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];

Wheelchair

Behavior of some properties have changed from iOS 7. – Orizaba

Answer 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 }];

Interrogative

@Wheelchair 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. ;) – Interrogative

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

[[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]]; – Wheelchair

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

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

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

for my nav bar, build target iOS 5.0 – Wheelchair

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

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

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

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

@Wheelchair HERE's an interesting post. – Interrogative

Answer 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];

Mcghee

1 up for simple and effective answer – Altercate

Answer 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

Harberd

Answer 4

Specifically for iOS 7, try using NSForegroundColorAttributeName instead of UITextAttributeTextColor

Amblyoscope

Answer 5

I do not have enough reputation points to add a comment so I will add another answer here.

I have had the same problem and searched for the past hour and finally realized that my issue is because I didn't put the code into method viewWillAppear. Not sure if this is common sense as I just started with objective-c but thought this should be another piece of important information to the answer as the same code didn't work inside viewDidLoad.

According to this post, this code only works if put in the method viewWillAppear.

Giselagiselbert

Answer 6

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];
}

Kuroshio