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You need to init UIButton, add an image to it and init UIBarButtonItem with initWIthCustomView using the button created:

<pre style="background-image: URL(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z5ltvMQPaa8/SjJXr_U2YBI/AAAAAAAAAAM/46OqEP32CJ8/s320/codebg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"> // Initialize the UIButton
UIImage *buttonImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"buttonImage.png"];
UIButton *aButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[aButton setImage:buttonImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];
aButton.frame = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, buttonImage.size.width, buttonImage.size.height);
</pre><pre style="background-image: URL(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z5ltvMQPaa8/SjJXr_U2YBI/AAAAAAAAAAM/46OqEP32CJ8/s320/codebg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"> // Initialize the UIBarButtonItem
UIBarButtonItem aBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:aButton];
 </pre><pre style="background-image: URL(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z5ltvMQPaa8/SjJXr_U2YBI/AAAAAAAAAAM/46OqEP32CJ8/s320/codebg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;">// Set the Target and Action for aButton
[aButton addTarget:self action:@selector(aButtonClicked:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
 </pre><pre style="background-image: URL(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z5ltvMQPaa8/SjJXr_U2YBI/AAAAAAAAAAM/46OqEP32CJ8/s320/codebg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;">// Then you can add the aBarButtonItem to the UIToolbar
...
// Don't need to release the buttonImage as suggested by Nicky
//[buttonImage release];
</pre>
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