How to change UISearchBar Placeholder and image tint color?

Question

I've been trying search results for hours, but I can't get this figured out. Perhaps it isn't possible. I'm trying to change the tint color of the placeholder text and magnifying glass of a UISearchBar. I'm only targeting iOS 8.0+ if that matters. Here's my code and what it looks like now:

let searchBar = UISearchBar()
searchBar.placeholder = "Search"
searchBar.searchBarStyle = UISearchBarStyle.Minimal
searchBar.tintColor = UIColor.whiteColor()

I'd like for the search and magnifying glass to be white, or perhaps a dark green.

Answer 1

Details

• Xcode Version 11.0 (11A420a), iOS 13, swift 5

Solution

import UIKit

extension UISearchBar {

    func getTextField() -> UITextField? { return value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField }
    func set(textColor: UIColor) { if let textField = getTextField() { textField.textColor = textColor } }
    func setPlaceholder(textColor: UIColor) { getTextField()?.setPlaceholder(textColor: textColor) }
    func setClearButton(color: UIColor) { getTextField()?.setClearButton(color: color) }

    func setTextField(color: UIColor) {
        guard let textField = getTextField() else { return }
        switch searchBarStyle {
        case .minimal:
            textField.layer.backgroundColor = color.cgColor
            textField.layer.cornerRadius = 6
        case .prominent, .default: textField.backgroundColor = color
        @unknown default: break
        }
    }

    func setSearchImage(color: UIColor) {
        guard let imageView = getTextField()?.leftView as? UIImageView else { return }
        imageView.tintColor = color
        imageView.image = imageView.image?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
    }
}

private extension UITextField {

    private class Label: UILabel {
        private var _textColor = UIColor.lightGray
        override var textColor: UIColor! {
            set { super.textColor = _textColor }
            get { return _textColor }
        }

        init(label: UILabel, textColor: UIColor = .lightGray) {
            _textColor = textColor
            super.init(frame: label.frame)
            self.text = label.text
            self.font = label.font
        }

        required init?(coder: NSCoder) { super.init(coder: coder) }
    }


    private class ClearButtonImage {
        static private var _image: UIImage?
        static private var semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value: 1)
        static func getImage(closure: @escaping (UIImage?)->()) {
            DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInteractive).async {
                semaphore.wait()
                DispatchQueue.main.async {
                    if let image = _image { closure(image); semaphore.signal(); return }
                    guard let window = UIApplication.shared.windows.first else { semaphore.signal(); return }
                    let searchBar = UISearchBar(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: -200, width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: 44))
                    window.rootViewController?.view.addSubview(searchBar)
                    searchBar.text = "txt"
                    searchBar.layoutIfNeeded()
                    _image = searchBar.getTextField()?.getClearButton()?.image(for: .normal)
                    closure(_image)
                    searchBar.removeFromSuperview()
                    semaphore.signal()
                }
            }
        }
    }

    func setClearButton(color: UIColor) {
        ClearButtonImage.getImage { [weak self] image in
            guard   let image = image,
                let button = self?.getClearButton() else { return }
            button.imageView?.tintColor = color
            button.setImage(image.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate), for: .normal)
        }
    }

    var placeholderLabel: UILabel? { return value(forKey: "placeholderLabel") as? UILabel }

    func setPlaceholder(textColor: UIColor) {
        guard let placeholderLabel = placeholderLabel else { return }
        let label = Label(label: placeholderLabel, textColor: textColor)
        setValue(label, forKey: "placeholderLabel")
    }

    func getClearButton() -> UIButton? { return value(forKey: "clearButton") as? UIButton }
}

Full Sample

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        let searchBar = UISearchBar(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 20, width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: 44))
        searchBar.searchBarStyle = .default
        view.addSubview(searchBar)

        searchBar.placeholder = "placeholder"
        searchBar.set(textColor: .brown)
        searchBar.setTextField(color: UIColor.green.withAlphaComponent(0.3))
        searchBar.setPlaceholder(textColor: .white)
        searchBar.setSearchImage(color: .white)
        searchBar.setClearButton(color: .red)
    }
}

Result

Answer 2

If you have a custom image you could use, you can set the image and change the placeholder text color using something similar to the following:

[searchBar setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"SearchWhite"] forSearchBarIcon:UISearchBarIconSearch state:UIControlStateNormal];

UITextField *searchTextField = [searchBar valueForKey:@"_searchField"];    
if ([searchTextField respondsToSelector:@selector(setAttributedPlaceholder:)]) {
    UIColor *color = [UIColor purpleColor];
    [searchTextField setAttributedPlaceholder:[[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"Search" attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: color}]];
}

In that example I used purpleColor, instead you can use the + (UIColor *)colorWithRed:(CGFloat)red green:(CGFloat)green blue:(CGFloat)blue alpha:(CGFloat)alpha method to create your custom dark green color.

EDIT: I just realized you were writing it in swift... duh. Quickly typed this out so I didn't leave the answer in just Obj-C.

    searchBar.setImage(UIImage(named: "SearchWhite"), forSearchBarIcon: UISearchBarIcon.Search, state: UIControlState.Normal);

    var searchTextField: UITextField? = searchBar.valueForKey("searchField") as? UITextField
    if searchTextField!.respondsToSelector(Selector("attributedPlaceholder")) {
        var color = UIColor.purpleColor()
        let attributeDict = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.purpleColor()]
        searchTextField!.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "search", attributes: attributeDict)
    }

Swift 3.0

    var searchTextField: UITextField? = searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField
    if searchTextField!.responds(to: #selector(getter: UITextField.attributedPlaceholder)) {
        let attributeDict = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white]
        searchTextField!.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "Search", attributes: attributeDict)
    }

Answer 3

Swift 3: If you want to change the placeholder, clearbutton and magnifier glass

    let textFieldInsideSearchBar = searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField
    textFieldInsideSearchBar?.textColor = UIColor.white

    let textFieldInsideSearchBarLabel = textFieldInsideSearchBar!.value(forKey: "placeholderLabel") as? UILabel
    textFieldInsideSearchBarLabel?.textColor = UIColor.white

    let clearButton = textFieldInsideSearchBar?.value(forKey: "clearButton") as! UIButton
    clearButton.setImage(clearButton.imageView?.image?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate), for: .normal)
    clearButton.tintColor = UIColor.white

    let glassIconView = textFieldInsideSearchBar?.leftView as? UIImageView

    glassIconView?.image = glassIconView?.image?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
    glassIconView?.tintColor = UIColor.white

Answer 4

You can change the color of the text without violating the private api rule:

UILabel.appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses([UITextField.self]).textColor = UIColor.whiteColor()

Answer 5

I could not make it work properly with any of the above solutions.

I created the following UISearchBar category which works properly on iOS 8.4 and 10.3:

UISearchBar+PlaceholderColor.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UISearchBar (PlaceholderColor)

- (void)setPlaceholderColor:(UIColor *)placeholderColor;

@end

UISearchBar+PlaceholderColor.m

#import "UISearchBar+PlaceholderColor.h"

@implementation UISearchBar (PlaceholderColor)

- (void)setPlaceholderColor:(UIColor *)placeholderColor {
    UILabel *labelView = [self searchBarTextFieldLabelFromView:self];
    [labelView setTextColor:placeholderColor];
}

- (UILabel *)searchBarTextFieldLabelFromView:(UIView *)view {
    for (UIView *v in [view subviews]) {
        if ([v isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]) {
            return (UILabel *)v;
        }

        UIView *labelView = [self searchBarTextFieldLabelFromView:v];
        if (labelView) {
            return (UILabel *)labelView;
        }
    }

    return nil;
}

@end

USAGE:

[mySearchBar setPlaceholderColor:[UIColor redColor]];

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Make sure that you call setPlaceholderColor: AFTER your UISearchBar has been added to the view and has created its view hierarchy.

If you open your search bar programmatically, call it AFTER your becomeFirstResponder call, as such:

[mySearchBar becomeFirstResponder];
[searchBar setPlaceholderColor:[UIColor redColor]];

Otherwise, if you are leveraging UISearchBarDelegate:

- (void)searchBarTextDidBeginEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {
    [searchBar setPlaceholderColor:[UIColor redColor]];
}

Answer 6

extension UISearchBar {
    var textField: UITextField? { return value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField }
    var placeholderLabel: UILabel? { return textField?.value(forKey: "placeholderLabel") as? UILabel }
    var icon: UIImageView? { return textField?.leftView as? UIImageView }
    var iconColor: UIColor? {
        get {
            return icon?.tintColor
        }
        set {
            icon?.image = icon?.image?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
            icon?.tintColor = newValue
        }
    }
}

Answer 7

I made a Swift 4.1 search bar extension:

import Foundation
import UIKit
extension UISearchBar{
    func setTextField(placeHolderColor:UIColor = .gray,placeHolder:String = "Search Something",textColor:UIColor = .white,backgroundColor:UIColor = .black,
                      placeHolderFont:UIFont = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 12.0),
                      textFont:UIFont =  UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 12.0) ){
        for item in self.subviews{
            for mainView in (item as UIView).subviews{
                mainView.backgroundColor = backgroundColor
                if mainView is UITextField{
                    let textField = mainView as? UITextField
                    if let _textF = textField{
                        _textF.text = "success"
                        _textF.textColor = textColor
                        _textF.font      = textFont
                        _textF.attributedPlaceholder = NSMutableAttributedString.init(string: placeHolder, attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor : placeHolderColor,
                                                                                                                               NSAttributedStringKey.font : placeHolderFont])
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

You can use this for your searchBar like this :

controller.searchBar.setTextField(placeHolderColor: .white,
 placeHolder: "Search A Pet",
 textColor: .white,
 backgroundColor: .green,
 placeHolderFont: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14.0),
 textFont: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14.0))

Answer 8

I found a way to change the textfiled in search bar. It works in swift 3 and Xcode8.

Firstly, subclass the UISearchBar class.

class CustomSearchBar: UISearchBar {

UISearchBar include a view which has the important textfield you wanted. Following function get the index in subviews.

func indexOfSearchFieldInSubviews() -> Int! {
    var index: Int!
    let searchBarView = subviews[0]
    for (i, subview) in searchBarView.subviews.enumerated() {
        if subview.isKind(of: UITextField.self) {
            index = i
            break
        }
    }
    return index
}


override func draw(_ rect: CGRect) {
    // Find the index of the search field in the search bar subviews.
    if let index = indexOfSearchFieldInSubviews() {
        // Access the search field
        let searchField: UITextField = subviews[0].subviews[index] as! UITextField
        // Set its frame.
        searchField.frame = CGRect(x: 5, y: 5, width: frame.size.width - 10, height: frame.size.height - 10)
        // Set the font and text color of the search field.
        searchField.font = preferredFont
        searchField.textColor = preferredTextColor

        // Set the placeholder and its color
        let attributesDictionary = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: preferredPlaceholderColor.cgColor]
        searchField.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: preferredPlaceholder, attributes: attributesDictionary)

        // Set the background color of the search field.
        searchField.backgroundColor = barTintColor
    }

    super.draw(rect)
}

There you go, enjoy for this.

Answer 9

Small update to Vasily Bodnarchuk's great answer.

Swift 4+

NSForegroundColorAttributeName has been changed to NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor

Answer 10

For anybody just trying to change the text and having trouble seeing the updated placeholder, it worked for me by putting it here instead of viewDidLoad.

- (void)viewDidLayoutSubviews {
    [super viewDidLayoutSubviews];
    self.searchBar.placeholder = @"My Custom Text";
}

Answer 11

Just found this thread, sorry about the bump given the age. However it helped me in trying to fix my issue, and adding onto @m_katsifarakis answer, I added more to his existing category.

Adding additional color + font support for both placeholder and input text.

Only tested on iOS 13 as that's all I am supporting.

@interface UISearchBar (ColorandFont)
- (void)setPlaceholderColor:(UIColor *)placeholderColor setPlaceholderFont:(UIFont *)placeholderFont;
- (void)setTextColor:(UIColor *)textColor setTextFont:(UIFont *)textFont;
@end
@implementation UISearchBar (ColorandFont)

//Placeholder Color
- (void)setPlaceholderColor:(UIColor *)placeholderColor setPlaceholderFont:(UIFont *)placeholderFont{
    UILabel *labelView = [self placeholderText:self];
    [labelView setTextColor:placeholderColor];
    [labelView setFont:placeholderFont];
}
- (UILabel *)placeholderText:(UIView *)view {
    for (UIView *v in [view subviews]) {
        if ([v isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]) {
            return (UILabel *)v;
        }

        UIView *labelView = [self placeholderText:v];
        if (labelView) {
            return (UILabel *)labelView;
        }
    }
    return nil;
}

//Text Color
- (void)setTextColor:(UIColor *)textColor setTextFont:(UIFont *)textFont{
    UITextField *textView = [self searchBarText:self];
    [textView setTextColor:textColor];
    [textView setFont:textFont];
}
- (UITextField *)searchBarText:(UIView *)view {
    for (UIView *v in [view subviews]) {
        if ([v isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]]) {
            return (UITextField *)v;
        }

        UIView *textView = [self searchBarText:v];
        if (textView) {
            return (UITextField *)textView;
        }
    }
    return nil;
}
@end

Usage (I used in viewDidLoad and Appear) given my current setup, results may vary:

[self.searchBar setPlaceholderColor:[UIColor lightTextColor] setPlaceholderFont:[UIFont italicSystemFontOfSize:13]];
[self.searchBar setTextColor:[UIColor whiteColor] setTextFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:16]];

Answer 12

In Swift 4, assuming your search controller is set like this:

let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)

then set placeholder text as follows:

searchController.searchBar.placeholder = "Here is my custom text"