Custom fonts and XML layouts (Android)

Question

I'm trying to define a GUI layout using XML files in Android. As far as I can find out, there is no way to specify that your widgets should use a custom font (e.g. one you've placed in assets/font/) in XML files and you can only use the system installed fonts.

I know that, in the Java code, I could change the font of each widget manually using unique IDs. Alternatively, I could iterate over all the widgets in Java to make this change, but this would probably be very slow.

What other options do I have? Is there any better ways to making widgets that have a custom look? I don't particularly want to have to manually change the font for every new widget I add.

Answer 1

You can't extend TextView to create a widget or use one in a widgets layout: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/appwidgets/index.html

Answer 2

The best way to do it From Android O preview release is this way
1.)Right-click the res folder and go to New > Android resource directory. The New
Resource Directory window appears.
2.)In the Resource type list, select font, and then click OK.
3.)Add your font files in the font folder.The folder structure below generates R.font.dancing_script, R.font.la_la, and R.font.ba_ba.
4.)Double-click a font file to preview the file's fonts in the editor.

Next we must create a font family

1.)Right-click the font folder and go to New > Font resource file. The New Resource File window appears.
2.)Enter the file name, and then click OK. The new font resource XML opens in the editor.
3.)Enclose each font file, style, and weight attribute in the font tag element. The following XML illustrates adding font-related attributes in the font resource XML:

<?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/hey_regular" />
    <font
    android:fontStyle="italic"
    android:fontWeight="400"
    android:font="@font/hey_bababa" />
</font-family>

Adding fonts to a TextView:

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

As from the documentation

Working With Fonts

all the steps are correct.

Answer 3

Extend TextView and give it a custom attribute or just use the android:tag attribute to pass in a String of what font you want to use. You will need to pick a convention and stick to it such as I will put all of my fonts in the res/assets/fonts/ folder so your TextView class knows where to find them. Then in your constructor you just set the font manually after the super call.

Answer 4

best way

call FontsOverride.setDefaultFont() in class extends Application, This code will cause all software fonts to be changed, even Toasts fonts

AppController.java

public class AppController extends Application {

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();

        //Initial Font
        FontsOverride.setDefaultFont(getApplicationContext(), "MONOSPACE", "fonts/iran_sans.ttf");

    }
}

FontsOverride.java

public class FontsOverride {

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

    private static void replaceFont(String staticTypefaceFieldName, final Typeface newTypeface) {
        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();
        }
    }
}

---

Way 2: use setTypeface

for special view just call setTypeface() to change font.

CTextView.java

public class CTextView extends TextView {

    public CTextView(Context context) {
        super(context);
        init(context,null);
    }

    public CTextView(Context context, @Nullable AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        init(context,attrs);
    }

    public CTextView(Context context, @Nullable AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
        init(context,attrs);
    }

    @RequiresApi(api = Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP)
    public CTextView(Context context, @Nullable AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr, int defStyleRes) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr, defStyleRes);
        init(context,attrs);
    }

    public void init(Context context, @Nullable AttributeSet attrs) {

        if (isInEditMode())
            return;

        // use setTypeface for change font this view
        setTypeface(FontUtils.getTypeface("fonts/iran_sans.ttf"));

    }
}

FontUtils.java

public class FontUtils {

    private static Hashtable<String, Typeface> fontCache = new Hashtable<>();

    public static Typeface getTypeface(String fontName) {
        Typeface tf = fontCache.get(fontName);
        if (tf == null) {
            try {
                tf = Typeface.createFromAsset(AppController.getInstance().getApplicationContext().getAssets(), fontName);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                return null;
            }
            fontCache.put(fontName, tf);
        }
        return tf;
    }

}

Answer 5

This might be a little late, but you need to create a singleton class that returns the custom typeface to avoid memory leaks.

TypeFace class:

public class OpenSans {

private static OpenSans instance;
private static Typeface typeface;

public static OpenSans getInstance(Context context) {
    synchronized (OpenSans.class) {
        if (instance == null) {
            instance = new OpenSans();
            typeface = Typeface.createFromAsset(context.getResources().getAssets(), "open_sans.ttf");
        }
        return instance;
    }
}

public Typeface getTypeFace() {
    return typeface;
}
}

Custom TextView:

public class NativelyCustomTextView extends TextView {

    public NativelyCustomTextView(Context context) {
        super(context);
        setTypeface(OpenSans.getInstance(context).getTypeFace());
    }

    public NativelyCustomTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        setTypeface(OpenSans.getInstance(context).getTypeFace());
    }

    public NativelyCustomTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs,
            int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
        setTypeface(OpenSans.getInstance(context).getTypeFace());
    }

}

By xml:

<com.yourpackage.views.NativelyCustomTextView
            android:id="@+id/natively_text_view"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
            android:layout_margin="20dp"
            android:text="@string/natively"
            android:textSize="30sp" /> 

Programmatically:

TextView programmaticallyTextView = (TextView) 
       findViewById(R.id.programmatically_text_view);

programmaticallyTextView.setTypeface(OpenSans.getInstance(this)
                .getTypeFace());

Answer 6

Also can be defined in the xml without creating custom classes

style.xml

<style name="ionicons" parent="android:TextAppearance">
    <!-- Custom Attr-->
    <item name="fontPath">fonts/ionicons.ttf</item>
</style>

activity_main.xml

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
              xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="match_parent"
              android:orientation="vertical" >
    <Button
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textAppearance="@style/ionicons"
        android:text=""/>
</LinearLayout>

A quick note, because I just always forgot where to put the fonts, its that the font must be inside assets and this folder resides in the same level that res and src, in my case its assets/fonts/ionicons.ttf

Updated Added root layout because this method needs xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" to work

Update 2 Forgot about a library that I've installed before called Calligraphy