iOS 7 UIBarButtonItem font changes when tapped

Question

I'm attempting to change my UIBarButtonItem font. It looks good when ViewControllers load. But if I tap on the bar button, or swipe right as if to move to the previous ViewController (but then pull back to the current one), the font changes back to the system font. Here's what I'm setting in my AppDelegate:

NSDictionary* barButtonItemAttributes = @{NSFontAttributeName: [UIFont fontWithName:@"SourceSansPro-Light" size:20.0f]};
[[UIBarButtonItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes: barButtonItemAttributes forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[[UIBarButtonItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes: barButtonItemAttributes forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
[[UIBarButtonItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes: barButtonItemAttributes forState:UIControlStateSelected];
[[UIBarButtonItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes: barButtonItemAttributes forState:UIControlStateDisabled];

And here's an example of my viewWillAppear:

- (void) viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Done" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:self action:@selector(doneButtonPressed)];
    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem.tintColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:141.0/255.0 green:209.0/255.0 blue:205.0/255.0 alpha:1.0];
}

Am I somehow changing the font back, or am I misusing the appearance proxy?

Answer 1

By using this approach in viewDidLoad method you can set custom text,font,size etc all at once place.

UIView *customBarButtonView = [[UIView alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 50, 30)];

UIButton *buttonDone = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeSystem];
[buttonDone addTarget:self action:@selector(doneButtonPressed:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

buttonDone.frame = CGRectMake(10, 0, 50, 30);

buttonDone.titleLabel.textColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:141.0/255.0 green:209.0/255.0 blue:205.0/255.0 alpha:1.0];
buttonDone.titleLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"SourceSansPro-Light" size:20.0f];
[buttonDone setTitle:@"Done" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[customBarButtonView addSubview:buttonDone];

self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]initWithCustomView:customBarButtonView];

Answer 2

The problem is that the tintColor setting conflicts with the title text attributes. Comment out that line and all will be well.

If you are going to use title text attributes, then incorporate the text color into those attributes:

NSDictionary* barButtonItemAttributes =
@{NSFontAttributeName:
      [UIFont fontWithName:@"Georgia" size:20.0f],
  NSForegroundColorAttributeName:
      [UIColor colorWithRed:141.0/255.0 green:209.0/255.0 blue:205.0/255.0 alpha:1.0]  
 };

Answer 3

_myrButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"French KeyBoard" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:self action:@selector(RbuttonItemdown:)];

NSDictionary* itemTextAttributes = @{NSFontAttributeName:[UIFont fontWithName:@"Georgia" size:12.0f], NSForegroundColorAttributeName:[UIColor blueColor], NSBackgroundColorAttributeName:[UIColor lightGrayColor]};

[_myrButtonItem setTitleTextAttributes:itemTextAttributes forState:UIControlStateNormal];

[self.navigationItem setRightBarButtonItem:_myrButtonItem];

You can use all of this :

NSString *const  NSFontAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSParagraphStyleAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSForegroundColorAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSBackgroundColorAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSLigatureAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSKernAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSStrikethroughStyleAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSStrokeColorAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSStrokeWidthAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSShadowAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSTextEffectAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSAttachmentAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSLinkAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSBaselineOffsetAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSUnderlineColorAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSStrikethroughColorAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSObliquenessAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSExpansionAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSWritingDirectionAttributeName ;
NSString *const  NSVerticalGlyphFormAttributeName;