How to change the color of the UISearchBar Icon?

Question

I don't know how to modify the original searchIcon's color.

Answer 1

As per Federica's anwser....To do this in swift

var image: UIImage = UIImage(named: "search")!
self.searchBar.setImage(image, forSearchBarIcon: UISearchBarIcon.Search, state: UIControlState.Normal)

Answer 2

if(IOS_7) {
    self.searchBar.searchBarStyle = UISearchBarStyleMinimal;
    self.searchBar.backgroundImage = [UIImage imageWithColor:[UIColor redColor] cornerRadius:5.0f];
}

Answer 3

Best solution I found was here Changing the color of the icons in a UItextField inside a UISearchBar

(This solution uses the original UISearchBar's icon, no need to supply your own graphical asset)

Converted to Swift (Swift 3):

    if let textFieldInsideSearchBar = self.searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField,
        let glassIconView = textFieldInsideSearchBar.leftView as? UIImageView {

            //Magnifying glass
            glassIconView.image = glassIconView.image?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
            glassIconView.tintColor = .whiteColor
    }

Answer 4

This soultion worked for me on Xcode 8.2.1 in Swift 3.0. :

extension UISearchBar
{
    func setPlaceholderTextColorTo(color: UIColor)
    {
        let textFieldInsideSearchBar = self.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField
        textFieldInsideSearchBar?.textColor = color
        let textFieldInsideSearchBarLabel = textFieldInsideSearchBar!.value(forKey: "placeholderLabel") as? UILabel
        textFieldInsideSearchBarLabel?.textColor = color
    }

    func setMagnifyingGlassColorTo(color: UIColor)
    {
        let textFieldInsideSearchBar = self.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField
        let glassIconView = textFieldInsideSearchBar?.leftView as? UIImageView
        glassIconView?.image = glassIconView?.image?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
        glassIconView?.tintColor = color
    }
}

Usage example:

searchController.searchBar.setPlaceholderTextColorTo(color: mainColor)
searchController.searchBar.setMagnifyingGlassColorTo(color: mainColor)

Answer 5

Make sure that when you use the setImage API, pass an image with rendering mode of UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate. For example:

[self.searchBar setImage:[[UIImage imageNamed: @"icon-search"] imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate] forSearchBarIcon:UISearchBarIconSearch state:UIControlStateNormal];

Answer 6

For just changing the color of the search icon, without altering the actual icon in Swift 3:

if let textField = self.searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField,
    let iconView = textField.leftView as? UIImageView {

    iconView.image = iconView.image?.withRenderingMode(UIImageRenderingMode.alwaysTemplate)
    iconView.tintColor = UIColor.red
}

Creates a result like so: