How can i apply my own interface design on iPad ?

Question

I tried to look for a tutorial that tell me how to apply my own interface design on iPad application in (Xcode or interface builder don't know!) such as background images, overriding default button look and feel, but couldn't find anything, don't know may be i was trying the wrong keywords,

Can anyone give me some good links ? Thanks

Answer 1

1. Background image is just an image that is dragged across a UIView (at least thats how I do it). Nothing special, really.
2. For buttons, drag a standard button in Interface Builder, go to the "Inspector" window and under "Button Attribute" there should be an "Image" select you own image and you BAM! you got a custom button.

For (I think) all the stuff that Interface builder gives, go to the Inspector window and look at the "Attributes" section. And then you can find anything customizable there.

These have a coding equivalent. For example you can set the button image this way too (assuming image is a UIImage):

[btn setImage:image forState:UIControlStateNormal]

Answer 2

There are lots of ways to customize the look of an app. If you want to go your own way, you're talking about backgrounds and custom UI elements.

To set the background of a UIView, add your artwork to your project and set the backgroundColor of your view. In code:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    self.view.backgroundColor = [[UIColor alloc] initWithPatternImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"yourImageArtwork"]];
    ... whatever else you want to do ...
}

As far as custom UI goes, there could be a million different ways to customize it. One simple and pretty efficient way to customize UIButtons was on Jeff LaMarche's website. He's posted some code up that makes it very easy to do gradient buttons.

As you use and learn more of Apple's UI goodies, you'll start to see patterns emerge for things like backgroundColor and will start to see for yourself where customizations can be done.

If you see an app and like something specific about it, I would suggest posting a pic on Stack Overflow and asking "how'd they do that???".

Good luck!