How to change UISearchBar Placeholder and image tint color?

Question

I\'ve been trying search results for hours, but I can\'t get this figured out. Perhaps it isn\'t possible. I\'m trying to change the tint color of the placeholder text and m

Answer 1

You can change the color of the text without violating the private api rule:

UILabel.appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses([UITextField.self]).textColor = UIColor.whiteColor()

Answer 2

In Swift 4, assuming your search controller is set like this:

let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)

then set placeholder text as follows:

searchController.searchBar.placeholder = "Here is my custom text"

Answer 3

I made a Swift 4.1 search bar extension:

import Foundation
import UIKit
extension UISearchBar{
    func setTextField(placeHolderColor:UIColor = .gray,placeHolder:String = "Search Something",textColor:UIColor = .white,backgroundColor:UIColor = .black,
                      placeHolderFont:UIFont = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 12.0),
                      textFont:UIFont =  UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 12.0) ){
        for item in self.subviews{
            for mainView in (item as UIView).subviews{
                mainView.backgroundColor = backgroundColor
                if mainView is UITextField{
                    let textField = mainView as? UITextField
                    if let _textF = textField{
                        _textF.text = "success"
                        _textF.textColor = textColor
                        _textF.font      = textFont
                        _textF.attributedPlaceholder = NSMutableAttributedString.init(string: placeHolder, attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor : placeHolderColor,
                                                                                                                               NSAttributedStringKey.font : placeHolderFont])
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

You can use this for your searchBar like this :

controller.searchBar.setTextField(placeHolderColor: .white,
 placeHolder: "Search A Pet",
 textColor: .white,
 backgroundColor: .green,
 placeHolderFont: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14.0),
 textFont: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14.0))

Answer 4

For anybody just trying to change the text and having trouble seeing the updated placeholder, it worked for me by putting it here instead of viewDidLoad.

- (void)viewDidLayoutSubviews {
    [super viewDidLayoutSubviews];
    self.searchBar.placeholder = @"My Custom Text";
}

Answer 5

Small update to Vasily Bodnarchuk's great answer.

Swift 4+

NSForegroundColorAttributeName has been changed to NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor

Answer 6

I could not make it work properly with any of the above solutions.

I created the following UISearchBar category which works properly on iOS 8.4 and 10.3:

UISearchBar+PlaceholderColor.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UISearchBar (PlaceholderColor)

- (void)setPlaceholderColor:(UIColor *)placeholderColor;

@end

UISearchBar+PlaceholderColor.m

#import "UISearchBar+PlaceholderColor.h"

@implementation UISearchBar (PlaceholderColor)

- (void)setPlaceholderColor:(UIColor *)placeholderColor {
    UILabel *labelView = [self searchBarTextFieldLabelFromView:self];
    [labelView setTextColor:placeholderColor];
}

- (UILabel *)searchBarTextFieldLabelFromView:(UIView *)view {
    for (UIView *v in [view subviews]) {
        if ([v isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]) {
            return (UILabel *)v;
        }

        UIView *labelView = [self searchBarTextFieldLabelFromView:v];
        if (labelView) {
            return (UILabel *)labelView;
        }
    }

    return nil;
}

@end

USAGE:

[mySearchBar setPlaceholderColor:[UIColor redColor]];

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Make sure that you call setPlaceholderColor: AFTER your UISearchBar has been added to the view and has created its view hierarchy.

If you open your search bar programmatically, call it AFTER your becomeFirstResponder call, as such:

[mySearchBar becomeFirstResponder];
[searchBar setPlaceholderColor:[UIColor redColor]];

Otherwise, if you are leveraging UISearchBarDelegate:

- (void)searchBarTextDidBeginEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {
    [searchBar setPlaceholderColor:[UIColor redColor]];
}