Unselected UITabBar color?

Question

I have an UITabBar with 5 items. I want to change the unselected color of all items. The items aren't declared in the UIViewController classes (i built them and linked the views in the Storyboard).

Is there an code like this : [[UITabBar appearance] set***UN***SelectedImageTintColor:[UIColor whiteColor]]; ?

Answer 1

Translating user3719695's answer to Swift, which now uses extensions:

UIImage+Overlay.swift

extension UIImage {
  func imageWithColor(color1: UIColor) -> UIImage {
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.size, false, self.scale)
    color1.setFill()

    let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()
    CGContextTranslateCTM(context, 0, self.size.height)
    CGContextScaleCTM(context, 1.0, -1.0);
    CGContextSetBlendMode(context, CGBlendMode.Normal)

    let rect = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.size.width, self.size.height) as CGRect
    CGContextClipToMask(context, rect, self.CGImage)
    CGContextFillRect(context, rect)

    let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext() as UIImage
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()

    return newImage
  }
}

customTabBar.swift

override func viewDidLoad() {
  super.viewDidLoad()
  for item in self.tabBar.items! {
    item.image = item.selectedImage?.imageWithColor(unselectedColor).imageWithRenderingMode(UIImageRenderingMode.AlwaysOriginal)
    //In case you wish to change the font color as well
    let attributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: unselectedColor]
    item.setTitleTextAttributes(attributes, forState: UIControlState.Normal)
  }
}

Answer 2

@JoeGalid's imageWithColor: solution with Xamarin:

using CoreGraphics;
using UIKit;

namespace Example
{
    public static class UIImageExtensions
    {
        public static UIImage ImageWithColor(this UIImage image, UIColor color)
        {
            UIGraphics.BeginImageContextWithOptions(image.Size, false, image.CurrentScale);

            color.SetFill();

            var context = UIGraphics.GetCurrentContext();

            context.TranslateCTM(0, image.Size.Height);
            context.ScaleCTM(1.0f, -1.0f);
            context.SetBlendMode(CoreGraphics.CGBlendMode.Normal);

            var rect = new CGRect(0, 0, image.Size.Width, image.Size.Height);
            context.ClipToMask(rect, image.CGImage);
            context.FillRect(rect);

            var newImage = UIGraphics.GetImageFromCurrentImageContext() as UIImage;
            UIGraphics.EndImageContext();

            return newImage;
        }
    }
}

Then utilize it when setting up the tab bar items:

var image = UIImage.FromBundle("name");
barItem.Image = image.ImageWithColor(UIColor.Gray).ImageWithRenderingMode(UIImageRenderingMode.AlwaysOriginal);
barItem.SelectedImage = image.ImageWithColor(UIColor.Red).ImageWithRenderingMode(UIImageRenderingMode.AlwaysOriginal)

Answer 3

In iOS 10 and higher, there are 3 possible easy solutions:

A. Instance from code (Swift):

self.tabBar.unselectedItemTintColor = unselectedcolor

B. Instance from IB:

Add a Key Path: unselectedItemTintColor of type: Color

C. Global appearance (Swift):

UITabBar.appearance().unselectedItemTintColor = unselectedcolor

Answer 4

I had to move the code into viewWillAppear because in viewDidLoad the images weren't set yet.

Swift 4 Translation

import Foundation
import UIKit

extension UIImage {
    func with(color: UIColor) -> UIImage {
        guard let cgImage = self.cgImage else {
            return self
        }
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, scale)
        let context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()!
        context.translateBy(x: 0, y: size.height)
        context.scaleBy(x: 1.0, y: -1.0)
        context.setBlendMode(.normal)
        let imageRect = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: size.width, height: size.height)
        context.clip(to: imageRect, mask: cgImage)
        color.setFill()
        context.fill(imageRect)
        let newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
        return newImage
    }
}

class MYTabBarController: UITabBarController {

    let unselectedColor = UIColor(red: 108/255.0, green: 110/255.0, blue: 114/255.0, alpha: 1.0)
    let selectedColor = UIColor.blue()

    override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewWillAppear(animated)

        // Unselected state colors
        for item in self.tabBar.items! {
            item.image = item.selectedImage!.with(color: unselectedColor).withRenderingMode(.alwaysOriginal)
        }
        UITabBarItem.appearance().setTitleTextAttributes([.foregroundColor : unselectedColor], for: .normal)

        // Selected state colors
        tabBar.tintColor = selectedColor
        UITabBarItem.appearance().setTitleTextAttributes([.foregroundColor : selectedColor], for: .selected)
    }
}

Answer 5

Referring to the answer from here: UITabBar tint in iOS 7

You can set the tint color for selected and unselected tab bar buttons like this:

[[UIView appearanceWhenContainedIn:[UITabBar class], nil] setTintColor:[UIColor redColor]];
[[UITabBar appearance] setSelectedImageTintColor:[UIColor greenColor]];

The first line sets the unselected color - red in this example - by setting the UIView's tintColor when it's contained in a tab bar. Note that this only sets the unselected image's tint color - it doesn't change the color of the text below it.

The second line sets the tab bar's selected image tint color to green.

Answer 6

The new answer to do this programmatically as of iOS 10+ is to use the unselectedItemTintColor API. For example, if you have initialized your tab bar controller inside your AppDelegate, it would looks like the following:

 func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        ...

        let firstViewController = VC1()
        let secondViewController = VC2()
        let thirdViewController = VC3()


        let tabBarCtrl = UITabBarController()
        tabBarCtrl.viewControllers = [firstViewController, secondViewController, thirdViewController]

        // set the color of the active tab
        tabBarCtrl.tabBar.tintColor = UIColor.white

        // set the color of the inactive tabs
        tabBarCtrl.tabBar.unselectedItemTintColor = UIColor.gray

        ...
    }