Overriding Pivot header foreground brushes in UWP

Question

I'm trying to override the Pivot header foreground theme brushes, but no matter what I do the UWP app just ignores it.

Just to be clear, this question is about the UWP Pivot control, not the Win (Phone) 8.1 one. I've used the theme brush override method in a 8.1 app and it worked perfectly. But I can't seem to be able to do the same for a UWP Pivot.

I looked for the respective brushes in generic.xaml (and in the Properties pane under Brushes -> System Brush Resources), which are PivotHeaderForegroundSelectedBrush and PivotHeaderForegroundUnselectedBrush in a UWP app, and added them to my resource dictionary in app.xaml, but unlike the other system brushes, the Pivot ones aren't overridden for some reason.

<SolidColorBrush x:Key="SystemControlForegroundAccentBrush" Color="Gray"/>
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="SystemControlBackgroundAccentBrush" Color="Gray"/>
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="SystemColorControlAccentBrush" Color="Gray"/>
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="PivotHeaderForegroundSelectedBrush" Color="Green" />
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="PivotHeaderForegroundUnselectedBrush" Color="Red"/>

I know other ways to change the header foreground color, but that might involve converters or extra code behind, which I'd rather not use to be honest if i can do it in a clean way. I tried editing the default Pivot style, but I don't see anywhere where I can add/edit a Foreground property for the header items in the default Pivot style.

Thanks in advance! :)

Answer 1

Interestingly, the Foreground property of the PivotItemStyle controls the foreground color of the content within the PivotItem, not the header of it. And there's no way to modify the color of the header within the style.

You might be able to find the corresponding color resources and modify them to achieve what you want, but here's a more flexible and pure xaml way -

The Pivot control actually has a HeaderTemplate which allows you to fully customise your PivotItem headers. See the following code sample, all the headers should have the Teal color.

<Grid>
    <Pivot Title="Pivot">
        <Pivot.HeaderTemplate>
            <DataTemplate>
                <Grid>
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding}" Foreground="Teal" />
                </Grid>
            </DataTemplate>
        </Pivot.HeaderTemplate>

        <PivotItem Header="My first header">
            <Grid/>
        </PivotItem>
    </Pivot>
</Grid>

---

Update

So here is a better way.

I used the new Live Visual Tree tool in Visual Studio to help locate the actual header element. It's a control called PivotHeaderItem. So turns out, all the styling is defined within this control.

I then had to go to msdn and grabbed the full style of this control (Blend didn't work).

As you can see within the style, the control has a default Foreground of {ThemeResource SystemControlForegroundBaseMediumBrush} and within the visual states, this Foreground gets changed to {ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightAltBaseHighBrush} when the state goes to Selected. I've changed them to Red and Green to make them more obvious.

<Style TargetType="PivotHeaderItem">
    <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="{ThemeResource PivotHeaderItemFontSize}" />
    <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{ThemeResource PivotHeaderItemFontFamily}" />
    <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="{ThemeResource PivotHeaderItemThemeFontWeight}" />
    <Setter Property="CharacterSpacing" Value="{ThemeResource PivotHeaderItemCharacterSpacing}" />
    <Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent" />
    <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Red" /> <!-- original value {ThemeResource SystemControlForegroundBaseMediumBrush} -->
    <Setter Property="Padding" Value="{ThemeResource PivotHeaderItemMargin}" />
    <Setter Property="Height" Value="48" />
    <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
    <Setter Property="IsTabStop" Value="False" />
    <Setter Property="Template">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate TargetType="PivotHeaderItem">
                <Grid x:Name="Grid" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}">
                    <Grid.Resources>
                        <Style x:Key="BaseContentPresenterStyle" TargetType="ContentPresenter">
                            <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="Segoe UI" />
                            <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="SemiBold" />
                            <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="15" />
                            <Setter Property="TextWrapping" Value="Wrap" />
                            <Setter Property="LineStackingStrategy" Value="MaxHeight" />
                            <Setter Property="TextLineBounds" Value="Full" />
                            <Setter Property="OpticalMarginAlignment" Value="TrimSideBearings" />
                        </Style>
                        <Style x:Key="BodyContentPresenterStyle" TargetType="ContentPresenter" BasedOn="{StaticResource BaseContentPresenterStyle}">
                            <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{ThemeResource PivotHeaderItemFontFamily}" />
                            <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="{ThemeResource PivotHeaderItemThemeFontWeight}" />
                            <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="{ThemeResource PivotHeaderItemFontSize}" />
                        </Style>
                    </Grid.Resources>
                    <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                        <VisualStateGroup x:Name="SelectionStates">
                            <VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                                <VisualTransition From="Unselected" To="UnselectedLocked" GeneratedDuration="0:0:0.33" />
                                <VisualTransition From="UnselectedLocked" To="Unselected" GeneratedDuration="0:0:0.33" />
                            </VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                            <VisualState x:Name="Disabled">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlDisabledBaseMediumLowBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                </Storyboard>
                            </VisualState>
                            <VisualState x:Name="Unselected" />
                            <VisualState x:Name="UnselectedLocked">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenterTranslateTransform" Storyboard.TargetProperty="X" Duration="0" To="{ThemeResource PivotHeaderItemLockedTranslation}" />
                                    <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.Opacity)" Duration="0" To="0" />
                                </Storyboard>
                            </VisualState>
                            <VisualState x:Name="Selected">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="Green" /> <!-- original value {ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightAltBaseHighBrush} -->
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="Grid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightTransparentBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                </Storyboard>
                            </VisualState>
                            <VisualState x:Name="UnselectedPointerOver">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightAltBaseMediumHighBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="Grid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightTransparentBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                </Storyboard>
                            </VisualState>
                            <VisualState x:Name="SelectedPointerOver">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightAltBaseMediumHighBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="Grid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightTransparentBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                </Storyboard>
                            </VisualState>
                            <VisualState x:Name="UnselectedPressed">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightAltBaseMediumHighBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="Grid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightTransparentBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                </Storyboard>
                            </VisualState>
                            <VisualState x:Name="SelectedPressed">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightAltBaseMediumHighBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="Grid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlHighlightTransparentBrush}" />
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                </Storyboard>
                            </VisualState>
                        </VisualStateGroup>
                    </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                    <ContentPresenter x:Name="ContentPresenter" Content="{TemplateBinding Content}" ContentTemplate="{TemplateBinding ContentTemplate}" Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}" FontSize="{TemplateBinding FontSize}" FontFamily="{TemplateBinding FontFamily}" FontWeight="{TemplateBinding FontWeight}" HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}">
                        <ContentPresenter.RenderTransform>
                            <TranslateTransform x:Name="ContentPresenterTranslateTransform" />
                        </ContentPresenter.RenderTransform>
                    </ContentPresenter>
                </Grid>
            </ControlTemplate>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
</Style>

With this, you should now be able to fully customise your pivot headers! :)