How to change font color of UISegmentedControl

I try to change font color from white to black for UISegmentedControl (for iOS 4.*)

UISegmentedControl *button = [[[UISegmentedControl alloc] initWithItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:itemTitle, nil]] autorelease];
button.momentary = YES;
button.segmentedControlStyle = UISegmentedControlStyleBar;
button.tintColor = [UIColor redColor];      
for (id segment in [button subviews]) {
    for (id label in [segment subviews]) {
        if ([label isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]) {
            UILabel *titleLabel = (UILabel *) label;
            [titleLabel setTextColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
        }
    }
}
UIBarButtonItem *barButtonItem = [[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:button] autorelease];

But text color does not changed. What I should do for change text color for UISegmentedControl?

In iOS 6.0 and above it's very simple:

NSDictionary *attributes = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                            [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:17], NSFontAttributeName,
                            [UIColor blackColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName,
                            nil];
[_segmentedControl setTitleTextAttributes:attributes forState:UIControlStateNormal];
NSDictionary *highlightedAttributes = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:[UIColor whiteColor] forKey:NSForegroundColorAttributeName];
[_segmentedControl setTitleTextAttributes:highlightedAttributes forState:UIControlStateSelected];

If you need to change the text color of the highlighted segment in iOS 7, here is a solution (took me awhile to find, but thanks to this post):

Objective-C

[[UISegmentedControl appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor blackColor]} forState:UIControlStateSelected];

Swift

  let titleTextAttributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.whiteColor()]  
  UISegmentedControl.appearance().setTitleTextAttributes(titleTextAttributes, forState: .Selected)

code to set both states font color to black

Swift 5

    let titleTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.black]
    segmentedControl.setTitleTextAttributes(titleTextAttributes, for: .normal)
    segmentedControl.setTitleTextAttributes(titleTextAttributes, for: .selected)

Swift 4

    let titleTextAttributes = [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.black]
    segmentedControl.setTitleTextAttributes(titleTextAttributes, for: .normal)
    segmentedControl.setTitleTextAttributes(titleTextAttributes, for: .selected)

Below is the code to set the font to the bold face and point size:

UIFont *Boldfont = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:12.0f];
NSDictionary *attributes = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:Boldfont
                                                       forKey: NSFontAttributeName];
[segmentedControl setTitleTextAttributes:attributes 
                                forState:UIControlStateNormal];

I hope it helps

Updated for iOS 14 and Swift 5:

extension UISegmentedControl
{
	func defaultConfiguration(font: UIFont = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 12), color: UIColor = UIColor.white)
	{
		let defaultAttributes = [
			NSAttributedString.Key.font: font,
			NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: color
		]
		setTitleTextAttributes(defaultAttributes, for: .normal)
	}

	func selectedConfiguration(font: UIFont = UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 12), color: UIColor = UIColor.red)
	{
		let selectedAttributes = [
			NSAttributedString.Key.font: font,
			NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: color
		]
		setTitleTextAttributes(selectedAttributes, for: .selected)
	}
}

Updated for Swift 4 - Use this Extension (because extension is always awesome..!!)

extension UISegmentedControl {

func defaultConfiguration(font: UIFont = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 12), color: UIColor = UIColor.gray) {
    let defaultAttributes = [
        NSAttributedStringKey.font.rawValue: font,
        NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor.rawValue: color
    ]
    setTitleTextAttributes(defaultAttributes, for: .normal)
}

func selectedConfiguration(font: UIFont = UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 12), color: UIColor = UIColor.red) {
    let selectedAttributes = [
        NSAttributedStringKey.font.rawValue: font,
        NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor.rawValue: color
    ]
    setTitleTextAttributes(selectedAttributes, for: .selected)
}
}

and from the respective class, you can use these function,

@IBOutlet weak var segment: UISegmentedControl!

segment.defaultConfiguration()
// or provide paramater as per your requirement
segment.selectedConfiguration(color: .blue)

Swift 5 Extension

extension UISegmentedControl {

    func setTitleColor(_ color: UIColor, state: UIControl.State = .normal) {
        var attributes = self.titleTextAttributes(for: state) ?? [:]
        attributes[.foregroundColor] = color
        self.setTitleTextAttributes(attributes, for: state)
    }
    
    func setTitleFont(_ font: UIFont, state: UIControl.State = .normal) {
        var attributes = self.titleTextAttributes(for: state) ?? [:]
        attributes[.font] = font
        self.setTitleTextAttributes(attributes, for: state)
    }

}

for (UIView *v in [[[segment subviews] objectAtIndex:0] subviews]) {
    if ([v isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]) {
        UILabel *label=(UILabel *)[v retain];
        lable.textColor=[UIColor blackColor];
    }
}

for iOS 3.0 and above

in Swift 5 you can change color with this syntax

Swift 5

let titleTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.red]
groupSegment.setTitleTextAttributes(titleTextAttributes, for: .selected)

Just in case to help someone else that get there and is working using swift.

I will put the two possible ways of doing it. You can change the text attributes in the UIAppearance or directly in the segmented your are working.

The first example setting the attributes in the appearance, this way you will customize all the segmented controls in your app:

    let attributes = [ NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.grayColor(),
        NSFontAttributeName : UIFont.systemFontOfSize(20)];
    let attributesSelected = [ NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.blueColor(),
        NSFontAttributeName : UIFont.systemFontOfSize(20)];
    UISegmentedControl.appearance().setTitleTextAttributes(attributes, forState: UIControlState.Normal)
    UISegmentedControl.appearance().setTitleTextAttributes(attributesSelected, forState: UIControlState.Selected)

The second example, directly in the segmented, will customize only this segmented:

    let attributes = [ NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.grayColor(),
        NSFontAttributeName : UIFont.systemFontOfSize(20)];
    let attributesSelected = [ NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.blueColor(),
        NSFontAttributeName : UIFont.systemFontOfSize(20)];
    segmented.setTitleTextAttributes(attributes, forState: UIControlState.Normal)
    segmented.setTitleTextAttributes(attributesSelected, forState: UIControlState.Selected)

swift 3.2:

let attributes = [
		                  NSFontAttributeName : bigTextFont,
		                  NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.blue,
		                  ]    		
segmentedControl?.setTitleTextAttributes(attributes, for: .normal)

note: if You use a custom background color, you will see a glitch in corners (color will fill outside segments..), so use these line to clip it:

segmentedControl!.layer.cornerRadius = 4.0
segmentedControl!.clipsToBounds = true

In iOS 5.0 and later you can use the titleTextAttributes to customize UISegmentedControl objects :

NSDictionary *segmentedControlTextAttributes = @{NSFontAttributeName:[UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaNeue" size:18.0], NSForegroundColorAttributeName:[UIColor whiteColor]};
[self.segmentedControl setTitleTextAttributes:segmentedControlTextAttributes forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self.segmentedControl setTitleTextAttributes:segmentedControlTextAttributes forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
[self.segmentedControl setTitleTextAttributes:segmentedControlTextAttributes forState:UIControlStateSelected];

Here I set the font to a custom font, font size, color for each state of the UISegmentedControl.

You'll find every possible simple customizations in the Customizing Appearance section of the UISegmentedControl Class Reference.

Im using monotouch. Dont know why, but when View was pushed text color doesnt changed for me. for solve this im just add labels to segment control superview and then change their colours:

public static void SetColoredTittles(this UISegmentedControl s, string[] titles, UIColor selected, UIColor notSelected)
{ 
    var segmentedLabels = new List<UILabel>();
    float width = s.Frame.Width/titles.Length;

    for (int i = 0; i < titles.Length; i++)
    {
        var frame = new RectangleF(s.Frame.X + i*width, s.Frame.Y, width,s.Frame.Height);
        UILabel label = new UILabel(frame);
        label.TextAlignment = UITextAlignment.Center;
        label.BackgroundColor = UIColor.Clear;
        label.Font = UIFont.BoldSystemFontOfSize(12f);
        label.Text = titles[i];
        s.Superview.AddSubview(label);
        segmentedLabels.Add(label);
    }

    s.ValueChanged += delegate
    {
        TextColorChange(s,segmentedLabels, selected, notSelected);
    };
    TextColorChange(s,segmentedLabels, selected, notSelected);
}

static void TextColorChange(UISegmentedControl s, List<UILabel> segmentedLabels, UIColor selected, UIColor notSelected)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < segmentedLabels.Count; i++)
    {
        if(i == s.SelectedSegment) segmentedLabels[i].TextColor = selected;
        else segmentedLabels[i].TextColor = notSelected;
    }
}

and then use it

segmented.SetColoredTittles(new string[] {
            "text1",
            "text2",
            "text3"
        }, UIColor.White,UIColor.DarkGray);