Creating a left-arrow button like UINavigationBar s back style on a UIToolbar

Question

I d love to create a  back  left-arrow-bezel button in a UIToolbar   As far as I can tell  the only way to get one of these is to leave UINavigationController at default settings and it uses one for the left bar item  But there s no way I can find to create one as a UIBarButtonItem  so I can t make one in a standard UIToolbar  even though they re very similar to UINavigationBars   I could manually create it with button images  but I can t find the source images anywhere  They have alpha-channel edges  so screenshotting and cutting won t get very versatile results   Any ideas beyond screenshotting for every size and color scheme I intend to use   Update  PLEASE STOP dodging the question and suggesting that I shouldn t be asking this and should be using UINavigationBar  My app is Instapaper Pro  It shows only a bottom toolbar  to save space and maximize readable content area   and I wish to put a left-arrow-shaped Back button in the bottom   Telling me that I shouldn t need to do this is not an answer and certainly doesn t deserve a bounty

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Example in Swift 3  with a previous and a next button in the top right   let prevButtonItem   UIBarButtonItem title    u 25C0    style   plain  target  self  action   selector prevButtonTapped   let nextButtonItem   UIBarButtonItem title    u 25B6    style   plain  target  self  action   selector nextButtonTapped   self navigationItem rightBarButtonItems    nextButtonItem  prevButtonItem

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To create an image for the UIToolbar  make a png in photoshop and WHERE EVER there is ANY colour it puts it white  and where it s alpha   0 then it leaves it alone   The SDK actually put s the border around the icon you have made and turns it white without you having to do anything   See  this is what I made in Photoshop for my forward button  obviously swap it around for back button    http   twitpic com 1oanv  and this is what it appeared like in Interface Builder  http   twitpic com 1oaoa

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I found that using the following  simple code did the trick  requires custom image in bundle        Creates a back button instead of default behaviour  displaying title of previous screen      UIBarButtonItem  backButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithImage  UIImage imageNamed   back arrow png                                                                      style UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered                                                                   target self                                                                   action  selector backAction         tipsDetailViewController navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButton       backButton release

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Well  you don t have to have a different button for every size   you can use  UIImage stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth topCapHeight    but the only thing I ve found is custom images

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First of all you have to find an image of the back button  I used a nice app called Extractor that extracts all the graphics from iPhone  In iOS7 I managed to retrieve the image called UINavigationBarBackIndicatorDefault and it was in black colour  since I needed a red tint I change the colour to red using Gimp   EDIT    As was mentioned by btate in his comment  there is no need to change the color with the image editor  The following code should do the trick   imageView tint    UIColor redColor   imageView image     UIImage imageNamed   UINavigationBarBackIndicatorDefault   imageWithRenderingMode UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate     Then I created a view that contains an imageView with that arrow  a label with the custom text and on top of the view I have a button with an action  Then I added a simple animation  fading and translation    The following code simulates the behaviour of the back button including animation   - void viewWillAppear  BOOL animated          UIImageView  imageView   UIImageView alloc  initWithImage  UIImage imageNamed   UINavigationBarBackIndicatorDefault              imageView setTintColor  UIColor redColor            UILabel  label   UILabel alloc  init            label setTextColor  UIColor redColor             label setText   Blog             label sizeToFit            int space 6          label frame CGRectMake imageView frame origin x imageView frame size width space  label frame origin y  label frame size width  label frame size height           UIView  view   UIView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 0  0  label frame size width imageView frame size width space  imageView frame size height             view bounds CGRectMake view bounds origin x 8  view bounds origin y-1  view bounds size width  view bounds size height            view addSubview imageView            view addSubview label            UIButton  button   UIButton alloc  initWithFrame view frame            button addTarget self action  selector handleBack   forControlEvents UIControlEventTouchUpInside            view addSubview button             UIView animateWithDuration 0 33 delay 0 options UIViewAnimationOptionCurveLinear animations                label alpha   0 0              CGRect orig label frame              label frame CGRectMake label frame origin x 25  label frame origin y  label frame size width  label frame size height               label alpha   1 0              label frame orig            completion nil            UIBarButtonItem  backButton    UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithCustomView view      -  void  handleBack  id sender      EDIT   Instead of adding the button  in my opinion the better approach is to use a gesture recognizer    UITapGestureRecognizer  tap     UITapGestureRecognizer alloc  initWithTarget self action  selector handleBack      view addGestureRecognizer tap    view setUserInteractionEnabled YES

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Well  you don t have to have a different button for every size   you can use  UIImage stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth topCapHeight    but the only thing I ve found is custom images

User · Answer

To create an image for the UIToolbar  make a png in photoshop and WHERE EVER there is ANY colour it puts it white  and where it s alpha   0 then it leaves it alone   The SDK actually put s the border around the icon you have made and turns it white without you having to do anything   See  this is what I made in Photoshop for my forward button  obviously swap it around for back button    http   twitpic com 1oanv  and this is what it appeared like in Interface Builder  http   twitpic com 1oaoa

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Swift 5 2 Xcode 11 4  The Apple Symbol chevron left now allows a more elegant solution to make a custom button   I have matched the size and spacing as close as possible     import UIKit  class CustomBackButton  UIBarButtonItem        convenience init target  Any  selector  Selector                Create UIButton         let button   UIButton frame   zero              Customise Title         button setTitle  Back   for   normal          button setTitleColor  systemBlue  for   normal          button titleLabel  font   UIFont systemFont ofSize  17              Customise Image         let config   UIImage SymbolConfiguration pointSize  19 0  weight   semibold  scale   large          let image   UIImage systemName   chevron left   withConfiguration  config          button setImage image  for   normal              Add Target         button addTarget target  action  selector  for   touchUpInside              Customise Spacing to match system Back button         button imageEdgeInsets   UIEdgeInsets top  0 0  left  -18 0  bottom  0 0  right  0 0          button titleEdgeInsets   UIEdgeInsets top  0 0  left  -12 0  bottom  0 0  right  0 0           self init customView  button            This can be implemented either as a UIToolbarItem  or a UINavigationItem  override func viewDidLoad         super viewDidLoad           UIToolbar Item     let barBackButton   CustomBackButton target  self  selector   selector backButtonTapped       let flexSpace   UIBarButtonItem barButtonSystemItem   flexibleSpace  target  nil  action  nil      navigationController  setToolbarHidden false  animated  false      toolbarItems    barBackButton  flexSpace          Navigation Item     let navBackButton   CustomBackButton target  self  selector   selector backButtonTapped       navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   navBackButton     objc func backButtonTapped         print  Back tapped       If you want to flip the button and have the arrow pointing to the Right     Use Apple Symbol named  chevron right   Add the following code to the CustomBackButton class          Put the image of the right side of the button     button transform   CGAffineTransform scaleX  -1 0  y  1 0      button titleLabel  transform   CGAffineTransform scaleX  -1 0  y  1 0      button imageView  transform   CGAffineTransform scaleX  -1 0  y  1 0

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Swift      create button     var backButton   UIButton type  101          left-pointing shape      backButton addTarget self  action   selector self backAction   for   touchUpInside      backButton setTitle  Back   for   normal          create button item -- possible because UIButton subclasses UIView      var backItem   UIBarButtonItem customView  backButton          add to toolbar  or to a navbar  you should only have one of these       toolbar items    backItem      navItem leftBarButtonItem   backItem

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Well  you don t have to have a different button for every size   you can use  UIImage stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth topCapHeight    but the only thing I ve found is custom images

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Well  you don t have to have a different button for every size   you can use  UIImage stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth topCapHeight    but the only thing I ve found is custom images

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self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   self navigationItem backBarButtonItem    Works for me  I used this when I had more tabs then could fit on the tab bar  and a view controller pushed from the  More  overrode the leftBarButtonItem in its viewDidLoad

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I had a similar problem  and come out one library PButton  And the sample is the back navigation button like button  which can be used anywhere just like  a customized button    Something like this

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WARNING  There are reports that this will not work on iOS 6  This might only work on older versions of the OS  Evidently at least one dev has had their app rejected for using this trick  see the comments   Use at your own risk  Using an image  see answer above  might be a safer solution   This can be done without adding in your own image files using sekr1t button type 101 to get the correct shape  For me the trick was figuring out that I could use initWithCustomView to create the BarButtonItem  I personally needed this for a dynamic navbar rather than a toolbar  but I tested it with a toolbar and the code is nearly the same      create button UIButton  backButton    UIButton buttonWithType 101      left-pointing shape   backButton addTarget self action  selector backAction  forControlEvents UIControlEventTouchUpInside    backButton setTitle   Back  forState UIControlStateNormal       create button item -- possible because UIButton subclasses UIView  UIBarButtonItem  backItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithCustomView backButton       add to toolbar  or to a navbar  you should only have one of these    toolbar setItems  NSArray arrayWithObject backItem    navItem leftBarButtonItem   backItem    If you re doing this on a toolbar you ll have to tweak how you set the items  but that depends on the rest of your code and I leave that as an exercise for the reader   P This sample worked for me  compiled  amp  run    Blah blah  read the HIG  don t use undocumented features  and all that  There s only six supported button types and this isn t one of them

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To make a UIButton with an arrow pretty close  I m not a designer    to the iOS 7 system back arrow   Standard        Apple SD Gothic Neo    In Xcode    Focus on the title value field of the button  or any other view control with text content  Open Edit -  Special Characters Select the Parentheses group and double click the   lt   character Change font to  Apple SD Gothic Neo  Regular with desired size  e g  20  Change colour as you like   Ref  staticVoidMan s answer to Back-like arrow on iOS 7

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I m not sure if this would work  but you could try creating a UINavigationController with the default settings to create the button  find the button in the navigation controller s subview hierarchy  call removeFromSuperview on it  destroy the navigation controller  and then add the button as a subview of your toolbar   You may also need to retain and the button before calling removeFromSuperview  and then release it after adding it as subview of your toolbar  to avoid it being deallocated during the process

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If you want to avoid drawing it yourself  you could use the undocumented class  UINavigationButton with style 1  This could  of course  stop your application from being approved     John

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If you don t want to bother with image files  the arrow shape can be drawn in a UIView subclass with the following code   -  void drawRect  CGRect rect       float width   rect size width      float height   rect size height      CGContextRef context   UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext         CGContextBeginPath context       CGContextMoveToPoint context  width   5 0 6 0  height   0 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   0 0 6 0  height   5 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   5 0 6 0  height   10 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   6 0 6 0  height   9 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   2 0 6 0  height   5 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   6 0 6 0  height   1 0 10 0       CGContextClosePath context        CGContextSetFillColorWithColor context   UIColor blackColor  CGColor       CGContextFillPath context       where the arrow view is proportional to a width of 6 0 and a height of 10 0

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Solution WITHOUT using a png  Based on this SO answer  Adding the little arrow to the right side of a cell in an iPhone TableView Cell  Just flipping the UITableViewCell horizontally   UIButton  btnBack     UIButton alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 0  5  70  20        Add the disclosure CGRect frm  UITableViewCell  disclosure     UITableViewCell alloc  init   disclosure transform   CGAffineTransformScale CGAffineTransformIdentity  -1  1   frm   self btnBack bounds  disclosure frame   CGRectMake frm origin x  frm origin y  frm size width-25  frm size height   disclosure accessoryType   UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator  disclosure userInteractionEnabled   NO   self btnBack addSubview disclosure       Add the label UILabel  lbl     UILabel alloc  init   frm   CGRectOffset self btnBack bounds  15  0   lbl frame   frm  lbl textAlignment   NSTextAlignmentCenter  lbl text     BACK    self addSubview lbl

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You can find the source images by extracting them from Other artwork in UIKit   SDKROOT  System Library Frameworks UIKit framework Other artwork  The modding community has some tools for extracting them  here  Once you extract the image you can write some code to recolor it as necessary and set it as the button image  Whether or not you can actually ship such a thing  since you are embedding derived artwork  might be a little dicey  so maybe you want to talk to a lawyer

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If you want to avoid drawing it yourself  you could use the undocumented class  UINavigationButton with style 1  This could  of course  stop your application from being approved     John

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Swift      create button     var backButton   UIButton type  101          left-pointing shape      backButton addTarget self  action   selector self backAction   for   touchUpInside      backButton setTitle  Back   for   normal          create button item -- possible because UIButton subclasses UIView      var backItem   UIBarButtonItem customView  backButton          add to toolbar  or to a navbar  you should only have one of these       toolbar items    backItem      navItem leftBarButtonItem   backItem

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Why are you doing this  If you want something that looks like a navigation bar  use UINavigationBar   Toolbars have specific visual style associated with them  The Human Interface Guidelines for the iPhone state      A toolbar appears at the bottom edge of the screen and contains buttons that perform actions related to objects in the current view    It then gives several visual examples of roughly square icons with no text  I would urge you to follow the HIG on this

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The Unicode Method  I think it is much easier to just use a unicode character to get the job done  You can look through arrows by googling either Unicode Triangles or Unicode Arrows  Starting with iOS6 Apple changed the character to be an emoji character with a border  To disable the border I add the 0xFE0E Unicode Variation Selector    NSString  backArrowString      U000025C0 U0000FE0E     BLACK LEFT-POINTING TRIANGLE PLUS VARIATION SELECTOR  UIBarButtonItem  backBarButtonItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle backArrowString style UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target nil action nil   self navigationItem leftButtonItem   backBarButtonItem    The code block is just for the demo  It would work in any button that accepts an NSString   For a full list of characters search Google for Unicode character and what you want  Here is the entry for Black Left-Pointing Triangle   Result

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Solution WITHOUT using a png  Based on this SO answer  Adding the little arrow to the right side of a cell in an iPhone TableView Cell  Just flipping the UITableViewCell horizontally   UIButton  btnBack     UIButton alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 0  5  70  20        Add the disclosure CGRect frm  UITableViewCell  disclosure     UITableViewCell alloc  init   disclosure transform   CGAffineTransformScale CGAffineTransformIdentity  -1  1   frm   self btnBack bounds  disclosure frame   CGRectMake frm origin x  frm origin y  frm size width-25  frm size height   disclosure accessoryType   UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator  disclosure userInteractionEnabled   NO   self btnBack addSubview disclosure       Add the label UILabel  lbl     UILabel alloc  init   frm   CGRectOffset self btnBack bounds  15  0   lbl frame   frm  lbl textAlignment   NSTextAlignmentCenter  lbl text     BACK    self addSubview lbl

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Here s what I ended up doing after searching through all these solutions and others  It uses a stretchable png s extracted from the UIKit stock images  This way you can set the text to whatever you liek     Generate the background images UIImage  stretchableBackButton     UIImage imageNamed   UINavigationBarDefaultBack png   stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth 14 topCapHeight 0   UIImage  stretchableBackButtonPressed     UIImage imageNamed   UINavigationBarDefaultBackPressed png   stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth 13 topCapHeight 0      Setup the UIButton UIButton  backButton    UIButton buttonWithType UIButtonTypeCustom    backButton setBackgroundImage stretchableBackButton forState UIControlStateNormal    backButton setBackgroundImage stretchableBackButtonPressed forState UIControlStateSelected   NSString  buttonTitle   NSLocalizedString   Back     Back     backButton setTitle buttonTitle forState UIControlStateNormal    backButton setTitle buttonTitle forState UIControlStateSelected   backButton titleEdgeInsets   UIEdgeInsetsMake 0  5  2  1      Tweak the text position NSInteger width     backButton titleLabel text sizeWithFont backButton titleLabel font  width   backButton titleEdgeInsets right  backButton titleEdgeInsets left    backButton setFrame CGRectMake 0  0  width  29    backButton titleLabel font    UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize 13 0f    backButton addTarget self action  selector yourSelector   forControlEvents UIControlEventTouchDown      Now add the button as a custom UIBarButtonItem UIBarButtonItem  backButtonItem      UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithCustomView backButton  autorelease   self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButtonItem

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I was trying to do the same thing  but I wanted the back button to be in the navigation bar   I actually needed a back button  that would do more than only going back  so I had to use the leftBarButtonItem property   I tried what AndrewS suggested  but in the navigation bar it wouldn t look the way it should  as the UIButton was kind of casted to a UIBarButtonItem   But I found a way to work around this  I actually just put a UIView under the UIButton and set the customView for the UIBarButtonItem  Here is the code  if somebody needs it      initialize button and button view UIButton  backButton    UIButton buttonWithType 101   UIView  backButtonView     UIView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 0  0  backButton frame size width  backButton frame size height      backButton addTarget self action  selector backButtonTouched   forControlEvents UIControlEventTouchUpInside    backButton setTitle   Back  forState UIControlStateNormal    backButtonView addSubview backButton       set buttonview as custom view for bar button item UIBarButtonItem  backButtonItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithCustomView backButtonView   self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButtonItem      push item to navigationbar items  self navigationController navigationBar setItems  NSArray arrayWithObject backButtonItem

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Why are you doing this  If you want something that looks like a navigation bar  use UINavigationBar   Toolbars have specific visual style associated with them  The Human Interface Guidelines for the iPhone state      A toolbar appears at the bottom edge of the screen and contains buttons that perform actions related to objects in the current view    It then gives several visual examples of roughly square icons with no text  I would urge you to follow the HIG on this

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self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   self navigationItem backBarButtonItem    Works for me  I used this when I had more tabs then could fit on the tab bar  and a view controller pushed from the  More  overrode the leftBarButtonItem in its viewDidLoad

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If you don t want to bother with image files  the arrow shape can be drawn in a UIView subclass with the following code   -  void drawRect  CGRect rect       float width   rect size width      float height   rect size height      CGContextRef context   UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext         CGContextBeginPath context       CGContextMoveToPoint context  width   5 0 6 0  height   0 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   0 0 6 0  height   5 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   5 0 6 0  height   10 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   6 0 6 0  height   9 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   2 0 6 0  height   5 0 10 0       CGContextAddLineToPoint context  width   6 0 6 0  height   1 0 10 0       CGContextClosePath context        CGContextSetFillColorWithColor context   UIColor blackColor  CGColor       CGContextFillPath context       where the arrow view is proportional to a width of 6 0 and a height of 10 0

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Try this  I am sure you do not need a back button image to create one such   UIBarButtonItem  backButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle   Back                                                                 style UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered                                                               target self                                                               action  selector yourSelectorGoesHere     self navigationItem backBarButtonItem   backButton    That s all you have to do

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First of all you have to find an image of the back button  I used a nice app called Extractor that extracts all the graphics from iPhone  In iOS7 I managed to retrieve the image called UINavigationBarBackIndicatorDefault and it was in black colour  since I needed a red tint I change the colour to red using Gimp   EDIT    As was mentioned by btate in his comment  there is no need to change the color with the image editor  The following code should do the trick   imageView tint    UIColor redColor   imageView image     UIImage imageNamed   UINavigationBarBackIndicatorDefault   imageWithRenderingMode UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate     Then I created a view that contains an imageView with that arrow  a label with the custom text and on top of the view I have a button with an action  Then I added a simple animation  fading and translation    The following code simulates the behaviour of the back button including animation   - void viewWillAppear  BOOL animated          UIImageView  imageView   UIImageView alloc  initWithImage  UIImage imageNamed   UINavigationBarBackIndicatorDefault              imageView setTintColor  UIColor redColor            UILabel  label   UILabel alloc  init            label setTextColor  UIColor redColor             label setText   Blog             label sizeToFit            int space 6          label frame CGRectMake imageView frame origin x imageView frame size width space  label frame origin y  label frame size width  label frame size height           UIView  view   UIView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 0  0  label frame size width imageView frame size width space  imageView frame size height             view bounds CGRectMake view bounds origin x 8  view bounds origin y-1  view bounds size width  view bounds size height            view addSubview imageView            view addSubview label            UIButton  button   UIButton alloc  initWithFrame view frame            button addTarget self action  selector handleBack   forControlEvents UIControlEventTouchUpInside            view addSubview button             UIView animateWithDuration 0 33 delay 0 options UIViewAnimationOptionCurveLinear animations                label alpha   0 0              CGRect orig label frame              label frame CGRectMake label frame origin x 25  label frame origin y  label frame size width  label frame size height               label alpha   1 0              label frame orig            completion nil            UIBarButtonItem  backButton    UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithCustomView view      -  void  handleBack  id sender      EDIT   Instead of adding the button  in my opinion the better approach is to use a gesture recognizer    UITapGestureRecognizer  tap     UITapGestureRecognizer alloc  initWithTarget self action  selector handleBack      view addGestureRecognizer tap    view setUserInteractionEnabled YES

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Here s what I ended up doing after searching through all these solutions and others  It uses a stretchable png s extracted from the UIKit stock images  This way you can set the text to whatever you liek     Generate the background images UIImage  stretchableBackButton     UIImage imageNamed   UINavigationBarDefaultBack png   stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth 14 topCapHeight 0   UIImage  stretchableBackButtonPressed     UIImage imageNamed   UINavigationBarDefaultBackPressed png   stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth 13 topCapHeight 0      Setup the UIButton UIButton  backButton    UIButton buttonWithType UIButtonTypeCustom    backButton setBackgroundImage stretchableBackButton forState UIControlStateNormal    backButton setBackgroundImage stretchableBackButtonPressed forState UIControlStateSelected   NSString  buttonTitle   NSLocalizedString   Back     Back     backButton setTitle buttonTitle forState UIControlStateNormal    backButton setTitle buttonTitle forState UIControlStateSelected   backButton titleEdgeInsets   UIEdgeInsetsMake 0  5  2  1      Tweak the text position NSInteger width     backButton titleLabel text sizeWithFont backButton titleLabel font  width   backButton titleEdgeInsets right  backButton titleEdgeInsets left    backButton setFrame CGRectMake 0  0  width  29    backButton titleLabel font    UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize 13 0f    backButton addTarget self action  selector yourSelector   forControlEvents UIControlEventTouchDown      Now add the button as a custom UIBarButtonItem UIBarButtonItem  backButtonItem      UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithCustomView backButton  autorelease   self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButtonItem

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Try this  I am sure you do not need a back button image to create one such   UIBarButtonItem  backButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle   Back                                                                 style UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered                                                               target self                                                               action  selector yourSelectorGoesHere     self navigationItem backBarButtonItem   backButton    That s all you have to do

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Example in Swift 3  with a previous and a next button in the top right   let prevButtonItem   UIBarButtonItem title    u 25C0    style   plain  target  self  action   selector prevButtonTapped   let nextButtonItem   UIBarButtonItem title    u 25B6    style   plain  target  self  action   selector nextButtonTapped   self navigationItem rightBarButtonItems    nextButtonItem  prevButtonItem

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I used the following psd that I derived from http   www teehanlax com blog  p 447  http   www chrisandtennille com pictures backbutton psd  I then just created a custom UIView that I use in the customView property of the toolbar item   Works well for me     Edit  As pointed out by PrairieHippo  maralbjo found that using the following  simple code did the trick  requires custom image in bundle  should be combined with this answer  So here is additional code      Creates a back button instead of default behaviour  displaying title of previous screen  UIBarButtonItem  backButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithImage  UIImage imageNamed   back arrow png                                                                  style UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered                                                               target self                                                               action  selector backAction     tipsDetailViewController navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButton   backButton release

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Swift 5 2 Xcode 11 4  The Apple Symbol chevron left now allows a more elegant solution to make a custom button   I have matched the size and spacing as close as possible     import UIKit  class CustomBackButton  UIBarButtonItem        convenience init target  Any  selector  Selector                Create UIButton         let button   UIButton frame   zero              Customise Title         button setTitle  Back   for   normal          button setTitleColor  systemBlue  for   normal          button titleLabel  font   UIFont systemFont ofSize  17              Customise Image         let config   UIImage SymbolConfiguration pointSize  19 0  weight   semibold  scale   large          let image   UIImage systemName   chevron left   withConfiguration  config          button setImage image  for   normal              Add Target         button addTarget target  action  selector  for   touchUpInside              Customise Spacing to match system Back button         button imageEdgeInsets   UIEdgeInsets top  0 0  left  -18 0  bottom  0 0  right  0 0          button titleEdgeInsets   UIEdgeInsets top  0 0  left  -12 0  bottom  0 0  right  0 0           self init customView  button            This can be implemented either as a UIToolbarItem  or a UINavigationItem  override func viewDidLoad         super viewDidLoad           UIToolbar Item     let barBackButton   CustomBackButton target  self  selector   selector backButtonTapped       let flexSpace   UIBarButtonItem barButtonSystemItem   flexibleSpace  target  nil  action  nil      navigationController  setToolbarHidden false  animated  false      toolbarItems    barBackButton  flexSpace          Navigation Item     let navBackButton   CustomBackButton target  self  selector   selector backButtonTapped       navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   navBackButton     objc func backButtonTapped         print  Back tapped       If you want to flip the button and have the arrow pointing to the Right     Use Apple Symbol named  chevron right   Add the following code to the CustomBackButton class          Put the image of the right side of the button     button transform   CGAffineTransform scaleX  -1 0  y  1 0      button titleLabel  transform   CGAffineTransform scaleX  -1 0  y  1 0      button imageView  transform   CGAffineTransform scaleX  -1 0  y  1 0

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To make a UIButton with an arrow pretty close  I m not a designer    to the iOS 7 system back arrow   Standard        Apple SD Gothic Neo    In Xcode    Focus on the title value field of the button  or any other view control with text content  Open Edit -  Special Characters Select the Parentheses group and double click the   lt   character Change font to  Apple SD Gothic Neo  Regular with desired size  e g  20  Change colour as you like   Ref  staticVoidMan s answer to Back-like arrow on iOS 7

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I found that using the following  simple code did the trick  requires custom image in bundle        Creates a back button instead of default behaviour  displaying title of previous screen      UIBarButtonItem  backButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithImage  UIImage imageNamed   back arrow png                                                                      style UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered                                                                   target self                                                                   action  selector backAction         tipsDetailViewController navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButton       backButton release

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I used the following psd that I derived from http   www teehanlax com blog  p 447  http   www chrisandtennille com pictures backbutton psd  I then just created a custom UIView that I use in the customView property of the toolbar item   Works well for me     Edit  As pointed out by PrairieHippo  maralbjo found that using the following  simple code did the trick  requires custom image in bundle  should be combined with this answer  So here is additional code      Creates a back button instead of default behaviour  displaying title of previous screen  UIBarButtonItem  backButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithImage  UIImage imageNamed   back arrow png                                                                  style UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered                                                               target self                                                               action  selector backAction     tipsDetailViewController navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButton   backButton release

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It s easy to do with Interface Builder in Xcode 5 x      use Toolbar and Bar Button Item from Object library    in button s Attributes inspector edit Image section  with your back button image     Done

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The Three20 library has a way to do this     UIBarButtonItem  backButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle    Title  style UIBarButtonItemStylePlain                                                                  target self action  selector foo       UIColor  darkBlue   RGBCOLOR 109  132  162      TTShapeStyle  style    TTShapeStyle styleWithShape  TTRoundedLeftArrowShape shapeWithRadius 4 5  next       TTShadowStyle styleWithColor RGBCOLOR 255 255 255  blur 1 offset CGSizeMake 0  1  next       TTReflectiveFillStyle styleWithColor darkBlue next       TTBevelBorderStyle styleWithHighlight  darkBlue shadow                                       shadow  darkBlue multiplyHue 1 saturation 0 5 value 0 5                                        width 1 lightSource 270 next       TTInsetStyle styleWithInset UIEdgeInsetsMake 0  -1  0  -1  next       TTBevelBorderStyle styleWithHighlight nil shadow RGBACOLOR 0 0 0 0 15                                          width 1 lightSource 270 next nil           TTView  view      TTView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 0  0  80  35   autorelease     view backgroundColor    UIColor clearColor     view style   style    backButton customView   view      self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButton

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The Unicode Method  I think it is much easier to just use a unicode character to get the job done  You can look through arrows by googling either Unicode Triangles or Unicode Arrows  Starting with iOS6 Apple changed the character to be an emoji character with a border  To disable the border I add the 0xFE0E Unicode Variation Selector    NSString  backArrowString      U000025C0 U0000FE0E     BLACK LEFT-POINTING TRIANGLE PLUS VARIATION SELECTOR  UIBarButtonItem  backBarButtonItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle backArrowString style UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target nil action nil   self navigationItem leftButtonItem   backBarButtonItem    The code block is just for the demo  It would work in any button that accepts an NSString   For a full list of characters search Google for Unicode character and what you want  Here is the entry for Black Left-Pointing Triangle   Result

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WARNING  There are reports that this will not work on iOS 6  This might only work on older versions of the OS  Evidently at least one dev has had their app rejected for using this trick  see the comments   Use at your own risk  Using an image  see answer above  might be a safer solution   This can be done without adding in your own image files using sekr1t button type 101 to get the correct shape  For me the trick was figuring out that I could use initWithCustomView to create the BarButtonItem  I personally needed this for a dynamic navbar rather than a toolbar  but I tested it with a toolbar and the code is nearly the same      create button UIButton  backButton    UIButton buttonWithType 101      left-pointing shape   backButton addTarget self action  selector backAction  forControlEvents UIControlEventTouchUpInside    backButton setTitle   Back  forState UIControlStateNormal       create button item -- possible because UIButton subclasses UIView  UIBarButtonItem  backItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithCustomView backButton       add to toolbar  or to a navbar  you should only have one of these    toolbar setItems  NSArray arrayWithObject backItem    navItem leftBarButtonItem   backItem    If you re doing this on a toolbar you ll have to tweak how you set the items  but that depends on the rest of your code and I leave that as an exercise for the reader   P This sample worked for me  compiled  amp  run    Blah blah  read the HIG  don t use undocumented features  and all that  There s only six supported button types and this isn t one of them

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I had a similar problem  and come out one library PButton  And the sample is the back navigation button like button  which can be used anywhere just like  a customized button    Something like this

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It s easy to do with Interface Builder in Xcode 5 x      use Toolbar and Bar Button Item from Object library    in button s Attributes inspector edit Image section  with your back button image     Done

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The Three20 library has a way to do this     UIBarButtonItem  backButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle    Title  style UIBarButtonItemStylePlain                                                                  target self action  selector foo       UIColor  darkBlue   RGBCOLOR 109  132  162      TTShapeStyle  style    TTShapeStyle styleWithShape  TTRoundedLeftArrowShape shapeWithRadius 4 5  next       TTShadowStyle styleWithColor RGBCOLOR 255 255 255  blur 1 offset CGSizeMake 0  1  next       TTReflectiveFillStyle styleWithColor darkBlue next       TTBevelBorderStyle styleWithHighlight  darkBlue shadow                                       shadow  darkBlue multiplyHue 1 saturation 0 5 value 0 5                                        width 1 lightSource 270 next       TTInsetStyle styleWithInset UIEdgeInsetsMake 0  -1  0  -1  next       TTBevelBorderStyle styleWithHighlight nil shadow RGBACOLOR 0 0 0 0 15                                          width 1 lightSource 270 next nil           TTView  view      TTView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 0  0  80  35   autorelease     view backgroundColor    UIColor clearColor     view style   style    backButton customView   view      self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButton

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I m not sure if this would work  but you could try creating a UINavigationController with the default settings to create the button  find the button in the navigation controller s subview hierarchy  call removeFromSuperview on it  destroy the navigation controller  and then add the button as a subview of your toolbar   You may also need to retain and the button before calling removeFromSuperview  and then release it after adding it as subview of your toolbar  to avoid it being deallocated during the process

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Why are you doing this  If you want something that looks like a navigation bar  use UINavigationBar   Toolbars have specific visual style associated with them  The Human Interface Guidelines for the iPhone state      A toolbar appears at the bottom edge of the screen and contains buttons that perform actions related to objects in the current view    It then gives several visual examples of roughly square icons with no text  I would urge you to follow the HIG on this

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I was trying to do the same thing  but I wanted the back button to be in the navigation bar   I actually needed a back button  that would do more than only going back  so I had to use the leftBarButtonItem property   I tried what AndrewS suggested  but in the navigation bar it wouldn t look the way it should  as the UIButton was kind of casted to a UIBarButtonItem   But I found a way to work around this  I actually just put a UIView under the UIButton and set the customView for the UIBarButtonItem  Here is the code  if somebody needs it      initialize button and button view UIButton  backButton    UIButton buttonWithType 101   UIView  backButtonView     UIView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectMake 0  0  backButton frame size width  backButton frame size height      backButton addTarget self action  selector backButtonTouched   forControlEvents UIControlEventTouchUpInside    backButton setTitle   Back  forState UIControlStateNormal    backButtonView addSubview backButton       set buttonview as custom view for bar button item UIBarButtonItem  backButtonItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithCustomView backButtonView   self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   backButtonItem      push item to navigationbar items  self navigationController navigationBar setItems  NSArray arrayWithObject backButtonItem

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Why are you doing this  If you want something that looks like a navigation bar  use UINavigationBar   Toolbars have specific visual style associated with them  The Human Interface Guidelines for the iPhone state      A toolbar appears at the bottom edge of the screen and contains buttons that perform actions related to objects in the current view    It then gives several visual examples of roughly square icons with no text  I would urge you to follow the HIG on this

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You can find the source images by extracting them from Other artwork in UIKit   SDKROOT  System Library Frameworks UIKit framework Other artwork  The modding community has some tools for extracting them  here  Once you extract the image you can write some code to recolor it as necessary and set it as the button image  Whether or not you can actually ship such a thing  since you are embedding derived artwork  might be a little dicey  so maybe you want to talk to a lawyer

[ios] Creating a left-arrow button (like UINavigationBar's "back" style) on a UIToolbar

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