Change the font of a UIBarButtonItem

Question

I have a UIBarButtonItem in my UIToolbar titled

Answer 1

Because UIBarButtonItem inherits from UIBarItem, you can try

- (void)setTitleTextAttributes:(NSDictionary *)attributes
                  forState:(UIControlState)state

but this is for iOS5 only. For iOS 3/4, you will have to use a custom view.

Answer 2

UIBarButton haven't property related to change the font. But you can create a button with custom font and then add into UIBarButton. It May be solved your problem

Answer 3

To do this for some UIBarButtonItems but not all I recommend the following approach.

1. Create a UIBarButtonItem subclass. Don't add anything to it - you will only use it as a custom class in the storyboard and for its appearance proxy...
2. In your storyboard, change the custom class for all desired UIBarButtonItems to your subclass
3. In your AppDelegate import your UIBarButtonItem subclass and add the following line to application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:

In my case I subclassed UIBarButtonItem for the sole purpose of bolding the text:

[[BoldBarButtonItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:
  [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys: 
    [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:18.0], NSFontAttributeName,nil] 
                                              forState:UIControlStateNormal];

Answer 4

For completion I would like to add this method, still used in Objective-C in 2019. :)

_titleLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
_titleLabel.text = _titleBarButtonItem.title;
_titleLabel.textColor = UIColor.whiteColor;
_titleLabel.font = [UtilityMethods appFontProDisplayBold:26.0];

[_titleLabel sizeToFit];
UIBarButtonItem *titleLabelItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:_titleLabel];

Answer 5

Assuming you want to support iOS4 and earlier, your best bet is to create a bar button using the initWithCustomView: method and supply your own view which could be something like a UIButton where you can easily customise the font.

You can also drag a UIButton onto a toolbar or navigation bar in Interface Builder if you want to create the button with drag-and-drop instead of programmatically.

Unfortunately this means creating the button background image yourself. There's no way to customise the font of a standard UIBarButtonItem prior to iOS5.

Answer 6

Swift3

  buttonName.setAttributedTitle([
        NSFontAttributeName : UIFont.systemFontOfSize(18.0),
        NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.red,NSBackgroundColorAttributeName:UIColor.black],
                                     forState: UIControlState.Normal)

swift

   barbutton.setTitleTextAttributes([
        NSFontAttributeName : UIFont.systemFontOfSize(18.0),
        NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.redColor(),NSBackgroundColorAttributeName:UIColor.blackColor()],
        forState: UIControlState.Normal)

Objective-C

     [ barbutton setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
        [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Bold" size:20.0], NSFontAttributeName,
        [UIColor redColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName,[UIColor blackColor],NSBackgroundColorAttributeName,
        nil]
        forState:UIControlStateNormal];