How to clip larger images to fit into tabBar icons in tabBarController built programmatically.

Sample_image is larger in size than is required by tab.

Try this piece of code as this will resize the required image and return an UIImage instance with 30x30 size (size required for UITabbar).

UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Sample_Image.png"];
self.tabBarItem.image = [self imageWithImage:image scaledToSize:CGSizeMake(30, 30)];

Add This method

- (UIImage *)imageWithImage:(UIImage *)image scaledToSize:(CGSize)newSize {
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(newSize, NO, 0.0);
    [image drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, newSize.width, newSize.height)];
    UIImage *newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return newImage;
}

Rename your image to [email protected]. This is called pixel doubling for the Retina Display.

Without the @2x iOS doesn't know that it should apply a scale factor and it will be used as it is and though it should be halved.

 [[[self tabBarController] tabBar] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"[email protected]"]];

In reality there should be:

Sample_Image png (45 px or so)

[email protected] so you say only:

[[[self tabBarController] tabBar] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"Sample_Image.png"]];