修改占位符文本颜色最简单的方法是通过XCode故事板接口构建器。选择感兴趣的UITextField并打开右侧的标识检查器。单击User Defined Runtime Attributes中的加号，并添加一个新行，其中Key Path为_placeholderLabel。输入颜色和值到你想要的颜色。

这里还有另一种方法，它复制了UITextField占位符的轻微缩进:

将UITextField拖到UITextView的右边，这样它们的左上角就对齐了。将占位符文本添加到文本字段。

在viewDidLoad中添加:

[tView setDelegate:self];
tView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(-8,-8,0,0);
tView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

然后添加:

- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView {
    if (textView.text.length == 0) {
        textView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];            
    } else {
        textView.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    }
}

我创建了一个实例变量来检查是否显示占位符:

BOOL showPlaceHolder;
UITextView * textView; // and also the textView

在viewDidLoad上设置:

[self setPlaceHolder]; 

下面是它的作用:

- (void)setPlaceholder
{
    textView.text = NSLocalizedString(@"Type your question here", @"placeholder");
    textView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
    self.showPlaceHolder = YES; //we save the state so it won't disappear in case you want to re-edit it
}

我还创建了一个按钮来退出键盘。您不必这样做，但这里很酷的事情是，如果没有输入任何内容，占位符将再次显示

- (void)textViewDidBeginEditing:(UITextView *)txtView 
{
    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Done" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target:self action:@selector(resignKeyboard)];
    if (self.showPlaceHolder == YES) 
    {
        textView.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
        textView.text = @"";
        self.showPlaceHolder = NO;
    }
}

- (void)resignKeyboard 
{
    [textView resignFirstResponder];
    //here if you created a button like I did to resign the keyboard, you should hide it
    if (textView.text.length == 0) {
        [self setPlaceholder];
    }       
}

下面是swift 3.1的代码

原始代码由杰森乔治在第一个答案。

不要忘记设置你的自定义类的TextView在接口生成器UIPlaceHolderTextView，然后设置占位符和占位符属性。

import UIKit

@IBDesignable
class UIPlaceHolderTextView: UITextView {

@IBInspectable var placeholder: String = ""
@IBInspectable var placeholderColor: UIColor = UIColor.lightGray

private let uiPlaceholderTextChangedAnimationDuration: Double = 0.05
private let defaultTagValue = 999

private var placeHolderLabel: UILabel?

override func awakeFromNib() {
    super.awakeFromNib()
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        self,
        selector: #selector(textChanged),
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

override init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
    super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        self,
        selector: #selector(textChanged),
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        self,
        selector: #selector(textChanged),
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

deinit {
    NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(
        self,
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

@objc private func textChanged() {
    guard !placeholder.isEmpty else {
        return
    }
    UIView.animate(withDuration: uiPlaceholderTextChangedAnimationDuration) {
        if self.text.isEmpty {
            self.viewWithTag(self.defaultTagValue)?.alpha = CGFloat(1.0)
        }
        else {
            self.viewWithTag(self.defaultTagValue)?.alpha = CGFloat(0.0)
        }
    }
}

override var text: String! {
    didSet{
        super.text = text
        textChanged()
    }
}

override func draw(_ rect: CGRect) {
    if !placeholder.isEmpty {
        if placeHolderLabel == nil {
            placeHolderLabel = UILabel.init(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 8, width: bounds.size.width - 16, height: 0))
            placeHolderLabel!.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
            placeHolderLabel!.numberOfLines = 0
            placeHolderLabel!.font = font
            placeHolderLabel!.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
            placeHolderLabel!.textColor = placeholderColor
            placeHolderLabel!.alpha = 0
            placeHolderLabel!.tag = defaultTagValue
            self.addSubview(placeHolderLabel!)
        }

        placeHolderLabel!.text = placeholder
        placeHolderLabel!.sizeToFit()
        self.sendSubview(toBack: placeHolderLabel!)

        if text.isEmpty && !placeholder.isEmpty {
            viewWithTag(defaultTagValue)?.alpha = 1.0
        }
    }

    super.draw(rect)
}
}

在尝试了一些建议的方法后，我写了一个更清晰的实现，并将其发布到Github上。拉请求和问题是欢迎的。

与其他方法相比，这里提出了一些关键的改进:

不会在drawRect:中分配一个UILabel。(请不要这样做。) 不将文本视图的当前文本与所需的占位符进行比较以交换颜色。 当听写处于活动状态时隐藏占位符(如UITextField)。

我刚刚发现，在iOS 10中，你现在可以将UITextView转换为方法的UITextField，并在方法中设置占位符。刚试过，它不需要子类化UITextView就能工作。

下面是一个对我有用的例子:

-(void)customizeTextField:(UITextField *)textField placeholder:(NSString *)pText withColor:(UIColor *)pTextColor{

        textField.attributedPlaceholder = [[NSAttributedString alloc]
                                          initWithString:pText
                                          attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName:pTextColor}];
    }

为了将它用于UITextView，你只需要将它传递给方法，使用像这样的类型转换:

[self customizeTextField:(UITextField*)_myTextView placeholder:@"Placeholder" withColor:[UIColor blackColor]];

注:经过测试，我发现这个解决方案在iOS9上也很好。但是会在iOS8.x上导致崩溃