Using Tint color on UIImageView

127
votes

I have my own subclass of UIButton. I add UIImageView on it and add an image. I would like to paint it over the image with a tint color but it doesn't work.

So far I have: 

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {

        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
        self.clipsToBounds = YES;

        self.circleView = [[UIView alloc]init];
        self.circleView.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        self.circleView.layer.borderColor = [[Color getGraySeparatorColor]CGColor];
        self.circleView.layer.borderWidth = 1;
        self.circleView.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
        self.circleView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
        [self addSubview:self.circleView];

        self.iconView = [[UIImageView alloc]init];
        [self.iconView setContentMode:UIViewContentModeScaleAspectFit];
        UIImage * image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"more"];
        [image imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate];
        self.iconView.image = image;
        self.iconView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
        [self.circleView addSubview:self.iconView];
        ...

and on selection : 

- (void) setSelected:(BOOL)selected
{
    if (selected) {
        [self.iconView setTintColor:[UIColor redColor]];
        [self.circleView setTintColor:[UIColor redColor]];
    }
    else{
        [self.iconView setTintColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
        [self.circleView setTintColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
    }  
}

What did I do wrong? (The color of the image always stays the same as it was originally.)

9
iosxcodeuiimageviewuibuttontintcolor
are you able to setTintColor when you are creating the iconView? – Himanshu Joshi
do you mean after self.iconView = [UIImageView alloc]...? Yes I can, but it doesn't work. – Marko Zadravec
Use CGContext then. May be you can find your answer here stackoverflow.com/a/19275079/1790571 – Himanshu Joshi
Yes I see this post but I really don't understand why my code doesn't work. Using tint color is much more clean path. – Marko Zadravec

9 Answers

244
votes

Instead of this code:

[image imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate];

you should have:

image = [image imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate];

Use this in Swift 4.1

image = UIImage(named: "name")!.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
99
votes

You can also just set this on your asset. Make sure your image contains all white pixels + transparent. enter image description here

40
votes

(Can't edit @Zhaolong Zhong post)

In swift 3.0, you can do:

let image = UIImage(named: "your_image_name")!.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)

yourImageView.image = image

yourImageView.tintColor = UIColor.blue
19
votes

In swift 2.0+, you can do:

let image = UIImage(named: "your_image_name")!.imageWithRenderingMode(.AlwaysTemplate)

yourImageView.image = image

yourImageView.tintColor = UIColor.blueColor()
18
votes

Swift version: 5.2

let tintableImage = UIImage(named: "myImage")?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
imageView.image = tintableImage
imageView.tintColor = UIColor.red

Objective C

self.imgView.image = [self.imgView.image imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate];
[self.imgView setTintColor:[UIColor darkGrayColor]];

Or

You can also just set this on your asset.

enter image description here

7
votes

One step further. This is a drop-in subclass of UIImageView. (Not exact solution for original question.) Use in Interface Builder by setting class name to TintedImageView. Updates in real-time inside the designer as tint color changes.

(Swift 3.1, Xcode 8.3)

import UIKit

@IBDesignable class TintedImageView: UIImageView {
    override func prepareForInterfaceBuilder() {
        self.configure()
    }

    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()

        self.configure()
    }

    @IBInspectable override var tintColor: UIColor! {
        didSet {
            self.configure()
        }
    }

    private func configure() {
        self.image = self.image?.withRenderingMode(UIImageRenderingMode.alwaysTemplate)
    }
}
5
votes

Make the imageView

    let imageView = UIImageView(frame: frame!)
    imageView.contentMode = .ScaleAspectFit
    imageView.tintColor = tintColor

Make the image

    let mainBundle = NSBundle.mainBundle()
    var image = UIImage(named: filename!, inBundle: mainBundle, compatibleWithTraitCollection: nil)
    image = image?.imageWithRenderingMode(.AlwaysTemplate)

Wire them together

    imageView?.image = image

Display it

view.addSubview(imageView)
1
votes

all said is correct. my contribution If You cannot / dont want to apply to every UiImageView, OR for efficiency You need to render ONCE (or example for cells of tableviews)

func tint(with color: UIColor) -> UIImage {
        var image = withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, scale)
        color.set()

        image.draw(in: CGRect(origin: .zero, size: size))
        image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return image
    }

And set to all UI elements this UIImage.

1
votes

@odemolliens answer should just work.

But if you are still having issues, make sure that the tint color you are applying to the UIImageView is different from the one defined in the Interface Builder.