我建议使用SZTextView。

https://github.com/glaszig/SZTextView

从storyboard中添加默认的UITextView，然后将其自定义类更改为SZTextView，如下所示

然后您将在属性检查器中看到两个新选项

我用swift写了一个类。您可以在需要时导入这个类。

import UIKit

public class CustomTextView： UITextView {

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

private var placeholderLabelConstraints = [NSLayoutConstraint]()

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

@IBInspectable public var placeholderColor: UIColor = CustomTextView.Constants.defaultiOSPlaceholderColor {
    didSet {
        placeholderLabel.textColor = placeholderColor
    }
}

override public var font: UIFont! {
    didSet {
        placeholderLabel.font = font
    }
}

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

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

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

override public 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() {
    NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self,
                                                     selector: #selector(textDidChange),
                                                     name: UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification,
                                                     object: nil)

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

private func updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel() {
    var newConstraints = NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("H:|-(\(textContainerInset.left + textContainer.lineFragmentPadding))-[placeholder]",
                                                                        options: [],
                                                                        metrics: nil,
                                                                        views: ["placeholder": placeholderLabel])
    newConstraints += NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("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.hidden = !text.isEmpty
}

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

deinit {
    NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().removeObserver(self,
                                                        name: UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification,
                                                        object: nil)
}

}

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。

我通读了所有这些，但提出了一个非常简短的Swift 3解决方案，在我的所有测试中都有效。它可以更一般化一点，但过程很简单。这是整个东西，我称之为“TextViewWithPlaceholder”。

import UIKit

class TextViewWithPlaceholder: UITextView {

    public var placeholder: String?
    public var placeholderColor = UIColor.lightGray

    private var placeholderLabel: UILabel?

    // Set up notification listener when created from a XIB or storyboard.
    // You can also set up init() functions if you plan on creating
    // these programmatically.
    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()

        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self,
                                           selector: #selector(TextViewWithPlaceholder.textDidChangeHandler(notification:)),
                                           name: .UITextViewTextDidChange,
                                           object: self)

        placeholderLabel = UILabel()
        placeholderLabel?.alpha = 0.85
        placeholderLabel?.textColor = placeholderColor
    }

    // By using layoutSubviews, you can size and position the placeholder
    // more accurately. I chose to hard-code the size of the placeholder
    // but you can combine this with other techniques shown in previous replies.
    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()

        placeholderLabel?.textColor = placeholderColor
        placeholderLabel?.text = placeholder

        placeholderLabel?.frame = CGRect(x: 6, y: 4, width: self.bounds.size.width-16, height: 24)

        if text.isEmpty {
            addSubview(placeholderLabel!)
            bringSubview(toFront: placeholderLabel!)
        } else {
            placeholderLabel?.removeFromSuperview()
        }
    }

    // Whenever the text changes, just trigger a new layout pass.
    func textDidChangeHandler(notification: Notification) {
        layoutSubviews()
    }
}

基于这里已经给出的一些很好的建议，我能够将以下轻量级的、与接口生成器兼容的UITextView子类组合在一起，它是:

包括可配置的占位符文本，样式就像UITextField一样。 不需要任何额外的子视图或约束。 不需要来自ViewController的任何委托或其他行为。 不需要任何通知。 保持该文本与查看字段的文本属性的任何外部类完全分离。

欢迎提出改进建议。

编辑1:更新为重置占位符格式，如果实际文本以编程方式设置。

编辑2:现在可以以编程方式检索占位符文本颜色。

斯威夫特v5:

import UIKit
@IBDesignable class TextViewWithPlaceholder: UITextView {
    
    override var text: String! { // Ensures that the placeholder text is never returned as the field's text
        get {
            if showingPlaceholder {
                return "" // When showing the placeholder, there's no real text to return
            } else { return super.text }
        }
        set {
            if showingPlaceholder {
                removePlaceholderFormatting() // If the placeholder text is what's being changed, it's no longer the placeholder
            }
            super.text = newValue
        }
    }
    @IBInspectable var placeholderText: String = ""
    @IBInspectable var placeholderTextColor: UIColor = .placeholderText
    private var showingPlaceholder: Bool = true // Keeps track of whether the field is currently showing a placeholder
    
    override func didMoveToWindow() {
        super.didMoveToWindow()
        if text.isEmpty {
            showPlaceholderText() // Load up the placeholder text when first appearing, but not if coming back to a view where text was already entered
        }
    }
    
    override public func becomeFirstResponder() -> Bool {
        
        // If the current text is the placeholder, remove it
        if showingPlaceholder {
            text = nil
            removePlaceholderFormatting()
        }
        return super.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
    
    override public func resignFirstResponder() -> Bool {
        
        // If there's no text, put the placeholder back
        if text.isEmpty {
            showPlaceholderText()
        }
        return super.resignFirstResponder()
    }
    
    private func showPlaceholderText() {
        
        text = placeholderText
        showingPlaceholder = true
        textColor = placeholderTextColor
    }
    
    private func removePlaceholderFormatting() {
        
        showingPlaceholder = false
        textColor = nil // Put the text back to the default, unmodified color
    }
}

这完美地模仿了UITextField的占位符，其中占位符文本一直保留到您实际键入一些内容为止。

private let placeholder = "Type here"

@IBOutlet weak var textView: UITextView! {
    didSet {
        textView.textColor = UIColor.lightGray
        textView.text = placeholder
        textView.selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
    }
}

extension ViewController: UITextViewDelegate {

    func textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView) {
        // Move cursor to beginning on first tap
        if textView.text == placeholder {
            textView.selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
        }
    }

    func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
        if textView.text == placeholder && !text.isEmpty {
            textView.text = nil
            textView.textColor = UIColor.black
            textView.selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
        }
        return true
    }

    func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if textView.text.isEmpty {
            textView.textColor = UIColor.lightGray
            textView.text = placeholder
        }
    }
}