How to change Navigation Bar color in iOS 7?

Question

How do I change the Navigation Bar color in iOS 7?

Basically I want to achieve something like the Twitter Nav Bar (updated Twitter for iOS7 that is). I embedded-in a nav bar atop a view controller. All I want is to change the nav bar color to light blue along with the utility bar at the top. I can't seem to find an option in my storyboard.

Answer 1

The behavior of tintColor for bars has changed in iOS 7.0. It no longer affects the bar's background.

From the documentation:

barTintColor Class Reference

The tint color to apply to the navigation bar background.

@property(nonatomic, retain) UIColor *barTintColor

Discussion
This color is made translucent by default unless you set the translucent property to NO.

Availability

Available in iOS 7.0 and later.

Declared In
UINavigationBar.h

Code

NSArray *ver = [[UIDevice currentDevice].systemVersion componentsSeparatedByString:@"."];
if ([[ver objectAtIndex:0] intValue] >= 7) {
    // iOS 7.0 or later   
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor redColor];
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = NO;
}else {
    // iOS 6.1 or earlier
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor redColor];
}

We can also use this to check iOS Version as mention in iOS 7 UI Transition Guide

if (floor(NSFoundationVersionNumber) <= NSFoundationVersionNumber_iOS_6_1) {
        // iOS 6.1 or earlier
        self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor redColor];
    } else {
        // iOS 7.0 or later     
        self.navigationController.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor redColor];
        self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = NO;
    }

EDIT Using xib

Answer 2

Doing what the original question asked—to get the old Twitter's Nav Bar look, blue background with white text—is very easy to do just using the Interface Builder in Xcode.

• Using the Document Outline, select your Navigation Bar.
• In the Attributes Inspector, in the Navigation Bar group, change the Style from Default to Black. This changes the background colour of the Navigation and Status bars to black, and their text to white. So the battery and other icons and text in the status bar will look white when the app is running.
• In the same Navigation Bar group, change the Bar Tint to the colour of your liking.
• If you have Bar Button items in your Navigation Bar, those will still show their text in the default blue colour, so in the Attributes Inspector, View group, change the Tint to White Colour.

That should get you what you want. Here is a screenshot that would make it easier to see where to make the changes.

Note that changing only the Bar Tint doesn't change the text colour in the Navigation Bar or the Status Bar. The Style also needs to be changed.

Answer 3

self.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor blueColor];
self.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
self.navigationBar.translucent = NO;

// *barTintColor* sets the background color
// *tintColor* sets the button's color

Answer 4

In a Navigation based app you can put the code in AppDelegate. A more detailed code could be:

// Navigation bar appearance (background and title)

[[UINavigationBar appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[UIColor titleColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName, [UIFont fontWithName:@"FontNAme" size:titleSize], NSFontAttributeName, nil]];

[[UINavigationBar appearance] setTintColor:[UIColor barColor]];

// Navigation bar buttons appearance

[[UIBarButtonItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[UIColor textBarColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName, shadowColor, NSShadowAttributeName, [UIFont fontWithName:@"FontName" size:titleSize], NSFontAttributeName, nil];

Answer 5

In viewDidLoad, set:

    self.navigationController.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor blueColor];

Change ( blueColor ) to whatever color you'd like.

Answer 6

For swift change navigation bar color:

self.navigationController?.navigationBar.barTintColor = UIColor.red

change title font,size, color:

self.title = "title"
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.titleTextAttributes = [
        NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor : UIColor.white,
        NSAttributedString.Key.font : UIFont(name: "Futura", size: 30)!
    ]

Answer 7

In iOS 7 you must use the -barTintColor property:

navController.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor barColor];

Answer 8

If you want to use a hex code, here is the best way to do so.

First, define this at the top of your class:

#define UIColorFromRGB(rgbValue) [UIColor colorWithRed:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 green:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255.0 blue:((float)(rgbValue & 0xFF))/255.0 alpha:1.0]

Then inside the "application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions", put this:

[[UINavigationBar appearance] setBarTintColor:UIColorFromRGB(0x00b0f0)];

Put you hex code in place of the 00b0f0.

Answer 9

If you need to support ios6 and ios7 then you get that particular light blue using this in your UIViewController:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    NSArray *ver = [[UIDevice currentDevice].systemVersion componentsSeparatedByString:@"."];
    if ([[ver objectAtIndex:0] intValue] >= 7) {
        self.navigationController.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:89/255.0f green:174/255.0f blue:235/255.0f alpha:1.0f];
        self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = NO;
    }else{
        self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:89/255.0f green:174/255.0f blue:235/255.0f alpha:1.0f];
    }
}

Answer 10

It's actually easier than the answers I've seen here:

1) Just make sure you select the navigation bar on the Navigation control. 
2) Select the color you want in the bar tint.
3) You have other options too, and/or individually on each view (just play with it).

I hope this helps somebody. I didn't like the answers I saw. I like to keep my code as clean as possible. Not saying that it's wrong to do it programmatically, but there are people out there like me....this is for you guys.

Answer 11

//You could place this code into viewDidLoad
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor redColor];
    //change the nav bar colour
    self.navigationController.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
    //change the background colour
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = NO;
 }   
//Or you can place it into viewDidAppear
- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated];
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor redColor];
    //change the nav bar colour
    self.navigationController.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
    //change the background colour
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = NO;
}

Answer 12

To make Rajneesh071's code complete, you may also want to set the navigation bar's title color (and font, if you want) since the default behavior changed from iOS 6 to 7:

NSArray *ver = [[UIDevice currentDevice].systemVersion componentsSeparatedByString:@"."];
if ([[ver objectAtIndex:0] intValue] >= 7)
{
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor blackColor];
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = NO;
    NSMutableDictionary *textAttributes = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithDictionary:mainNavController.navigationBar.titleTextAttributes];
    [textAttributes setValue:[UIColor whiteColor] forKey:UITextAttributeTextColor];
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.titleTextAttributes = textAttributes;
}
else
{
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor blackColor];
}

Answer 13

Add only This code in your ViewContorller or in your AppDelegate

if([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] floatValue] < 7.0)
{
    //This is For iOS6
    [self.navigationController.navigationBar setTintColor:[UIColor yellowColor]];
}
else
{
    //This is For iOS7
    [self.navigationController.navigationBar setBarTintColor:[UIColor yellowColor]];
}

Answer 14

In a navigation based application you can change color

NSArray *ver = [[UIDevice currentDevice].systemVersion componentsSeparatedByString:@"."];
if ([[ver objectAtIndex:0] intValue] >= 7) {
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:19.0/255.0 green:86.0/255.0 blue:138.0/255.0 alpha:1];
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = NO;
} else {
    self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:19.0/255.0 green:86.0/255.0 blue:138.0/255.0 alpha:1];
}

Answer 15

#define _kisiOS7 ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] floatValue] >= 7.0)


  if (_kisiOS7)
    {
        [[UINavigationBar appearance] setBarTintColor:[UIcolor redcolor]];
    }
    else
    {
        [[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundColor:[UIcolor blackcolor]];
        [[UINavigationBar appearance] setTintColor:[UIcolor graycolor]];
    }

Answer 16

This question and these answers are helpful. With them I was able to set my desired dark blue navigationBar color with white title and button text.

But I also needed to change the clock, carrier, signal strength, etc. to white. Black just didn't contrast enough with the dark blue.

I may have overlooked that solution in one of the previous answers, but I was able to make that change by adding this line to my top level viewController's viewDidLoad:

[self.navigationController.navigationBar setBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleLightContent];

Answer 17

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    self.navigationController.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor blueColor];
}

Answer 18

For Color :

[[UINavigationBar appearance] setBarTintColor:[UIColor blackColor]];

For Image

[[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"navigationBar_320X44.png"] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];