Change UIDatePicker font color?

Question

All I want to do is change the font color of the UIDatePicker. I\'ve researched other questions but they\'re all involving changing other properties and customizing the enti

Answer 1

For Xamarin developers:

DatePicker.SetValueForKey(UIColor.White, new NSString("textColor"));
DatePicker.SetValueForKey(FromObject(false), new NSString("highlightsToday"));

It´s working like a charm. Tested in iOS 9 and 10

Answer 2

You can also add this as an IBDesignable if you want to configure this within InterFace Builder.

    import UIKit

@IBDesignable
extension UIDatePicker {
    @IBInspectable var textLabelColor: UIColor? {
        get {
            return self.valueForKey("textColor") as? UIColor
        }
        set {
            self.setValue(newValue, forKey: "textColor")
            self.performSelector("setHighlightsToday:", withObject:newValue) //For some reason this line makes the highlighted text appear the same color but can not be changed from textColor. 
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

This subclass of UIDatePicker works for iOS 7. Its not pretty but gets the job done.

#define kNotification_UIView_didAddSubview @"kNotification_UIView_didAddSubview"
@implementation UIView (addSubview)

-(void) didAddSubview:(UIView *)subview{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:kNotification_UIView_didAddSubview object:self];
}
@end


@interface DatePicker ()
@property (nonatomic, strong) UIColor* textColor;
@end

@implementation DatePicker

-(id) initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self){
        [self setup];
    }
    return self;
}
-(id) initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder{
    self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
    if (self){
        [self setup];
    }
    return self;
}

-(void) setup{
    self.textColor = [UIColor darkTextColor];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(subviewsUpdated:) name:kNotification_UIView_didAddSubview object:nil];
}

-(void) dealloc{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self];
}

-(void) updateLabels:(UIView*) view{
    for (UILabel* label in view.subviews){
        if ([label isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]){
            label.textColor = self.textColor;
        }else{
            [self updateLabels:label];
        }
    }
}

-(BOOL) isSubview:(UIView*) view{
    if (view == nil){
        return NO;
    }
    if (view.superview == self){
        return YES;
    }
    return [self isSubview:view.superview];
}

-(void) subviewsUpdated:(NSNotification*) notification{
    if ([notification.object isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"UIPickerTableView")] && [self isSubview:notification.object]){
        [self updateLabels:notification.object];
    }
}

@end

Answer 4

According to Apple's UIKit User Interface Catalog, developers are not allowed to customize date pickers.

I've seen other StackOverflow answers for similar questions that suggest making a fake UIDatePicker using UIPickerView and customizing that.

I also found an open source date picker on GitHub (at https://github.com/mwermuth/MWDatePicker ) that might help a bit. It allows for different background and selector styles, but not a different font or font attributes.... yet.

Answer 5

All I need (on iOS 8.x and 9.0) is this one line to change the font color:

        [my_date_picker setValue:[UIColor whiteColor] forKey:@"textColor"];

No subclassing or invoking of private APIs...

---

Note: today's current date will still be highlighted (in newer iOS versions). You can get around this by using the following code:

if ([my_date_picker respondsToSelector:sel_registerName("setHighlightsToday:")]) {

#pragma clang diagnostic push
#pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wundeclared-selector"

        [my_date_picker performSelector:@selector(setHighlightsToday:) withObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:NO]];

#pragma clang diagnostic pop

}

Answer 6

As of Swift 2.1:

picker.setValue(UIColor.whiteColor(), forKey: "textColor")
picker.sendAction("setHighlightsToday:", to: nil, forEvent: nil)
let date = NSDate()
picker.setDate(date, animated: false)

Instead of "today" you will see the current day,