How to change the Color of text in UITabBarItem in iOS 5

Question

with more appearance control in iOS 5, how do we change the UITabBarItem text color ? from default white to other color ?

EDIT:working solution

  [[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:
         [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
          [UIColor blackColor], UITextAttributeTextColor, 
          [UIColor whiteColor], UITextAttributeTextShadowColor, 
          [NSValue valueWithUIOffset:UIOffsetMake(0, 1)], UITextAttributeTextShadowOffset, 
          [UIFont fontWithName:@"Rok" size:0.0], UITextAttributeFont, 
          nil] 
                                              forState:UIControlStateNormal];

Solution 1

Do you mean this one? Keep in mind, this only works for iOS5.0 or later.

if ([self.tabBarItem respondsToSelector:@selector(setTitleTextAttributes:)]) {
    NSLog(@"*** Support method(iOS 5): setTitleTextAttributes:");
    [self.tabBarItem setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                                                [UIFont fontWithName:@"AmericanTypewriter" size:20.0f], UITextAttributeFont,
                                                [UIColor blackColor], UITextAttributeTextColor,
                                                [UIColor grayColor], UITextAttributeTextShadowColor,
                                                [NSValue valueWithUIOffset:UIOffsetMake(0.0f, 1.0f)], UITextAttributeTextShadowOffset,
                                                nil]];
}

Apple's documentation on customizing appearance:

In iOS v5.0 and later, you can customize the appearance of tab bars by setting item label text attributes using appearance selectors declared by UIBarItem. You can also use the methods listed in “Customizing Appearance.” You can customize the appearance of all segmented controls using the appearance proxy (for example, [UITabBarItem appearance]), or just of a single tab bar. You can also provide finished selected and unselected images using the methods listed in “Managing the Finished Selected Image”; these methods, though, do not participate in the UIAppearance proxy API (see UIAppearance). UIKit does now provide any automatic treatment to finished images. For good results, you must provide finished selected and unselected images in matching pairs using setFinishedSelectedImage:withFinishedUnselectedImage:.

Edit: Here is another example using the UIAppearance system and the NSDictionary literal syntax:

[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:@{
                         UITextAttributeFont : [UIFont fontWithName:@"AmericanTypewriter" size:20.0f],
                    UITextAttributeTextColor : [UIColor blackColor],
              UITextAttributeTextShadowColor : [UIColor grayColor],
             UITextAttributeTextShadowOffset : [NSValue valueWithUIOffset:UIOffsetMake(0.0f, 1.0f)]}];

---

Edit (by @JeremyWiebe): As of iOS 6, the dictionary keys have been changed to be the same as OS X uses:

NSShadow *shadow = [[NSShadow alloc] init];
shadow.shadowColor = [UIColor grayColor];
shadow.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0, 1.0);

[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:@{
                         NSFontAttributeName : [UIFont fontWithName:@"AmericanTypewriter" size:20.0f],
              NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor blackColor],
                       NSShadowAttributeName : shadow }];

Solution 2

[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:@{
                             UITextAttributeFont : [UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaNeue-Bold" size:10.0f],
                        UITextAttributeTextColor : [UIColor colorWithRed:0/255.0 green:48/255.0 blue:92/255.0 alpha:1.0],}
                                         forState:UIControlStateNormal];

[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:@{
                             UITextAttributeFont : [UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaNeue-Bold" size:10.0f],
                        UITextAttributeTextColor : [UIColor colorWithRed:0/255.0 green:138/255.0 blue:196/255.0 alpha:1.0],}
                                         forState:UIControlStateSelected];

Solution 3

UITextAttributeFont, UITextAttributeTextColor etc. are deprecated in iOS 7.0.

You have to use:

NSFontAttributeName, NSParagraphStyleAttributeName, NSForegroundColorAttributeName, NSBackgroundColorAttributeName, NSLigatureAttributeName, NSKernAttributeName, NSStrikethroughStyleAttributeName, NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName, NSStrokeColorAttributeName,  NSStrokeWidthAttributeName, NSShadowAttributeName and NSVerticalGlyphFormAttributeName

Solution 4

Specifically for iOS 7, try using NSForegroundColorAttributeName instead of UITextAttributeTextColor

Solution 5

Working solution for iOS 7.0+:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
    [[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
    [UIColor redColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName,
    nil] forState:UIControlStateNormal];

    [[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
    [UIColor whiteColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName,
    nil] forState:UIControlStateSelected];
}

View more solutions

Comments

[Bhavin]

Behavior of some properties have changed from iOS 7.

[Kjuly]

@Desmond It can't be set in iOS4 as far as I know. However, you can customize your tabBar to do so. You can try THIS. It works excellent. ;)

[Desmond]

hi kjuly, thanks for the quick reply. i'm setting this in my app delegate with error.

[Desmond]

[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys: [UIFont fontWithName:@"AmericanTypewriter" size:20.0f], UITextAttributeFont, [UIColor blackColor], UITextAttributeTextColor, [UIColor grayColor], UITextAttributeTextShadowColor, [NSValue valueWithUIOffset:UIOffsetMake(0.0f, 1.0f)], UITextAttributeTextShadowOffset, nil]];

[Desmond]

Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[_UIBarItemAppearance setTitleTextAttributes:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x82773d0'

[Kjuly]

@Desmond what's your build target? :? Does [self.tabBarItem setTitleTextAttributes: work?

[Desmond]

[[UINavigationBar appearance] setTitleTextAttributes: [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys: [UIFont fontWithName:@"Rokkitt" size:26.0], UITextAttributeFont, nil]]; worked

[Desmond]

for my nav bar, build target iOS 5.0

[Kjuly]

@Desmond you're welcome! BTW, what cause your new error? I'm wondering. :p

[Desmond]

not too sure, i retype it instead of copying, add in forState:UIControlStateNormal too

[Desmond]

by the way how do i remove dropshadow and gradient from the tabbar icons ?

[Kjuly]

@Desmond Maybe you can set tintColor for it just like for navigationBar. I've not tried yet. :p

[Kjuly]

@Desmond HERE's an interesting post.

[Ashish Ramani]

1 up for simple and effective answer