iPhone UITextField - Change placeholder text color

Question

I'd like to change the color of the placeholder text I set in my UITextField controls, to make it black.

I'd prefer to do this without using normal text as the placeholder and having to override all the methods to imitate the behaviour of a placeholder.

I believe if I override this method:

- (void)drawPlaceholderInRect:(CGRect)rect

then I should be able to do this. But I'm unsure how to access the actual placeholder object from within this method.

Answer 1

Swift version. Probably it would help someone.

class TextField: UITextField {
   override var placeholder: String? {
        didSet {
            let placeholderString = NSAttributedString(string: placeholder!, attributes: [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.whiteColor()])
            self.attributedPlaceholder = placeholderString
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Since the introduction of attributed strings in UIViews in iOS 6, it's possible to assign a color to the placeholder text like this:

if ([textField respondsToSelector:@selector(setAttributedPlaceholder:)]) {
  UIColor *color = [UIColor blackColor];
  textField.attributedPlaceholder = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:placeholderText attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: color}];
} else {
  NSLog(@"Cannot set placeholder text's color, because deployment target is earlier than iOS 6.0");
  // TODO: Add fall-back code to set placeholder color.
}

Answer 3

I had already faced this issue. In my case below code is correct.

Objective C

[textField setValue:[UIColor whiteColor] forKeyPath:@"_placeholderLabel.textColor"];

For Swift 4.X

tf_mobile.setValue(UIColor.white, forKeyPath: "_placeholderLabel.textColor")

Hope, this may help you.

Answer 4

The following only with iOS6+ (as indicated in Alexander W's comment):

UIColor *color = [UIColor grayColor];
nameText.attributedPlaceholder =
   [[NSAttributedString alloc]
       initWithString:@"Full Name"
       attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName:color}];

Answer 5

Another option that doesn't require subclassing - leave placeholder blank, and put a label on top of edit button. Manage the label just like you would manage the placeholder (clearing once user inputs anything..)

Answer 6

In Swift:

if let placeholder = yourTextField.placeholder {
    yourTextField.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string:placeholder, 
        attributes: [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.blackColor()])
}

In Swift 4.0:

if let placeholder = yourTextField.placeholder {
    yourTextField.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string:placeholder, 
        attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.black])
}