我能做的最好的iOS7和更少的是:

- (CGRect)placeholderRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
  return [self textRectForBounds:bounds];
}

- (CGRect)editingRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
  return [self textRectForBounds:bounds];
}

- (CGRect)textRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
  CGRect rect = CGRectInset(bounds, 0, 6); //TODO: can be improved by comparing font size versus bounds.size.height
  return rect;
}

- (void)drawPlaceholderInRect:(CGRect)rect {
  UIColor *color =RGBColor(65, 65, 65);
  if (SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(@"7.0")) {
    [self.placeholder drawInRect:rect withAttributes:@{NSFontAttributeName:self.font, UITextAttributeTextColor:color}];
  } else {
    [color setFill];
    [self.placeholder drawInRect:rect withFont:self.font];
  }
}

重写drawPlaceholderInRect:将是正确的方式，但由于API(或文档)中的错误，它不起作用。

该方法永远不会在UITextField上被调用。

参见drawTextInRect on UITextField not called

你可以使用digdog的解决方案。因为我不确定这是否通过了苹果的审查，我选择了一个不同的解决方案:用我自己的标签覆盖文本字段，模仿占位符行为。

这有点乱。 代码看起来像这样(注意，我在TextField的子类中这样做):

@implementation PlaceholderChangingTextField

- (void) changePlaceholderColor:(UIColor*)color
{    
    // Need to place the overlay placeholder exactly above the original placeholder
    UILabel *overlayPlaceholderLabel = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(self.frame.origin.x + 8, self.frame.origin.y + 4, self.frame.size.width - 16, self.frame.size.height - 8)] autorelease];
    overlayPlaceholderLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    overlayPlaceholderLabel.opaque = YES;
    overlayPlaceholderLabel.text = self.placeholder;
    overlayPlaceholderLabel.textColor = color;
    overlayPlaceholderLabel.font = self.font;
    // Need to add it to the superview, as otherwise we cannot overlay the buildin text label.
    [self.superview addSubview:overlayPlaceholderLabel];
    self.placeholder = nil;
}

也许你想尝试这种方式，但苹果可能会警告你访问私有ivar:

[self.myTextField setValue:[UIColor darkGrayColor] 
                forKeyPath:@"_placeholderLabel.textColor"];

请注意 根据Martin Alléus的说法，iOS 7不再适用了。

你为什么不直接使用UIAppearance方法:

[[UILabel appearanceWhenContainedIn:[UITextField class], nil] setTextColor:[UIColor whateverColorYouNeed]];

对于那些使用Monotouch (Xamarin.iOS)的人，这里是Adam的答案，翻译成c#:

public class MyTextBox : UITextField
{
    public override void DrawPlaceholder(RectangleF rect)
    {
        UIColor.FromWhiteAlpha(0.5f, 1f).SetFill();
        new NSString(this.Placeholder).DrawString(rect, Font);
    }
}

我需要保持占位符的对齐，这样亚当的答案对我来说就不够了。

为了解决这个问题，我使用了一个小的变化，我希望也能帮助到你们:

- (void) drawPlaceholderInRect:(CGRect)rect {
    //search field placeholder color
    UIColor* color = [UIColor whiteColor];

    [color setFill];
    [self.placeholder drawInRect:rect withFont:self.font lineBreakMode:UILineBreakModeTailTruncation alignment:self.textAlignment];
}