I have a custom made UINavigationBar (different size, background etc) that has inside a custom title view. I used this code to achieve this:
UIView * mainVie
You can use setTitleVerticalPositionAdjustment:forBarMetrics: in iOS 5 to change the title position, it works on normal title e.g.:
CGFloat verticalOffset = -4; [[UINavigationBar appearance] setTitleVerticalPositionAdjustment:verticalOffset forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];