Preventing a UITabBar from applying a gradient to its icon images

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];