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

I might have a simple answer for the question without extending the TextView and implementing a long code.

Code :

 TextView tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview1);
    tv.setTypeface(Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "font.ttf"));

Place the custom font file in assets folder as usual and try this. It works for me. I just dont understand why peter has given such a huge code for this simple thing or he has given his answer in old version.

Answer 2

Old question, but I sure wish I read this answer here before I started my own search for a good solution. Calligraphy extends the android:fontFamily attribute to add support for custom fonts in your asset folder, like so:

<TextView 
  android:text="@string/hello_world"
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:fontFamily="fonts/Roboto-Bold.ttf"/>

The only thing you have to do to activate it is attaching it to the Context of the Activity you're using:

@Override
protected void attachBaseContext(Context newBase) {
    super.attachBaseContext(new CalligraphyContextWrapper(newBase));
}

You can also specify your own custom attribute to replace android:fontFamily

It also works in themes, including the AppTheme.

Answer 3

Peter's answer is the best, but it can be improved by using the styles.xml from Android to customize your fonts for all textviews in your app.

My code is here

Answer 4

Fontinator is an Android-Library make it easy, to use custom Fonts. https://github.com/svendvd/Fontinator

Answer 5

You can make easily custom textview class :-

So what you need to do first, make Custom textview class which extended with AppCompatTextView.

public class CustomTextView extends AppCompatTextView {
    private int mFont = FontUtils.FONTS_NORMAL;
    boolean fontApplied;

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

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

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

    protected void init(AttributeSet attrs, Context cxt) {
        if (!fontApplied) {
            if (attrs != null) {
                mFont = attrs.getAttributeIntValue(
                        "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto", "Lato-Regular.ttf",
                        -1);
            }
            Typeface typeface = getTypeface();
            int typefaceStyle = Typeface.NORMAL;
            if (typeface != null) {
                typefaceStyle = typeface.getStyle();
            }
            if (mFont > FontUtils.FONTS) {
                typefaceStyle = mFont;
            }
            FontUtils.applyFont(this, typefaceStyle);
            fontApplied = true;
        }
    }
}

Now , every time Custom text view call and we will get int value from attribute int fontValue = attrs.getAttributeIntValue("http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto","Lato-Regular.ttf",-1).

Or

We can also get getTypeface() from view which we set in our xml (android:textStyle="bold|normal|italic"). So do what ever you want to do.

Now, we make FontUtils for set any .ttf font into our view.

public class FontUtils {

    public static final int FONTS = 1;
    public static final int FONTS_NORMAL = 2;
    public static final int FONTS_BOLD = 3;
    public static final int FONTS_BOLD1 = 4;

    private static Map<String, Typeface> TYPEFACE = new HashMap<String, Typeface>();

    static Typeface getFonts(Context context, String name) {
        Typeface typeface = TYPEFACE.get(name);
        if (typeface == null) {
            typeface = Typeface.createFromAsset(context.getAssets(), name);
            TYPEFACE.put(name, typeface);
        }
        return typeface;
    }

    public static void applyFont(TextView tv, int typefaceStyle) {

        Context cxt = tv.getContext();
        Typeface typeface;

        if(typefaceStyle == Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC) {
            typeface = FontUtils.getFonts(cxt, "FaktPro-Normal.ttf");
        }else if (typefaceStyle == Typeface.BOLD || typefaceStyle == SD_FONTS_BOLD|| typefaceStyle == FONTS_BOLD1) {
            typeface = FontUtils.getFonts(cxt, "FaktPro-SemiBold.ttf");
        } else if (typefaceStyle == Typeface.ITALIC) {
            typeface = FontUtils.getFonts(cxt, "FaktPro-Thin.ttf");
        } else {
            typeface = FontUtils.getFonts(cxt, "FaktPro-Normal.ttf");
        }
        if (typeface != null) {
            tv.setTypeface(typeface);
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

The only way to use custom fonts is through the source code.

Just remember that Android runs on devices with very limited resources and fonts might require a good amount of RAM. The built-in Droid fonts are specially made and, if you note, have many characters and decorations missing.