Changing Tab Bar Item Image and Text Color iOS

Changing tab bar item image and text color iOS

From UITabBarItem class docs:

By default, the actual unselected and selected images are
automatically created from the alpha values in the source images. To
prevent system coloring, provide images with
UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal.

The clue is not whether you use UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal, the important thing is when to use it.

To prevent the grey color for unselected items, you will just need to prevent the system colouring for the unselected image. Here is how to do this:

var firstViewController:UIViewController = UIViewController()
// The following statement is what you need
var customTabBarItem:UITabBarItem = UITabBarItem(title: nil, image: UIImage(named: "YOUR_IMAGE_NAME")?.imageWithRenderingMode(UIImageRenderingMode.AlwaysOriginal), selectedImage: UIImage(named: "YOUR_IMAGE_NAME"))
firstViewController.tabBarItem = customTabBarItem

As you can see, I asked iOS to apply the original color (white, yellow, red, whatever) of the image ONLY for the UNSELECTED state, and leave the image as it is for the SELECTED state.

Also, you may need to add a tint color for the tab bar in order to apply a different color for the SELECTED state (instead of the default iOS blue color). As per your screenshot above, you are applying white color for the selected state:

self.tabBar.tintColor = UIColor.whiteColor()

EDIT:

How to change tab bar item text color

I found the answer for my own question.

We can set perforamceItem setTitleTextAttributes: for two different states.

• forState:UIControlStateNormal
• forState:UIControlStateHighlighted

I added the following code

 [performanceItem setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaLTStd-Roman" size:10.0f], NSFontAttributeName,  [UIColor yellowColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName,nil] forState:UIControlStateNormal];

[performanceItem setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaLTStd-Roman" size:10.0f], NSFontAttributeName,  [UIColor whiteColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName,nil] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];

I need to replace the yellow color with the color of my ICONS. This is how they are looking now.

When More is selected

When Performance is Selected

How to programmatically change Tab Bar Item image and font when selected?

Programmatically set selected UITabbarItem's image:

let tabBarItem = UITabBarItem(title: "title", image: UIImage(named: "defaultImage"), selectedImage: UIImage(named: "selectedImage"))

You can't as easily set selected UITabbarItem's font though. You'd need to create your own UITabBarController as shown in this SO thread.

How to change inactive icon/text color on tab bar?

In every first ViewController for each TabBar:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    // changing the unselected image color, you should change the selected image 
    // color if you want them to be different
    self.tabBarItem.selectedImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"yourImage_selectedImage"]
    imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal];

    self.tabBarItem.image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"yourImage_image"] 
    imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal];
}

The clue of this code is 'UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal':

Rendering Modes by Apple Documentation:

UIImageRenderingModeAutomatic,          // Use the default rendering mode for the context where the image is used    
UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal,     // Always draw the original image, without treating it as a template
UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate,     // Always draw the image as a template image, ignoring its color information

To change text color:

In AppDelegate:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
    // Add this if you only want to change Selected Image color 
    // and/or selected image text
    [[UITabBar appearance] setTintColor:[UIColor redColor]];

    // Add this code to change StateNormal text Color,
    [UITabBarItem.appearance setTitleTextAttributes:
    @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor greenColor]} 
    forState:UIControlStateNormal];

    // then if StateSelected should be different, you should add this code
    [UITabBarItem.appearance setTitleTextAttributes:
    @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor purpleColor]} 
    forState:UIControlStateSelected];

    return YES;
}

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