How to make completely transparent navigation bar in iOS 7

Question

I want the UINavigationBar in my app to be completely transparent and flush with the viewcontroller directly under it. However, the only code I could find makes it translucent but not transparent. I know this can be done in iOS 7 because it is used in the notes app. My question is, what is the code they used to do it?

Alec

Answer 1

From this answer

[self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage new]
                     forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
self.navigationController.navigationBar.shadowImage = [UIImage new];
self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = YES;
self.navigationController.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
self.navigationController.navigationBar.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

Also, as suggested by Josh in the comments, to put the bar back to default:

[self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:nil
                     forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];

Dezhnev

When I do it (in a UIViewController), I have to change the code to say self.navigationController.navigationBar and all it does is change the bar to black. – Alec

That code should be fine. It may just be the background colour, try adding self.navigationController.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor]; – Dezhnev

Also make sure you dont have self.edgesForExtendedLayout = UIRectEdgeNone; – Gustav

Is there a way to reverse this? – Gypsie

@Gypsie [self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:nil forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault]; will put the bar back to default. – Kolnos

And if you need to change the color of the text once you've made your nav bar transparent, add self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor whiteColor]; – Belong

Works also on iOS 6.1 – Caldeira

This causes the navigationBar to show a black image for a second while navigation back it to. Is there a way to solve that? – Spracklen

Is there any way to toggle navigation bar's transparency animated using this method? – Untune

I implement this on scrollViewDidScroll and there's a jump. How to fix? – Mannes

Thanks Shahid, I have edited the answer to include reversing the effect. – Dezhnev

I used the accepted answer, the nav bar became transparent but the page scroll causes a jump on uipagecontroller, any suggestions on how that can be fixed? – Cherise

Why my navigation color changed to black after this code applies? :( – Peipus

Answer 2

For Swift3 and Swift4

self.navigationController?.navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UIImage(), for: .default)
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.isTranslucent = true

For Swift2.2

 self.navigationController?.navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UIImage(), forBarMetrics: .Default)
 self.navigationController?.navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()
 self.navigationController?.navigationBar.translucent = true

For Objective-C

[self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage new] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
self.navigationController.navigationBar.shadowImage = [UIImage new];
self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = YES;

Dabber

Thanks this is an easy way to set the navigation bar to totally transparent – Doxology

Answer 3

Self contained solution as an Objective-C Category:

UINavigationController+TransparentNavigationController.h

@interface UINavigationController (TransparentNavigationController)
- (void)presentTransparentNavigationBar;
- (void)hideTransparentNavigationBar;
@end

UINavigationController+TransparentNavigationController.m

#import "UINavigationController+TransparentNavigationController.h"

@implementation UINavigationController (TransparentNavigationController)

- (void)presentTransparentNavigationBar
{
  [self.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage new] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
  [self.navigationBar setTranslucent:YES];
  [self.navigationBar setShadowImage:[UIImage new]];
  [self setNavigationBarHidden:NO animated:YES];
}

- (void)hideTransparentNavigationBar
{
  [self setNavigationBarHidden:YES animated:NO];
  [self.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:[[UINavigationBar appearance] backgroundImageForBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
  [self.navigationBar setTranslucent:[[UINavigationBar appearance] isTranslucent]];
  [self.navigationBar setShadowImage:[[UINavigationBar appearance] shadowImage]];
}

@end

Now, you can import the category in your UIViewController and call the methods on your navigation controller - for example:

#import "UINavigationController+TransparentNavigationController.h"

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
  [super viewWillAppear:animated];
  [self.navigationController presentTransparentNavigationBar];
}

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated
{
  [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
  [self.navigationController hideTransparentNavigationBar];
}

And a similar solution in Swift:

import Foundation
import UIKit

extension UINavigationController {

  public func presentTransparentNavigationBar() {
    navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UIImage(), forBarMetrics:UIBarMetrics.Default)
    navigationBar.translucent = true
    navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()
    setNavigationBarHidden(false, animated:true)
  }

  public func hideTransparentNavigationBar() {
    setNavigationBarHidden(true, animated:false)
    navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UINavigationBar.appearance().backgroundImageForBarMetrics(UIBarMetrics.Default), forBarMetrics:UIBarMetrics.Default)
    navigationBar.translucent = UINavigationBar.appearance().translucent
    navigationBar.shadowImage = UINavigationBar.appearance().shadowImage
  }
}

Gypsie

How can i show it again (for example if ill want to make it transparent only in 1 view in an NavigationController?) - can i reset it to my default values? – Untwist

hideTransparentNavigationBar() should reset it back. – Gypsie

Calling present/hide methods in viewWillAppear/disappear cause a bad transition animation between the two differents navigation bar! You can see it very well by doing the swipe gesture (from left to right) in the pushedViewController – Paramatta

Try calling it in viewDidHide of the parent view controller. – Gypsie

Black background is shown on iOS 11 when using LargeTitle when hiding transparent navbar – Cerate

Answer 4

Alan forgot one line

self.navigationController.navigationBar.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

So I have:

[self.navigationController.navigationBar setTranslucent:YES];
self.navigationController.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
[self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:[[UIImage alloc] init] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
self.navigationController.navigationBar.shadowImage = [[UIImage alloc] init];
self.navigationController.navigationBar.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

Disclaimer

Answer 5

@Zorayr's great answer revised to Swift 3 :

import Foundation
import UIKit

extension UINavigationController {

    public func presentTransparentNavigationBar() {
        navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UIImage(), for:.default)
        navigationBar.isTranslucent = true
        navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()
        setNavigationBarHidden(false, animated:true)
    }

    public func hideTransparentNavigationBar() {
        setNavigationBarHidden(true, animated:false)
        navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UINavigationBar.appearance().backgroundImage(for: UIBarMetrics.default), for:.default)
        navigationBar.isTranslucent = UINavigationBar.appearance().isTranslucent
        navigationBar.shadowImage = UINavigationBar.appearance().shadowImage
    }
}

Brogdon

Answer 6

Swift 4.2 and iOS 12

It turns out all you really need is the code below. It works perfectly when you put it into viewDidLoad().

// removes line at bottom of navigation bar
navigationController?.navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()

// makes navigation bar completely transparent
navigationController?.navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UIImage(), for: .default)
navigationController?.navigationBar.isTranslucent = true

Edom

Answer 7

Use UINavigationBar+Addition pod, then simply call:

UINavigationBar *navigationBar = self.navigationController.navigationBar;
[navigationBar makeTransparent];

Unstoppable

Answer 8

[(UIView*)[self.navigationController.navigationBar.subviews objectAtIndex:0] setAlpha:0.0f];

That one line seemed to work perfectly for me

Aerial