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);
    }
}

这适用于Swift <3.0:

myTextField.attributedPlaceholder = 
NSAttributedString(string: "placeholder text", attributes: [NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.redColor()])

在iOS 8.2和iOS 8.3 beta 4中测试。

斯威夫特3:

myTextfield.attributedPlaceholder =
NSAttributedString(string: "placeholder text", attributes: [NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.red])

斯威夫特4:

myTextfield.attributedPlaceholder =
NSAttributedString(string: "placeholder text", attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.red])

斯威夫特4.2:

myTextfield.attributedPlaceholder =
NSAttributedString(string: "placeholder text", attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.red])

iOS 6及后续版本在UITextField上提供attributedPlaceholder。 iOS 3.2及更高版本提供了setAttributes:range: on NSMutableAttributedString。

您可以执行以下操作:

NSMutableAttributedString *ms = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:self.yourInput.placeholder];
UIFont *placeholderFont = self.yourInput.font;
NSRange fullRange = NSMakeRange(0, ms.length);
NSDictionary *newProps = @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName:[UIColor yourColor], NSFontAttributeName:placeholderFont};
[ms setAttributes:newProps range:fullRange];
self.yourInput.attributedPlaceholder = ms;

Swift 3.0 +故事板

为了改变故事板中的占位符颜色，使用next代码创建一个扩展。(如果您认为可以更新此代码，可以更清晰、更安全)。

extension UITextField {
    @IBInspectable var placeholderColor: UIColor {
        get {
            guard let currentAttributedPlaceholderColor = attributedPlaceholder?.attribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, at: 0, effectiveRange: nil) as? UIColor else { return UIColor.clear }
            return currentAttributedPlaceholderColor
        }
        set {
            guard let currentAttributedString = attributedPlaceholder else { return }
            let attributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName : newValue]

            attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: currentAttributedString.string, attributes: attributes)
        }
    }
}

Swift 4版本

extension UITextField {
    @IBInspectable var placeholderColor: UIColor {
        get {
            return attributedPlaceholder?.attribute(.foregroundColor, at: 0, effectiveRange: nil) as? UIColor ?? .clear
        }
        set {
            guard let attributedPlaceholder = attributedPlaceholder else { return }
            let attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey: UIColor] = [.foregroundColor: newValue]
            self.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: attributedPlaceholder.string, attributes: attributes)
        }
    }
}

Swift 5版本

extension UITextField {
    @IBInspectable var placeholderColor: UIColor {
        get {
            return attributedPlaceholder?.attribute(.foregroundColor, at: 0, effectiveRange: nil) as? UIColor ?? .clear
        }
        set {
            guard let attributedPlaceholder = attributedPlaceholder else { return }
            let attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key: UIColor] = [.foregroundColor: newValue]
            self.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: attributedPlaceholder.string, attributes: attributes)
        }
    }
}

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);
    }
}

你为什么不直接使用UIAppearance方法:

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