UIBarButtonItem with color?

Question

Is it possible to have a red UIBarButtonItem?

Answer 1

If anyone is looking for code to exactly duplicate a simple UIBarButtonItem:

UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[button setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"delete.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[button setTitle:@"Delete" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
button.titleLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Bold" size:12.0f];
[button.layer setCornerRadius:4.0f];
[button.layer setMasksToBounds:YES];
[button.layer setBorderWidth:1.0f];
[button.layer setBorderColor: [[UIColor grayColor] CGColor]];
button.frame=CGRectMake(0.0, 100.0, 60.0, 30.0);
[button addTarget:self action:@selector(batchDelete) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

UIBarButtonItem* deleteItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:button];

And delete.png is:

Answer 2

You can create a custom image for the button and use that. Else, if you have set the tintColor of your navbar or toolbar to red, the button items on these will also appear red.

Answer 3

If using IB (Interface Builder), drag a UIView from the Library onto the UIToolBar, and it will generate a UIBarButtonItem with a custom view. You can then add any other controls you want to it, e.g. UIButton, UILabel, UIActivityIndicatorView.

Answer 4

When you have UIBarButtonItem setup in a Storyboard, you have to set the tintColor in the viewWillAppear() or viewDidAppear() method (putting it in viewDidLoad() doesn't work for me...):

- (void)viewWillAppear {
    [super viewWillAppear];
    [[self editButtonItem] setTintColor:[UIColor redColor]];
}

Or in Swift:

override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)
    editButtonItem.tintColor = UIColor.redColor()
}

Note: tested on iOS 8/9.

Answer 5

Using a custom image doesn't work as it just uses the alpha to render the button.

Answer 6

You can set the tintColor property of a UIBarButtonItem in iOS 5. If you need to support iOS 4, check out this blog post. It details using a UISegmentedControl styled to look like a single button.