var placeholderLabelConstraints = [NSLayoutConstraint]()

    @IBInspectable open var placeholder: String = "" {
        didSet {
            placeholderLabel.text = placeholder
        }
    }

    @IBInspectable open var placeholderColor: UIColor = KMPlaceholderTextView.Constants.defaultiOSPlaceholderColor {
        didSet {
            placeholderLabel.textColor = placeholderColor
        }
    }

    override open var font: UIFont! {
        didSet {
            if placeholderFont == nil {
                placeholderLabel.font = font
            }
        }
    }

    open var placeholderFont: UIFont? {
        didSet {
            let font = (placeholderFont != nil) ? placeholderFont : self.font
            placeholderLabel.font = font
        }
    }

    override open var textAlignment: NSTextAlignment {
        didSet {
            placeholderLabel.textAlignment = textAlignment
        }
    }

    override open var text: String! {
        didSet {
            textDidChange()
        }
    }

    override open var attributedText: NSAttributedString! {
        didSet {
            textDidChange()
        }
    }

    override open var textContainerInset: UIEdgeInsets {
        didSet {
            updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel()
        }
    }

    override public init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
        super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
        commonInit()
    }

    required public init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        commonInit()
    }

    private func commonInit() {
        #if swift(>=4.2)
        let notificationName = UITextView.textDidChangeNotification
        #else
        let notificationName = NSNotification.Name.UITextView.textDidChangeNotification
        #endif

        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self,
                                               selector: #selector(textDidChange),
                                               name: notificationName,
                                               object: nil)

        placeholderLabel.font = font
        placeholderLabel.textColor = placeholderColor
        placeholderLabel.textAlignment = textAlignment
        placeholderLabel.text = placeholder
        placeholderLabel.numberOfLines = 0
        placeholderLabel.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
        placeholderLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        addSubview(placeholderLabel)
        updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel()
    }

    private func updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel() {
        var newConstraints = NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: "H:|-(\(textContainerInset.left + textContainer.lineFragmentPadding))-[placeholder]",
            options: [],
            metrics: nil,
            views: ["placeholder": placeholderLabel])
        newConstraints += NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: "V:|-(\(textContainerInset.top))-[placeholder]",
            options: [],
            metrics: nil,
            views: ["placeholder": placeholderLabel])
        newConstraints.append(NSLayoutConstraint(
            item: placeholderLabel,
            attribute: .width,
            relatedBy: .equal,
            toItem: self,
            attribute: .width,
            multiplier: 1.0,
            constant: -(textContainerInset.left + textContainerInset.right + textContainer.lineFragmentPadding * 2.0)
        ))
        removeConstraints(placeholderLabelConstraints)
        addConstraints(newConstraints)
        placeholderLabelConstraints = newConstraints
    }

    @objc private func textDidChange() {
        placeholderLabel.isHidden = !text.isEmpty
        self.layoutIfNeeded()
    }

    open override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()
        placeholderLabel.preferredMaxLayoutWidth = textContainer.size.width - textContainer.lineFragmentPadding * 2.0
    }

    deinit {
        #if swift(>=4.2)
        let notificationName = UITextView.textDidChangeNotification
        #else
        let notificationName = NSNotification.Name.UITextView.textDidChangeNotification
        #endif

        NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self,
                                                  name: notificationName,
                                                  object: nil)
    }

}

使用

After looking through (and trying out) most of the proposed solutions to this seemingly obvious - but missing - feature of UITextView, the 'best' closest I found was that from BobDickinson. But I didnt like having to resort to a whole new subclass [I prefer drop-in categories for such simple functional additions], nor that it intercepted UITextViewDelegate methods, which is probably going to mess up your existing UITextView handling code. So here's my take on a drop-in category that'll work on any existing UITextView instance...

#import <objc/runtime.h>

// Private subclass needed to override placeholderRectForBounds: to correctly position placeholder
@interface _TextField : UITextField
@property UIEdgeInsets insets;
@end
@implementation _TextField
- (CGRect)placeholderRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds
{
    CGRect rect = [super placeholderRectForBounds:bounds];
    return UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(rect, _insets);
}
@end

@implementation UITextView (Placeholder)

static const void *KEY;

- (void)setPlaceholder:(NSString *)placeholder
{
    _TextField *textField = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY);
    if (!textField) {
        textField = [_TextField.alloc initWithFrame:self.bounds];
        textField.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
        textField.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
        textField.font = self.font;

        textField.contentVerticalAlignment = UIControlContentVerticalAlignmentTop;
        textField.insets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(self.textContainerInset.top,
                                            self.textContainerInset.left + self.textContainer.lineFragmentPadding,
                                            self.textContainerInset.bottom,
                                            self.textContainerInset.right);
        [self addSubview:textField];
        [self sendSubviewToBack:textField];

        objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &KEY, textField, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN);

        [NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter addObserver:self selector:@selector(updatePlaceholder:) name:UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object:nil];
    }
    textField.placeholder = placeholder;
}

- (NSString*)placeholder
{
    UITextField *textField = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY);
    return textField.placeholder;
}

- (void)updatePlaceholder:(NSNotification *)notification
{
    UITextField *textField = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY);
    textField.font = self.font;
    [textField setAlpha:self.text.length? 0 : 1];
}

@end

它使用简单，只是显而易见的

UITextView *myTextView = UITextView.new;
...
myTextView.placeholder = @"enter text here";

它通过添加一个UITextField -在正确的位置-在你的UITextView后面，并利用它的占位符代替(因此你不必担心得到正确的颜色等)，然后监听通知，每当你的UITextView被改变显示/隐藏这个UITextField(因此它不会干扰你现有的UITextViewDelegate调用)。这里面没有什么神奇的数字……: -)

objc_setAssociatedObject()/objc_getAssociatedObject()是为了避免必须子类化UITextView。[不幸的是，要正确地定位UITextField，有必要引入一个'private'子类，以覆盖placeholderRectForBounds:]

改编自BobDickinson的斯威夫特回答。

我做了我自己版本的UITextView的子类。我喜欢Sam Soffes使用通知的想法，但我不喜欢drawRect: overwrite。对我来说太过分了。我认为我做了一个非常干净的实现。

你可以看看我的子类。还包括一个演示项目。

这里有一个简单而聪明的方法来获得完美的行为。

让我们借用UITextField中的占位符。

Set up a textField and set its text transparent. self.placeholderTextField = [[UITextField alloc] init]; /* adjust the frame to fit it in the first line of your textView */ self.placeholderTextField.frame = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, yourTextView.width, 30.0); self.placeholderTextField.textColor = [UIColor clearColor]; self.placeholderTextField.userInteractionEnabled = NO; self.placeholderTextField.font = yourTextView.font; self.placeholderTextField.placeholder = @"sample placeholder"; [yourTextView addSubview:self.placeholderTextField]; Set textView's delegate and synchronize the textField and textView. yourTextView.delegate = self; then - (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView { self.placeholderTextField.text = textView.text; } That's all.

我刚刚发现，在iOS 10中，你现在可以将UITextView转换为方法的UITextField，并在方法中设置占位符。刚试过，它不需要子类化UITextView就能工作。

下面是一个对我有用的例子:

-(void)customizeTextField:(UITextField *)textField placeholder:(NSString *)pText withColor:(UIColor *)pTextColor{

        textField.attributedPlaceholder = [[NSAttributedString alloc]
                                          initWithString:pText
                                          attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName:pTextColor}];
    }

为了将它用于UITextView，你只需要将它传递给方法，使用像这样的类型转换:

[self customizeTextField:(UITextField*)_myTextView placeholder:@"Placeholder" withColor:[UIColor blackColor]];

注:经过测试，我发现这个解决方案在iOS9上也很好。但是会在iOS8.x上导致崩溃