How to prevent bold images with UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate

I recommend you to use a custom category to tint your image buttons. Here is a simple implementation that does just that:

UIImage+TintImage.h

@interface UIImage (TintImage)
- (UIImage *)imageTintedWithColor:(UIColor *)tintColor;
@end

UIImage+TintImage.m

#import "UIImage+TintImage.h"

@implementation UIImage (TintImage)
- (UIImage *)imageTintedWithColor:(UIColor *)tintColor
{
    if (tintColor == nil) {
        tintColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    }

    CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.size.width, self.size.height);
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.size, NO, 0.0f);

    // Tint image
    [tintColor set];
    UIRectFill(rect);
    [self drawInRect:rect blendMode:kCGBlendModeDestinationIn alpha:1.0f];
    UIImage *tintedImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
    return tintedImage;
}
@end

To use it, just import "UIImage+TintImage.h", then do the following:

UIImage *originalImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"icn-menu"];
UIImage *tintedImage = [originalImage imageTintedWithColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
UIButton *homeButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[homeButton setImage:originalImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[homeButton setImage:tintedImage forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];