iOS 11 customise search bar in navigation bar

Question

I want to change the color of the text and icon in the iOS 11 searchbar when it is embedded in the navigation bar. So placeholder text, search text and search icon.

Answer 1

my two cents for Swift 4.x, lightly cleaned up.

Add in controller or App Delegate:

appearance.backgroundColor = .green
let myFont = UIFont.italicSystemFont(ofSize: 12)
let attribs = [
    NSAttributedString.Key(rawValue: NSAttributedString.Key.font.rawValue): myFont,
    NSAttributedString.Key(rawValue: NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor.rawValue): UIColor.red
]

appearance.defaultTextAttributes =  attribs

in controller:

self.searchBar.barTintColor = .blue

You will get Blue background, green search bar background, red italic font: