How to change fontFamily of TextView in Android

Question

So I'd like to change the android:fontFamily in Android but I don't see any pre-defined fonts in Android. How do I select one of the pre-defined ones? I don't really need to define my own TypeFace but all I need is something different from what it shows right now.

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/HeaderText"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
    android:layout_marginTop="52dp"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="CallerBlocker"
    android:textSize="40dp"
    android:fontFamily="Arial"
 />

It seems what I did up there won't really work! BTW android:fontFamily="Arial" was a stupid attempt!

Answer 1

If you want it programatically, you could use

label.setTypeface(Typeface.SANS_SERIF, Typeface.ITALIC);

Where SANS_SERIF you can use:

• DEFAULT
• DEFAULT_BOLD
• MONOSPACE
• SANS_SERIF
• SERIF

And where ITALIC you can use:

• BOLD
• BOLD_ITALIC
• ITALIC
• NORMAL

All is stated on Android Developers

Answer 2

What you want is not possible. You must need to set TypeFace in your Code.

In XML what you can do is

android:typeface="sans" | "serif" | "monospace"

other then this you can not play much with the Fonts in XML. :)

For Arial you need to set type face in your code.

Answer 3

Android doesn't allow you to set custom fonts from the XML layout. Instead, you must bundle the specific font file in your app's assets folder, and set it programmatically. Something like:

TextView textView = (TextView) findViewById(<your TextView ID>);
Typeface typeFace = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "<file name>");
textView.setTypeface(typeFace);

Note that you can only run this code after setContentView() has been called. Also, only some fonts are supported by Android, and should be in a .ttf (TrueType) or .otf (OpenType) format. Even then, some fonts may not work.

This is a font that definitely works on Android, and you can use this to confirm that your code is working in case your font file isn't supported by Android.

Android O Update: This is now possible with XML in Android O, based on Roger's comment.

Answer 4

For android-studio 3 and above you can use this style and then all textView font change in app.

create this style in your style.xml :

<!--OverRide all textView font-->
<style name="defaultTextViewStyle" parent="android:Widget.TextView">
        <item name="android:fontFamily">@font/your_custom_font</item>
</style>

Then use it in your theme :

<!-- Base application theme. -->
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
        <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item>
        <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
        <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
        <item name="android:textViewStyle">@style/defaultTextViewStyle</item>
    </style>

Answer 5

An easy way to manage the fonts would be to declare them via resources, as such:

<!--++++++++++++++++++++++++++-->
<!--added on API 16 (JB - 4.1)-->
<!--++++++++++++++++++++++++++-->
<!--the default font-->
<string name="fontFamily__roboto_regular">sans-serif</string>
<string name="fontFamily__roboto_light">sans-serif-light</string>
<string name="fontFamily__roboto_condensed">sans-serif-condensed</string>

<!--+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-->
<!--added on API 17 (JBMR1 - 4.2)-->
<!--+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-->
<string name="fontFamily__roboto_thin">sans-serif-thin</string>

<!--+++++++++++++++++++++++++++-->
<!--added on Lollipop (LL- 5.0)-->
<!--+++++++++++++++++++++++++++-->
<string name="fontFamily__roboto_medium">sans-serif-medium</string>
<string name="fontFamily__roboto_black">sans-serif-black</string>
<string name="fontFamily__roboto_condensed_light">sans-serif-condensed-light</string>

This is based on the source code here and here

Answer 6

This is the way to set the font programmatically:

TextView tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.appname);
Typeface face = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),
            "fonts/epimodem.ttf");
tv.setTypeface(face);

put the font file in your assets folder. In my case I created a subdirectory called fonts.

EDIT: If you wonder where is your assets folder see this question