When I make icons for a UITabBar, it applies a gradient to the images. I need to know how to prevent it from having this gradient.
Apple added tab bar customization in iOS 5, and now this kind of stuff is trivial. Prior to this it was a huge hack, and not recommended.
Here's how to do a completely custom tab bar:
// custom icons
UITabBarItem *item = [[UITabBarItem alloc] init];
item.title = @"foo";
// setting custom images prevents the OS from applying a tint color
[item setFinishedSelectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"tab1_active.png"] withFinishedUnselectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"tab1_image_deselected.png"]];
tab1ViewController.tabBarItem = item;
// tab bar
// set background image - will be used instead of glossy black
tabBarController.tabBar.backgroundImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"tab_bar_bg.png"];
// optionally set the tint color - setting this ti nil will result in the standard, blue tint color. tint color is ignored when custom icons are set as above.
tabBarController.tabBar.selectedImageTintColor = nil;
// remove the highlight around the selected tab - or provide an alternate highlight image. If you don't do this the iOS default is to draw a highlighted box beneath the selected tab icon.
tabBarController.tabBar.selectionIndicatorImage = [[UIImage alloc] init];