Changing font size of tabbaritem

Question

Is it possible to change the font size of tabs?

Answer 1

TabBarIncreaseFonts(self.tabBarController);


void TabBarIncreaseFonts(UITabBarController* customTabBarController)
{

    for(UIView* controlLevelFirst in [customTabBarController.tabBar subviews])
    {

        if(![controlLevelFirst isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UITabBarButton")])
            continue;

        for(id controlLevelSecond in [controlLevelFirst subviews])
        {
            [controlLevelSecond setBounds: CGRectMake(0, 0, 100, 48)];

            if(![controlLevelSecond isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UITabBarButtonLabel")])
                 continue;

             [controlLevelSecond setFont: [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:20]]; 
             [controlLevelSecond setFrame: CGRectMake(0, 0, 96, 48)];
             [controlLevelSecond setTextAlignment:UITextAlignmentCenter];
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Simple in iOS 5.0 or later:

[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:@{UITextAttributeFont:[UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:15]} forState:UIControlStateNormal];

Answer 3

I think this in Swift gives a clear control over the tab bar colors and text attributes.

class MyTabBarController: UITabBarController {

  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    tabBar.barTintColor = UIColor.green

    UITabBarItem.appearance().setTitleTextAttributes(
        [NSAttributedString.Key.font:UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 18), 
           NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.orange], for: .normal)
...             

Answer 4

IN Swift 2.0

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

   let appearance = UITabBarItem.appearance()
   let attributes: [String: AnyObject] = [NSFontAttributeName:UIFont(name: "American Typewriter", size: 12)!, NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.orangeColor()]
   appearance.setTitleTextAttributes(attributes, forState: .Normal)

}

In Swift 3.0

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    let appearance = UITabBarItem.appearance()
    let attributes: [String: AnyObject] = [NSFontAttributeName:UIFont(name: "American Typewriter", size: 12)!, NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.orange]
    appearance.setTitleTextAttributes(attributes, for: .normal)
}

Answer 5

[Update] iOS 7.0+ version of @cancer86's nice answer:

[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                                                   [UIColor whiteColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName,
                                                   [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica" size:tabFontSize],
                                                   NSFontAttributeName,
                                                   nil] forState:UIControlStateNormal];

[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                                                   [UIColor redColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName,
                                                   [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica" size:tabFontSize], NSFontAttributeName,
                                                   nil] forState:UIControlStateSelected];

The main change is that UITextAttributeTextColor and UITextAttributeFont are both deprecated

In order to apply it to all tabs (thanks to @ToolmakerSteve for pointing out)

for(UIViewController *tab in  self.tabBarController.viewControllers)
{        
    [tab.tabBarItem setTitleTextAttributes: ...];
}

Answer 6

Actually there is a way.

    NSMutableArray *tabBarItems = [[[[[self.view subviews] objectAtIndex:1] subviews] mutableCopy] autorelease];

for (int item = 0; item < [tabBarItems count]; item++) {
    for (int subview = 0; subview < [[[tabBarItems objectAtIndex:item] subviews] count]; subview++) {
        for (int item = 0; item < [tabBarItems count]; item++)  {
            for (int subview = 0; subview < [[[tabBarItems objectAtIndex:item] subviews] count]; subview++)  {
                if ([[[[tabBarItems objectAtIndex:item] subviews] objectAtIndex:subview] isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UITabBarButtonLabel")]) 
                    [[[[tabBarItems objectAtIndex:item] subviews] objectAtIndex:subview] setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:6.0f]];
            }
        }
    }
}