Is it possible to set a custom font for entire of

Question

I need to use certain font for my entire application. I have .ttf file for the same. Is it possible to set this as default font, at application start up and then use it elsewhere in the application? When set, how do I use it in my layout XMLs?

Answer 1

In summary:

Option#1: Use reflection to apply font (combining weston & Roger Huang's answer):

import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Typeface;

public final class FontsOverride { 

    public static void setDefaultFont(Context context,
            String staticTypefaceFieldName, String fontAssetName) {
        final Typeface regular = Typeface.createFromAsset(context.getAssets(),
                fontAssetName);
        replaceFont(staticTypefaceFieldName, regular);
    } 

    protected static void replaceFont(String staticTypefaceFieldName,final Typeface newTypeface) {
        if (isVersionGreaterOrEqualToLollipop()) {
            Map<String, Typeface> newMap = new HashMap<String, Typeface>();
            newMap.put("sans-serif", newTypeface);
            try {
                final Field staticField = Typeface.class.getDeclaredField("sSystemFontMap");
                staticField.setAccessible(true);
                staticField.set(null, newMap);
            } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        } else {
            try {
                final Field staticField = Typeface.class.getDeclaredField(staticTypefaceFieldName);
                staticField.setAccessible(true);
                staticField.set(null, newTypeface);
            } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } 
        }
    }

} 

Usage in Application class:

public final class Application extends android.app.Application {
    @Override 
    public void onCreate() { 
        super.onCreate(); 
        FontsOverride.setDefaultFont(this, "DEFAULT", "MyFontAsset.ttf");
        FontsOverride.setDefaultFont(this, "MONOSPACE", "MyFontAsset2.ttf");
        FontsOverride.setDefaultFont(this, "SERIF", "MyFontAsset3.ttf");
        FontsOverride.setDefaultFont(this, "SANS_SERIF", "MyFontAsset4.ttf");
    } 
} 

set up a style to force that font typeface application wide (based on lovefish):

Pre-Lollipop:

<resources>
    <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    </style>

   <!-- Application theme. -->
   <style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
       <item name="android:typeface">monospace</item>
   </style>
</resources>

Lollipop (API 21):

<resources>
    <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    </style>

   <!-- Application theme. -->
   <style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
       <item name="android:textAppearance">@style/CustomTextAppearance</item>
   </style>

   <style name="CustomTextAppearance">
       <item name="android:typeface">monospace</item>
   </style>
</resources>

Option2: Subclass each and every View where you need to customize font, ie. ListView, EditTextView, Button, etc. (Palani's answer):

public class CustomFontView extends TextView {

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

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

public CustomFontView(Context context) {
    super(context);
    init(); 
} 

private void init() { 
    if (!isInEditMode()) {
        Typeface tf = Typeface.createFromAsset(getContext().getAssets(), "Futura.ttf");
        setTypeface(tf);
    } 
} 

Option 3: Implement a View Crawler that traverses through the view hierarchy of your current screen:

Variation#1 (Tom's answer):

public static final void setAppFont(ViewGroup mContainer, Typeface mFont, boolean reflect)
{ 
    if (mContainer == null || mFont == null) return;

    final int mCount = mContainer.getChildCount();

    // Loop through all of the children. 
    for (int i = 0; i < mCount; ++i)
    { 
        final View mChild = mContainer.getChildAt(i);
        if (mChild instanceof TextView)
        { 
            // Set the font if it is a TextView. 
            ((TextView) mChild).setTypeface(mFont);
        } 
        else if (mChild instanceof ViewGroup)
        { 
            // Recursively attempt another ViewGroup. 
            setAppFont((ViewGroup) mChild, mFont);
        } 
        else if (reflect)
        { 
            try { 
                Method mSetTypeface = mChild.getClass().getMethod("setTypeface", Typeface.class);
                mSetTypeface.invoke(mChild, mFont); 
            } catch (Exception e) { /* Do something... */ }
        } 
    } 
} 

Usage :

final ViewGroup mContainer = (ViewGroup) findViewById(
android.R.id.content).getRootView();
HomeActivity.setAppFont(mContainer, Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),
"fonts/MyFont.ttf"));

Variation#2: https://coderwall.com/p/qxxmaa/android-use-a-custom-font-everywhere.

Option #4: Use 3rd Party Lib called Calligraphy.

Personally, I would recommend Option#4, as it saves a lot of headaches.

Answer 2

As of Android O this is now possible to define directly from the XML and my bug is now closed!

See here for details

TL;DR:

First you must add your fonts to the project

Second you add a font family, like so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<font-family xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <font
        android:fontStyle="normal"
        android:fontWeight="400"
        android:font="@font/lobster_regular" />
    <font
        android:fontStyle="italic"
        android:fontWeight="400"
        android:font="@font/lobster_italic" />
</font-family>

Finally, you can use the font in a layout or style:

<TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:fontFamily="@font/lobster"/>

<style name="customfontstyle" parent="@android:style/TextAppearance.Small">
    <item name="android:fontFamily">@font/lobster</item>
</style>

Enjoy!

Answer 3

While this would not work for an entire application, it would work for an Activity and could be re-used for any other Activity. I've updated my code thanks to @FR073N to support other Views. I'm not sure about issues with Buttons, RadioGroups, etc. because those classes all extend TextView so they should work just fine. I added a boolean conditional for using reflection because it seems very hackish and might notably compromise performance.

Note: as pointed out, this will not work for dynamic content! For that, it's possible to call this method with say an onCreateView or getView method, but requires additional effort.

/**
 * Recursively sets a {@link Typeface} to all
 * {@link TextView}s in a {@link ViewGroup}.
 */
public static final void setAppFont(ViewGroup mContainer, Typeface mFont, boolean reflect)
{
    if (mContainer == null || mFont == null) return;

    final int mCount = mContainer.getChildCount();

    // Loop through all of the children.
    for (int i = 0; i < mCount; ++i)
    {
        final View mChild = mContainer.getChildAt(i);
        if (mChild instanceof TextView)
        {
            // Set the font if it is a TextView.
            ((TextView) mChild).setTypeface(mFont);
        }
        else if (mChild instanceof ViewGroup)
        {
            // Recursively attempt another ViewGroup.
            setAppFont((ViewGroup) mChild, mFont);
        }
        else if (reflect)
        {
            try {
                Method mSetTypeface = mChild.getClass().getMethod("setTypeface", Typeface.class);
                mSetTypeface.invoke(mChild, mFont); 
            } catch (Exception e) { /* Do something... */ }
        }
    }
}

Then to use it you would do something like this:

final Typeface mFont = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),
"fonts/MyFont.ttf"); 
final ViewGroup mContainer = (ViewGroup) findViewById(
android.R.id.content).getRootView();
HomeActivity.setAppFont(mContainer, mFont);

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Finally, Google realized the severity of this problem (applying custom font to UI components) and they devised a clean solution for it.

First, you need to update to support library 26+ (you may also need to update your gradle{4.0+}, android studio), then you can create a new resource folder called font. In this folder, you can put your font resources (.tff,...). Then you need to override the default app them and force your custom font into it :)

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <item name="android:fontFamily">@font/my_custom_font</item>
</style>

Note: if you want to support devices with older API than 16, you have to use app namespace instead of android!

Answer 5

A brilliant solution can be found here: https://coderwall.com/p/qxxmaa/android-use-a-custom-font-everywhere.

Simply extend activities from BaseActivity and write those methods. Also you should better cache fonts as described here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/16902532/2914140.

---

After some research I wrote code that works at Samsung Galaxy Tab A (Android 5.0). Used code of weston and Roger Huang as well as https://stackoverflow.com/a/33236102/2914140. Also tested on Lenovo TAB 2 A10-70L, where it doesn't work. I inserted a font 'Comic Sans' here in order to see a difference.

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.os.Build;
import android.util.Log;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class FontsOverride {
    private static final int BOLD = 1;
    private static final int BOLD_ITALIC = 2;
    private static final int ITALIC = 3;
    private static final int LIGHT = 4;
    private static final int CONDENSED = 5;
    private static final int THIN = 6;
    private static final int MEDIUM = 7;
    private static final int REGULAR = 8;

    private Context context;

    public FontsOverride(Context context) {
        this.context = context;
    }

    public void loadFonts() {
        Map<String, Typeface> fontsMap = new HashMap<>();
        fontsMap.put("sans-serif", getTypeface("comic.ttf", REGULAR));
        fontsMap.put("sans-serif-bold", getTypeface("comic.ttf", BOLD));
        fontsMap.put("sans-serif-italic", getTypeface("comic.ttf", ITALIC));
        fontsMap.put("sans-serif-light", getTypeface("comic.ttf", LIGHT));
        fontsMap.put("sans-serif-condensed", getTypeface("comic.ttf", CONDENSED));
        fontsMap.put("sans-serif-thin", getTypeface("comic.ttf", THIN));
        fontsMap.put("sans-serif-medium", getTypeface("comic.ttf", MEDIUM));
        overrideFonts(fontsMap);
    }

    private void overrideFonts(Map<String, Typeface> typefaces) {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT == 21) {
            try {
                final Field field = Typeface.class.getDeclaredField("sSystemFontMap");
                field.setAccessible(true);
                Map<String, Typeface> oldFonts = (Map<String, Typeface>) field.get(null);
                if (oldFonts != null) {
                    oldFonts.putAll(typefaces);
                } else {
                    oldFonts = typefaces;
                }
                field.set(null, oldFonts);
                field.setAccessible(false);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e("TypefaceUtil", "Cannot set custom fonts");
            }
        } else {
            try {
                for (Map.Entry<String, Typeface> entry : typefaces.entrySet()) {
                    final Field staticField = Typeface.class.getDeclaredField(entry.getKey());
                    staticField.setAccessible(true);
                    staticField.set(null, entry.getValue());
                }
            } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }

    private Typeface getTypeface(String fontFileName, int fontType) {
        final Typeface tf = Typeface.createFromAsset(context.getAssets(), "fonts/" + fontFileName);
        return Typeface.create(tf, fontType);
    }
}

To run the code in entire application you should write in some class like Application the following:

    new FontsOverride(this).loadFonts();

Create a folder 'fonts' inside 'assets' and put needed fonts there. A simple instruction may be found here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/31697103/2914140.

The Lenovo device also incorrectly gets a value of a typeface. In most times it returns Typeface.NORMAL, sometimes null. Even if a TextView is bold (in xml-file layout). See here: TextView isBold always returns NORMAL. This way a text on a screen is always in a regural font, not bold or italic. So I think it's a bug of a producer.

Answer 6

its very simple... 1.Download and put ur custom font in assets..then write one separate class for text view as follows: here i used futura font

public class CusFntTextView extends TextView {

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

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

public CusFntTextView(Context context) {
    super(context);
    init();
}

private void init() {
    if (!isInEditMode()) {
        Typeface tf = Typeface.createFromAsset(getContext().getAssets(), "Futura.ttf");
        setTypeface(tf);
    }
}

}

and do the following in xml :

 <com.packagename.CusFntTextView
        android:id="@+id/tvtitle"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"         
        android:text="Hi Android"           
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
      />