Standard Android Button with a different color

Question

I'd like to change the color of a standard Android button slightly in order to better match a client's branding.

The best way I've found to do this so far is to change the Button's drawable to the drawable located in res/drawable/red_button.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>    
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/red_button_pressed" />
    <item android:state_focused="true" android:drawable="@drawable/red_button_focus" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/red_button_rest" />
</selector>

But doing that requires that I actually create three different drawables for each button I want to customize (one for the button at rest, one when focused, and one when pressed). That seems more complicated and non-DRY than I need.

All I really want to do is apply some sort of color transform to the button. Is there an easier way to go about changing a button's color than I'm doing?

Answer 1

If you are making colour buttons with XML you can make the code a bit cleaner by specifying the focused and pressed state in a separate file and reuse them. My green button looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <item android:state_focused="true" android:drawable="@drawable/button_focused"/>
    <item android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/button_pressed"/>

    <item>
        <shape>
            <gradient android:startColor="#ff00ff00" android:endColor="#bb00ff00" android:angle="270" />
            <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#bb00ff00" />
            <corners android:radius="3dp" />
            <padding android:left="10dp" android:top="10dp" android:right="10dp" android:bottom="10dp" />
        </shape>
    </item>

</selector>

Answer 2

I am using this approach

style.xml

<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
    <item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">#413152</item>
    <item name="android:colorPrimary">#534364</item>
    <item name="android:colorAccent">#534364</item>
    <item name="android:buttonStyle">@style/MyButtonStyle</item>
</style>

<style name="MyButtonStyle" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Button.Colored">
    <item name="android:colorButtonNormal">#534364</item>
    <item name="android:textColor">#ffffff</item>
</style>

As you can see from above, I'm using a custom style for my button. The button color corresponds to the accent color. I find this a much better approach than setting android:background as I won't lose the ripple effect Google provides.

Answer 3

Following on from Tomasz's answer, you can also programmatically set the shade of the entire button using the PorterDuff multiply mode. This will change the button colour rather than just the tint.

If you start with a standard grey shaded button:

button.getBackground().setColorFilter(0xFFFF0000, PorterDuff.Mode.MULTIPLY);

will give you a red shaded button,

button.getBackground().setColorFilter(0xFF00FF00, PorterDuff.Mode.MULTIPLY);

will give you a green shaded button etc., where the first value is the colour in hex format.

It works by multiplying the current button colour value by your colour value. I'm sure there's also a lot more you can do with these modes.

Answer 4

You can Also use this online tool to customize your button http://angrytools.com/android/button/ and use android:background="@drawable/custom_btn" to define the customized button in your layout.

Answer 5

The way I do a different styled button that works quite well is to subclass the Button object and apply a colour filter. This also handles enabled and disabled states by applying an alpha to the button.

import android.annotation.TargetApi;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.ColorFilter;
import android.graphics.LightingColorFilter;
import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;
import android.graphics.drawable.LayerDrawable;
import android.os.Build;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.widget.Button;

public class DimmableButton extends Button {

    public DimmableButton(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public DimmableButton(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    public DimmableButton(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
    @Override
    public void setBackgroundDrawable(Drawable d) {
        // Replace the original background drawable (e.g. image) with a LayerDrawable that
        // contains the original drawable.
        DimmableButtonBackgroundDrawable layer = new DimmableButtonBackgroundDrawable(d);
        super.setBackgroundDrawable(layer);
    }

    @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN)
    @Override
    public void setBackground(Drawable d) {
        // Replace the original background drawable (e.g. image) with a LayerDrawable that
        // contains the original drawable.
        DimmableButtonBackgroundDrawable layer = new DimmableButtonBackgroundDrawable(d);
        super.setBackground(layer);
    }

    /**
     * The stateful LayerDrawable used by this button.
     */
    protected class DimmableButtonBackgroundDrawable extends LayerDrawable {

        // The color filter to apply when the button is pressed
        protected ColorFilter _pressedFilter = new LightingColorFilter(Color.LTGRAY, 1);
        // Alpha value when the button is disabled
        protected int _disabledAlpha = 100;
        // Alpha value when the button is enabled
        protected int _fullAlpha = 255;

        public DimmableButtonBackgroundDrawable(Drawable d) {
            super(new Drawable[] { d });
        }

        @Override
        protected boolean onStateChange(int[] states) {
            boolean enabled = false;
            boolean pressed = false;

            for (int state : states) {
                if (state == android.R.attr.state_enabled)
                    enabled = true;
                else if (state == android.R.attr.state_pressed)
                    pressed = true;
            }

            mutate();
            if (enabled && pressed) {
                setColorFilter(_pressedFilter);
            } else if (!enabled) {
                setColorFilter(null);
                setAlpha(_disabledAlpha);
            } else {
                setColorFilter(null);
                setAlpha(_fullAlpha);
            }

            invalidateSelf();

            return super.onStateChange(states);
        }

        @Override
        public boolean isStateful() {
            return true;
        }
    }

}

Answer 6

The shortest solution which is working with any Android version:

<Button
     app:backgroundTint="@color/my_color"

Notes/Requirements:

• Use the app: namespace and not the android: namespace!

• appcompat version > 24.2.0

  dependencies { compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.3.1' }

Explanation: