How can I set a button background color on iPhone?

Question

How can I set a custom background color of a button?

Interface Builder doesn\'t seem to have an interface to do this.

Is it only available programmatically

Answer 1

It seems, that button color still is an issue. The following category sets a button's backgroundimage completely programmatically via an instance method that takes a UIColor parameter. There is no need to create button backgroundimage files. It preserves button behavior based on UIControlState. And it keeps the rounded corners.

The header file UIButton+ColoredBackground.h

#import 

@interface UIButton (ColoredBackground)

- (void)setBackgroundImageByColor:(UIColor *)backgroundColor forState:(UIControlState)state;

@end

and the content of UIButton+ColoredBackground.m

#import "UIButton+ColoredBackground.h"
#import 

@implementation UIButton (ColoredBackground)

- (void)setBackgroundImageByColor:(UIColor *)backgroundColor forState:(UIControlState)state{

    // tcv - temporary colored view
    UIView *tcv = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:self.frame];
    [tcv setBackgroundColor:backgroundColor];

    // set up a graphics context of button's size
    CGSize gcSize = tcv.frame.size;
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(gcSize);
    // add tcv's layer to context
    [tcv.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
    // create background image now
    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    // set image as button's background image for the given state
    [self setBackgroundImage:image forState:state];
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    // ensure rounded button
    self.clipsToBounds = YES;
    self.layer.cornerRadius = 8.0;

    [tcv release];

}

@end

The new method is justed called on every UIButton instance like:

[myButton setBackgroundImageByColor:[UIColor greenColor] forState:UIControlStateNormal];