How to disable the highlight control state of a UIButton?
Your button must have its buttonType set to Custom.
In IB you can uncheck "Highlight adjusts image".
Programmatically you can use theButton.adjustsImageWhenHighlighted = NO;
Similar options are available for the "disabled" state as well.
In addition to above answer of unchecking "highlight adjusts image" in IB, make sure that button type is set CUSTOM.