Changing Placeholder Text Color with Swift

Question

I have a design that implements a dark blue UITextField, as the placeholder text is by default a dark grey colour I can barely make out what the place holder te

Answer 1

In my case, I use Swift 4

I create extension for UITextField

extension UITextField {
    func placeholderColor(color: UIColor) {
        let attributeString = [
            NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: color.withAlphaComponent(0.6),
            NSAttributedStringKey.font: self.font!
            ] as [NSAttributedStringKey : Any]
        self.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: self.placeholder!, attributes: attributeString)
    }
}

yourField.placeholderColor(color: UIColor.white)

Answer 2

crubio's answer update for Swift 4

Select the UITextField and open the identity inspector on the right:

Click on the plus button and add a new runtime attribute: placeholderLabel.textColor (instead of _placeholderLabel.textColor)

Use Color as type and select the color.

If you run your project, you will see the changes.

Answer 3

In my case, I have done following:

extension UITextField {
    @IBInspectable var placeHolderColor: UIColor? {
        get {
            if let color = self.attributedPlaceholder?.attribute(.foregroundColor, at: 0, effectiveRange: nil) as? UIColor {
                return color
            }
            return nil
        }
        set (setOptionalColor) {
            if let setColor = setOptionalColor {
                let string = self.placeholder ?? ""
                self.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: string , attributes:[NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: setColor])
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

Create UITextField Extension like this:

extension UITextField{
   @IBInspectable var placeHolderColor: UIColor? {
        get {
            return self.placeHolderColor
        }
        set {
            self.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string:self.placeholder != nil ? self.placeholder! : "", attributes:[NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: newValue!])
        }
    }
}

And in your storyboard or .xib. You will see

Answer 5

Here is my quick implementation for swift 4:

extension UITextField {
    func placeholderColor(_ color: UIColor){
        var placeholderText = ""
        if self.placeholder != nil{
            placeholderText = self.placeholder!
        }
        self.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: placeholderText, attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor : color])
    }
}

use like:

streetTextField?.placeholderColor(AppColor.blueColor)

hope it helps someone!

Answer 6

Swift 4 :

txtControl.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "Placeholder String...",attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.gray])

Objective-C :

UIColor *color = [UIColor grayColor];
txtControl.attributedPlaceholder = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"Placeholder String..." attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: color}];