UIButton: set image for selected-highlighted state

I set an images for button's states Normal,Highlighted and Selected, but when the button in selected state and I press/highlight it I didn't see my highlighted image but just grayed picture. Is it possible to set an image for highlighted state when the button selected?

my code:

[button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"normal.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"pressed.png"] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
[button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"checked.png"] forState:UIControlStateSelected];

when I do:

[button setSelected:YES];

and press the button, the "pressed.png" image doesn't select.

I found the solution: need to add addition line

[button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"pressed.png"] forState:UIControlStateSelected | UIControlStateHighlighted];

You can do this in Interface Builder.

Select the UIButton you wish to set in IB then go to the attributes inspector.

In the screen shots,I am using a custom button type , but that does not matter.

Swift 3

// Default state (previously `.Normal`)
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "image1"), for: [])

// Highlighted
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "image2"), for: .highlighted)

// Selected
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "image3"), for: .selected)

// Selected + Highlighted
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "image4"), for: [.selected, .highlighted])

To set the background image we can use setBackgroundImage(_:for:)

Swift 2.x

// Normal
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "image1"), forState: .Normal)

// Highlighted
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "image2"), forState: .Highlighted)

// Selected
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "image3"), forState: .Selected)

// Selected + Highlighted
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "image4"), forState: [.Selected, .Highlighted])

I think most posters here miss the point completely. I had the same problem. The original question was about the Highlighted state of a Selected button (COMBINING BOTH STATES) which cannot be set in IB and falls back to Default state with some darkening going on. Only working solution as one post mentioned:

[button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"pressed.png"] forState:UIControlStateSelected | UIControlStateHighlighted];

If you have a good reason to do that, this will do the trick

add these targets:

[button addTarget:self action:@selector(buttonTouchDown:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchDown];
[button addTarget:self action:@selector(buttonTouchUp:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];


-(void)buttonTouchDown:(id)sender{
	UIButton *button=(UIButton *)sender;
	if(button.selected){
		[button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"pressed.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
	}
}

-(void)buttonTouchUp:(id)sender{
	UIButton *button=(UIButton *)sender;
    [button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"normal.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
}

In swift you can do:

button.setImage(UIImage(named: "selected"), 
                forState: UIControlState.selected.union(.highlighted))

In Swift 3.x, you can set highlighted image when button is selected in the following way:

// Normal state
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "normalImage"), for: .normal) 

// Highlighted state (before button is selected)
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "pressedImage"), for: .highlighted)

// Selected state
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "selectedImage"), for:  .selected)

// Highlighted state (after button is selected)
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "pressedAfterBeingSelectedImage"), 
                for:  UIControlState.selected.union(.highlighted))

Correct me if I am wrong. By doing

   [button setSelected:YES];

you are clearly changing the state of the buttons as selected. So naturally by the code you have provided the image will that for the selected state in your case checked.png

In my case, I have to change the UIButton.Type from .custom to .system

And:

button.setImage(UIImage(named: "unchecked"), for: .normal)
button.setImage(UIImage(named: "checked"), for: [.selected, .highlighted])

When handling tapping:

button.isSelected = !button.isSelected

If someone's wondering how this works in Swift, here's my solution:

button.setImage("normal.png", forState: .Normal)
button.setImage("highlighted.png", forState: .Highlighted)
button.setImage("selected.png", forState: .Selected)

var selectedHighLightedStates: UIControlState = UIControlState.Highlighted
selectedHighLightedStates = selectedHighLightedStates.union(UIControlState.Selected)
button.setImage("selectedHighlighted.png", forState: selectedHighLightedStates)

Swift 3+

button.setImage(UIImage(named: "selected_image"), for: [.selected, .highlighted])

OR

button.setImage(UIImage(named: "selected_image"), for: UIControlState.selected.union(.highlighted))

It means that the button current in selected state, then you touch it, show the highlight state.

I had problem setting imageView.highlighted = NO; (setting YES worked properly and the image changed to the highlighted one).

The solution was calling [imageView setHighlighted:NO];

Everything worked properly.

Where you want to call from

[button addTarget:self action:@selector(test:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

The method:

-(void)test:(id)sender{
    UIButton *button=(UIButton *)sender;
    if (_togon){
      [button setTitleColor:UIColorFromRGB(89,89, 89) forState:UIControlStateNormal];
      _togon=NO;
    }
    else{
      [button setTitleColor:UIColorFromRGB(28, 154, 214) forState:UIControlStateNormal];
      _togon=YES;
    }
}

Credit above to Jorge but I improved it a bit giving the full working solution

Xamarin C#

Doing bitwise OR doesn't work for some reason

button.SetImage(new UIImage("ImageNormal"), UIControlState.Normal);
button.SetImage(new UIImage("ImagePressed"), UIControlState.Selected | UIControlState.Highlighted | UIControlState.Focused);

The following works

button.SetImage(new UIImage("ImageNormal"), UIControlState.Normal);
button.SetImage(new UIImage("ImagePressed"), UIControlState.Selected);
button.SetImage(new UIImage("ImagePressed"), UIControlState.Highlighted);
button.SetImage(new UIImage("ImagePressed"), UIControlState.Focused);

If you need the highlighted tint which the OS provides by default when you tap and hold on a custom button for the selected state as well, use this UIButton subclass. Written in Swift 5:

import Foundation
import UIKit
class HighlightOnSelectCustomButton: UIButton {
    override var isHighlighted: Bool {
        didSet {
            if (self.isSelected != isHighlighted) {
                self.isHighlighted = self.isSelected
            }
        }
    }
}