How to disable the overlay color for images inside Button and NavigationLink

Paul Hudson    @twostraws    December 1st 2022

Updated for Xcode 14.2

Updated in iOS 15

On iOS, an image drawn inside a NavigationLink or a Button will almost certainly not behave as you expect: the whole image will be be covered with an opaque blue color, or whatever accent color you have in your view.

There are two ways you can fix this; which you choose depends on the behavior you want.

First, you can use the renderingMode() mode modifier to achieve a slightly different result:

NavigationStack {
    NavigationLink {
        Text("Detail view here")
    } label: {
        Image("logo")
            .renderingMode(.original)
    }
}

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As an alternative, you can use the buttonStyle() modifier with .plain, like this:

NavigationStack {
    NavigationLink {
        Text("Detail view here")
    } label: {
        Image("logo")
    }
    .buttonStyle(.plain)
}

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Or like this for plain buttons:

Button {
    // your action here
} label: {
    Image("logo")
}
.buttonStyle(.plain)

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Important: If you’re using Xcode 12 you need to use PlainButtonStyle() rather than .plain.

The difference is subtle, but important: if you use a Button inside a List, using buttonStyle(.plain) will mean that only the space directly around the button’s content can be tapped, whereas if you use .renderingMode(.original) then the whole cell remains tappable.

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