How to set image for bar button with swift?

Question

I am trying to set an Image for bar button Item for that I have an image like:

Answer 1

Here's a simple extension on UIBarButtonItem:

extension UIBarButtonItem {
    class func itemWith(colorfulImage: UIImage?, target: AnyObject, action: Selector) -> UIBarButtonItem {
        let button = UIButton(type: .custom)
        button.setImage(colorfulImage, for: .normal)
        button.frame = CGRect(x: 0.0, y: 0.0, width: 44.0, height: 44.0)
        button.addTarget(target, action: action, for: .touchUpInside)

        let barButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(customView: button)
        return barButtonItem
    }
}

Answer 2

Just choose Original image option when adding an image to assets in Xcode

Answer 3

If you have set up your UIBarButtonItem with an image in the storyboard, one small hack to change the renderingMode is to add the following code to your viewDidLoad(). This way you don't have to resort to adding the entire button and image in code.

if let navButton = self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem, let buttonImage = navButton.image {
    navButton.image = buttonImage.withRenderingMode(.alwaysOriginal)
}

Answer 4

I have achieved that programatically with this code:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        //create a new button
        let button: UIButton = UIButton.buttonWithType(UIButtonType.Custom) as! UIButton
        //set image for button
        button.setImage(UIImage(named: "fb.png"), forState: UIControlState.Normal)
        //add function for button
        button.addTarget(self, action: "fbButtonPressed", forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)
        //set frame
        button.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 53, 31)

        let barButton = UIBarButtonItem(customView: button)
        //assign button to navigationbar
        self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = barButton
    }

    //This method will call when you press button.
    func fbButtonPressed() {

        println("Share to fb")
    }
}

And result will be:

Same way you can set button for left side too this way:

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = barButton

And result will be:

And if you want same transaction as navigation controller have when you go back with default back button then you can achieve that with custom back button with this code:

func backButtonPressed(sender:UIButton) {
    navigationController?.popViewControllerAnimated(true)
}

For swift 3.0:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        //create a new button
        let button = UIButton.init(type: .custom)
        //set image for button
        button.setImage(UIImage(named: "fb.png"), for: UIControlState.normal)
        //add function for button
        button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(ViewController.fbButtonPressed), for: UIControlEvents.touchUpInside)
        //set frame
        button.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 53, height: 51)

        let barButton = UIBarButtonItem(customView: button)
        //assign button to navigationbar
        self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = barButton
    }

    //This method will call when you press button.
    func fbButtonPressed() {

        print("Share to fb")
    }
}

For swift 4.0:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        //create a new button
        let button = UIButton(type: .custom)
        //set image for button
        button.setImage(UIImage(named: "fb.png"), for: .normal)
        //add function for button
        button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(fbButtonPressed), for: .touchUpInside)
        //set frame
        button.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 53, height: 51)

        let barButton = UIBarButtonItem(customView: button)
        //assign button to navigationbar
        self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = barButton
    }

    //This method will call when you press button.
    @objc func fbButtonPressed() {

        print("Share to fb")
    }
}

Answer 5

Your problem is because of the way the icon has been made - it doesn't conform to Apple's custom tab bar icon specs:

To design a custom bar icon, follow these guidelines:

• Use pure white with appropriate alpha transparency.
• Don’t include a drop shadow.
• Use antialiasing.

(From the guidelines.)

Something that would be possible looks like this. You can find such icons on most free tab bar icon sites.

Answer 6

Similar to the accepted solution, but you can replace the

let button: UIButton = UIButton.buttonWithType(UIButtonType.Custom) as! UIButton

with

let button = UIButton()

Here is the full solution, enjoy: (it's just a bit cleaner than the accepted solution)

let button = UIButton()
button.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 51, 31) //won't work if you don't set frame
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "fb"), forState: .Normal)
button.addTarget(self, action: Selector("fbButtonPressed"), forControlEvents: .TouchUpInside)

let barButton = UIBarButtonItem()
barButton.customView = button
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = barButton