Change UIDatePicker font color?

Question

All I want to do is change the font color of the UIDatePicker. I've researched other questions but they're all involving changing other properties and customizing the entire look. All I want to do is just change the font color from black to white. I find it hard to believe that I can't do such a seemingly simple task. And why wouldn't the tint color affect it? Does it even do anything?

Answer 1

If anyone wants the swift solution, I placed the following in viewDidLoad:

    birthdayDatePicker.setValue(DesignHelper.getOffWhiteColor(), forKey: "textColor")
    birthdayDatePicker.performSelector("setHighlightsToday:", withObject:DesignHelper.getOffWhiteColor())

Answer 2

Next solution comes from "arturgrigor" and it works great in my apps, just copy it, paste it in viewDidLoad method, and enjoy it :

[my_datePicker setValue:[UIColor whiteColor] forKeyPath:@"textColor"];
SEL selector = NSSelectorFromString( @"setHighlightsToday:" );
NSInvocation *invocation = [NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature :
                           [UIDatePicker 
                            instanceMethodSignatureForSelector:selector]];
BOOL no = NO;
[invocation setSelector:selector];
[invocation setArgument:&no atIndex:2];
[invocation invokeWithTarget:my_datePicker];

Answer 3

One other alternative to @Jeremiah answer is to define those values in Interface Builder. I prefer this one because there is no code to add in your ViewController.

Click into your DatePicker view and customise it from the Attribute inspector as in the screenshot.

Works for Swift 2, 3, 4 and probably for Swift < 2. (not tested)

Answer 4

As of Swift 2.1:

picker.setValue(UIColor.whiteColor(), forKey: "textColor")
picker.sendAction("setHighlightsToday:", to: nil, forEvent: nil)
let date = NSDate()
picker.setDate(date, animated: false)

Instead of "today" you will see the current day,

Answer 5

Add Runtime Attribute named "textColor" from Storyboard as shown in following image.

Answer 6

All I need (on iOS 8.x and 9.0) is this one line to change the font color:

        [my_date_picker setValue:[UIColor whiteColor] forKey:@"textColor"];

No subclassing or invoking of private APIs...

---

Note: today's current date will still be highlighted (in newer iOS versions). You can get around this by using the following code:

if ([my_date_picker respondsToSelector:sel_registerName("setHighlightsToday:")]) {

#pragma clang diagnostic push
#pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wundeclared-selector"

        [my_date_picker performSelector:@selector(setHighlightsToday:) withObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:NO]];

#pragma clang diagnostic pop

}