我喜欢@nerdist的解决方案。在此基础上，我创建了UITextView的扩展:

import Foundation
import UIKit

extension UITextView
{
  private func add(_ placeholder: UILabel) {
    for view in self.subviews {
        if let lbl = view as? UILabel  {
            if lbl.text == placeholder.text {
                lbl.removeFromSuperview()
            }
        }
    }
    self.addSubview(placeholder)
  }

  func addPlaceholder(_ placeholder: UILabel?) {
    if let ph = placeholder {
      ph.numberOfLines = 0  // support for multiple lines
      ph.font = UIFont.italicSystemFont(ofSize: (self.font?.pointSize)!)
      ph.sizeToFit()
      self.add(ph)
      ph.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: 5, y: (self.font?.pointSize)! / 2)
      ph.textColor = UIColor(white: 0, alpha: 0.3)
      updateVisibility(ph)
    }
  }

  func updateVisibility(_ placeHolder: UILabel?) {
    if let ph = placeHolder {
      ph.isHidden = !self.text.isEmpty
    }
  }
}

例如，在ViewController类中，我是这样使用它的:

class MyViewController: UIViewController, UITextViewDelegate {
  private var notePlaceholder: UILabel!
  @IBOutlet weak var txtNote: UITextView!
  ...
  // UIViewController
  override func viewDidLoad() {
    notePlaceholder = UILabel()
    notePlaceholder.text = "title\nsubtitle\nmore..."
    txtNote.addPlaceholder(notePlaceholder)
    ...
  }

  // UITextViewDelegate
  func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) {
    txtNote.updateVisbility(notePlaceholder)
    ...
  }

UITextview的占位符!

更新:

如果你在代码中改变textview的文本，记得调用updateVisibitly方法来隐藏占位符:

txtNote.text = "something in code"
txtNote.updateVisibility(self.notePlaceholder) // hide placeholder if text is not empty.

为了防止占位符被添加多次，在扩展中添加了一个私有add()函数。

import UIKit
import RxSwift

@IBDesignable class TextViewWithPlaceholder: UITextView {
    
    //MARK: - Propertise
    @IBInspectable var placeholderText: String = ""
    
    let placeholderLabel = LocalizedUILabel()
    private let hidePlaceholderObserver = PublishSubject<Bool>()
    let disposeBag = DisposeBag()
    
    
    //MARK: - Did Move To Window
    override func didMoveToWindow() {
        super.didMoveToWindow()
        observeOnTextViewEditing()
        configurePlaceholder()
    }
    
    
    //MARK: - Observe On Text View Editing
    private func observeOnTextViewEditing() {
        rx.text.subscribe(onNext: { [weak self] selectedText in
            guard let self = self else { return }
            self.hidePlaceholderObserver.onNext((selectedText?.isEmpty ?? true) ? false : true)
            
        }).disposed(by: disposeBag)
    }
    
    
    //MARK: - Observe On Show Hide Placeholder
    private func configurePlaceholder() {
        hidePlaceholderObserver
            .bind(to: placeholderLabel.rx.isHidden)
            .disposed(by: disposeBag)
        
        placeholderLabel.text = placeholderText
        placeholderLabel.font = UIFont(name: "Poppins-Semibold", size: 16) ?? UIFont()
        placeholderLabel.textColor = .lightGray
        
        placeholderLabel.sizeToFit()
        placeholderLabel.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: 8, y: 8)
        addSubview(placeholderLabel)
    }
    
}

在swift2.2:

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)
}

}

在swift3:

import UIKit

类 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() {
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self,
                                                     selector: #selector(textDidChange),
                                                     name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
                                                     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
}

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

deinit {
    NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self,
                                                        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
                                                        object: nil)
}

}

我用swift写了一个类。您需要在需要的时候导入这个类。

我通过使用两个不同的文本视图来做到这一点:

一个在后台用作占位符。 一个在前台(具有透明背景)，用户实际输入。

其思想是，一旦用户开始在前景视图中输入内容，后台的占位符就会消失(如果用户删除了所有内容，则会重新出现)。因此，它的行为完全类似于单行文本字段的占位符。

这是我用的代码。注意，descriptionField是用户键入的字段，descriptionPlaceholder是后台的字段。

func textViewDidChange(descriptionField: UITextView) {
    if descriptionField.text.isEmpty == false {
        descriptionPlaceholder.text = ""
    } else {
        descriptionPlaceholder.text = descriptionPlaceholderText
    }
}

我很惊讶没有人提到NSTextStorageDelegate。UITextViewDelegate的方法只能由用户交互触发，而不是以编程方式触发。例如，当你以编程方式设置一个文本视图的文本属性时，你必须自己设置占位符的可见性，因为委派方法不会被调用。

然而，使用NSTextStorageDelegate的textStorage(_:didProcessEditing:range:changeInLength:)方法，你会收到任何文本更改的通知，即使它是通过编程完成的。就像这样分配它:

textView.textStorage.delegate = self

(在UITextView中，这个委派属性默认为nil，所以它不会影响任何默认行为。)

将它与@clearlight演示的UILabel技术结合起来，可以轻松地将整个UITextView的占位符实现包装成一个扩展。

extension UITextView {

    private class PlaceholderLabel: UILabel { }

    private var placeholderLabel: PlaceholderLabel {
        if let label = subviews.compactMap( { $0 as? PlaceholderLabel }).first {
            return label
        } else {
            let label = PlaceholderLabel(frame: .zero)
            label.font = font
            addSubview(label)
            return label
        }
    }

    @IBInspectable
    var placeholder: String {
        get {
            return subviews.compactMap( { $0 as? PlaceholderLabel }).first?.text ?? ""
        }
        set {
            let placeholderLabel = self.placeholderLabel
            placeholderLabel.text = newValue
            placeholderLabel.numberOfLines = 0
            let width = frame.width - textContainer.lineFragmentPadding * 2
            let size = placeholderLabel.sizeThatFits(CGSize(width: width, height: .greatestFiniteMagnitude))
            placeholderLabel.frame.size.height = size.height
            placeholderLabel.frame.size.width = width
            placeholderLabel.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: textContainer.lineFragmentPadding, y: textContainerInset.top)

            textStorage.delegate = self
        }
    }

}

extension UITextView: NSTextStorageDelegate {

    public func textStorage(_ textStorage: NSTextStorage, didProcessEditing editedMask: NSTextStorageEditActions, range editedRange: NSRange, changeInLength delta: Int) {
        if editedMask.contains(.editedCharacters) {
            placeholderLabel.isHidden = !text.isEmpty
        }
    }

}

注意，使用了一个名为PlaceholderLabel的私有(嵌套)类。它根本没有实现，但它为我们提供了一种识别占位符标签的方法，这比使用tag属性要“快捷”得多。

使用这种方法，你仍然可以将UITextView的委托分配给其他人。

你甚至不需要改变文本视图的类。只要添加扩展，你就可以为项目中的每个UITextView分配一个占位符字符串，甚至在接口生成器中也是如此。

出于清晰的原因，我省略了placeholderColor属性的实现，但是它可以用与placeholder类似的计算变量在多几行中实现。

Swift 4更新

UITextView本身没有占位符属性，所以你必须用UITextViewDelegate方法来创建和操作一个。我建议使用下面的解决方案#1或#2，这取决于所需的行为。

注意:对于任何一种解决方案，都需要将UITextViewDelegate添加到类中，并设置textView.delegate = self来使用文本视图的委托方法。

解决方案#1 -如果你想让占位符在用户选择文本视图时立即消失:

首先将UITextView设置为包含占位符文本，并将其设置为浅灰色，以模拟UITextField的占位符文本的外观。要么在viewDidLoad中这样做，要么在文本视图创建时这样做。

textView.text = "Placeholder"
textView.textColor = UIColor.lightGray

然后，当用户开始编辑文本视图时，如果文本视图包含一个占位符(即，如果其文本颜色是浅灰色)，则清除占位符文本，并将文本颜色设置为黑色，以便容纳用户的输入。

func textViewDidBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
    if textView.textColor == UIColor.lightGray {
        textView.text = nil
        textView.textColor = UIColor.black
    }
}

然后，当用户完成编辑文本视图并将其作为第一响应器时，如果文本视图为空，则通过重新添加占位符文本并将其颜色设置为浅灰色来重置其占位符。

func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
    if textView.text.isEmpty {
        textView.text = "Placeholder"
        textView.textColor = UIColor.lightGray
    }
}

解决方案#2 -如果你想要占位符显示文本视图是空的，即使文本视图被选中:

首先在viewDidLoad中设置占位符:

textView.text = "Placeholder"
textView.textColor = UIColor.lightGray

textView.becomeFirstResponder()

textView.selectedTextRange = textView.textRange(from: textView.beginningOfDocument, to: textView.beginningOfDocument)

(注意:由于OP希望在视图加载时立即选择文本视图，所以我将文本视图选择合并到上面的代码中。如果这不是你想要的行为，你不希望在视图加载时选择文本视图，从上面的代码块中删除最后两行。)

然后使用shouldChangeTextInRange UITextViewDelegate方法，如下所示:

func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {

    // Combine the textView text and the replacement text to
    // create the updated text string
    let currentText:String = textView.text
    let updatedText = (currentText as NSString).replacingCharacters(in: range, with: text)

    // If updated text view will be empty, add the placeholder
    // and set the cursor to the beginning of the text view
    if updatedText.isEmpty {

        textView.text = "Placeholder"
        textView.textColor = UIColor.lightGray

        textView.selectedTextRange = textView.textRange(from: textView.beginningOfDocument, to: textView.beginningOfDocument)
    }

    // Else if the text view's placeholder is showing and the
    // length of the replacement string is greater than 0, set 
    // the text color to black then set its text to the
    // replacement string
     else if textView.textColor == UIColor.lightGray && !text.isEmpty {
        textView.textColor = UIColor.black
        textView.text = text
    }

    // For every other case, the text should change with the usual
    // behavior...
    else {
        return true
    }

    // ...otherwise return false since the updates have already
    // been made
    return false
}

也实现textViewDidChangeSelection，以防止用户改变光标的位置，而占位符是可见的。(注意:textViewDidChangeSelection在视图加载之前被调用，所以如果窗口是可见的，只检查文本视图的颜色):

func textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView) {
    if self.view.window != nil {
        if textView.textColor == UIColor.lightGray {
            textView.selectedTextRange = textView.textRange(from: textView.beginningOfDocument, to: textView.beginningOfDocument)
        }
    }
}