UINavigationBar multi-line title

titleuilabeluinavigationbaruinavigationcontrolleruinavigationitem

Is there a straightforward way of overriding the titleView of the current navigation bar item in a navigation bar within a navigation controller? I've tried creating a new UIView and replacing the titleView property of topView with my own UIVIew with no success.

Basically, I want a multi-line title for the navigation bar title. Any suggestions?

Best Answer

Set the titleView property of the UINavigationItem. For example, in the view controller's viewDidLoad method you could do something like:

UILabel *label = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 480, 44)];
label.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
label.numberOfLines = 2;
label.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize: 14.0f];
label.shadowColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.0 alpha:0.5];
label.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;
label.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
label.text = @"This is a\nmultiline string";

self.navigationItem.titleView = label;

#if !__has_feature(objc_arc)
[label release];
#endif

It shows up like this:

multi-line titlebar label

Remember the titleView property is ignored if leftBarButtonItem is not nil.

Related Solutions

Iphone – How to hide/disable only the first uinavigationbar

In most of my applications I have a custom UIViewController class that I derive all other custom controllers from. In some of these, I added a method like navigationBarInitiallyHidden to the base class that other classes can override. The default result depends on the nature of the application.

In the delegate of the navigation controller, when a controller is being shown that implements that method, the delegate hides or shows the navigation controller accordingly. Since I animate the hide or show, I check the current state and do nothing if no change is needed.

You could do something simpler in your delegate method. If the controller being shown is the root controller, hide the navigation bar, otherwise show it if it is hidden.

- (void)navigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController willShowViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController animated:(BOOL)animated {
  if ( viewController == rootController ) {
    [navigationController setNavigationBarHidden:YES animated:animated];
  } else if ( [navigationController isNavigationBarHidden] ) {
    [navigationController setNavigationBarHidden:NO animated:animated];
  }
}

Ios – How to hide UINavigationBar 1px bottom line

For iOS 13:

Use the .shadowColor property

If this property is nil or contains the clear color, the bar displays no shadow

For instance:

let navigationBar = navigationController?.navigationBar
let navigationBarAppearance = UINavigationBarAppearance()
navigationBarAppearance.shadowColor = .clear
navigationBar?.scrollEdgeAppearance = navigationBarAppearance

For iOS 12 and below:

To do this, you should set a custom shadow image. But for the shadow image to be shown you also need to set a custom background image, quote from Apple's documentation:

For a custom shadow image to be shown, a custom background image must also be set with the setBackgroundImage(_:for:) method. If the default background image is used, then the default shadow image will be used regardless of the value of this property.

So:

let navigationBar = navigationController!.navigationBar
navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(#imageLiteral(resourceName: "BarBackground"),
                                                        for: .default)
navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()

Above is the only "official" way to hide it. Unfortunately, it removes bar's translucency.

I don't want background image, just color##

You have those options:

Solid color, no translucency:

 navigationBar.barTintColor = UIColor.redColor()
 navigationBar.isTranslucent = false
 navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UIImage(), for: .default)
 navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()

Create small background image filled with color and use it.
Use 'hacky' method described below. It will also keep bar translucent.

How to keep bar translucent?##

To keep translucency you need another approach, it looks like a hack but works well. The shadow we're trying to remove is a hairline UIImageView somewhere under UINavigationBar. We can find it and hide/show it when needed.

Instructions below assume you need hairline hidden only in one controller of your UINavigationController hierarchy.

Declare instance variable:

private var shadowImageView: UIImageView?

Add method which finds this shadow (hairline) UIImageView:

private func findShadowImage(under view: UIView) -> UIImageView? {
    if view is UIImageView && view.bounds.size.height <= 1 {
        return (view as! UIImageView)
    }

    for subview in view.subviews {
        if let imageView = findShadowImage(under: subview) {
            return imageView
        }
    }
    return nil
}

Add/edit viewWillAppear/viewWillDisappear methods:

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)

    if shadowImageView == nil {
        shadowImageView = findShadowImage(under: navigationController!.navigationBar)
    }
    shadowImageView?.isHidden = true
}

override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillDisappear(animated)

    shadowImageView?.isHidden = false
}

The same method should also work for UISearchBar hairline, and (almost) anything else you need to hide :)

Many thanks to @Leo Natan for the original idea!