change font for editText hint

Question

Is it possible to change the font for the hint displayed in the EditText field? I want to set the font in the xml itself.

Answer 1

I haven't find out any useful way to change hint font in XML.But you can achieve like this:

mEt.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
    @Override
    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
        if(s.length()== 0) {
            //mEt.setTypeFace(normalFont);
        }else{
           // mEt.setTypeFace(hintFont);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
    }
});

Answer 2

This is a wrong answer to the question. I tried deleting but i cannot except the moderators. Kindly ignore the answer or feel free to update the answer. This answer is misleading. Sorry :).

editText.setTypeface(Typeface.SERIF);

You can change the font of EditText just like TextView. But you cannot change the typeface of hint.

Answer 3

@francisco_ssb's answer is correct. However, I will provide an alternative solution which helps to change not only a hint's font, but also its size and style. I hope this solution will be helpful.

1) Create a custom Hint object:

import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.text.SpannableString;
import android.text.Spanned;
import android.text.style.MetricAffectingSpan;

public class CustomHint extends SpannableString
{
    public CustomHint(final CharSequence source, final int style)
    {
        this(null, source, style, null);
    }

    public CustomHint(final CharSequence source, final Float size)
    {
        this(null, source, size);
    }

    public CustomHint(final CharSequence source, final int style, final Float size)
    {
        this(null, source, style, size);
    }

    public CustomHint(final Typeface typeface, final CharSequence source, final int style)
    {
        this(typeface, source, style, null);
    }

    public CustomHint(final Typeface typeface, final CharSequence source, final Float size)
    {
        this(typeface, source, null, size);
    }

    public CustomHint(final Typeface typeface, final CharSequence source, final Integer style, final Float size)
    {
        super(source);

        MetricAffectingSpan typefaceSpan = new CustomMetricAffectingSpan(typeface, style, size);
        setSpan(typefaceSpan, 0, source.length(), Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
    }
}

2) Create custom MetricAffectingSpan object:

import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.text.TextPaint;
import android.text.style.MetricAffectingSpan;

public class CustomMetricAffectingSpan extends MetricAffectingSpan
{
    private final Typeface _typeface;
    private final Float    _newSize;
    private final Integer  _newStyle;

    public CustomMetricAffectingSpan(Float size)
    {
        this(null, null, size);
    }

    public CustomMetricAffectingSpan(Float size, Integer style)
    {
        this(null, style, size);
    }

    public CustomMetricAffectingSpan(Typeface type, Integer style, Float size)
    {
        this._typeface = type;
        this._newStyle = style;
        this._newSize = size;
    }

    @Override
    public void updateDrawState(TextPaint ds)
    {
        applyNewSize(ds);
    }

    @Override
    public void updateMeasureState(TextPaint paint)
    {
        applyNewSize(paint);
    }

    private void applyNewSize(TextPaint paint)
    {
        if (this._newStyle != null)
            paint.setTypeface(Typeface.create(this._typeface, this._newStyle));
        else
            paint.setTypeface(this._typeface);

        if (this._newSize != null)
            paint.setTextSize(this._newSize);
    }
}

3) Use:

Typeface newTypeface = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "AguafinaScript-Regular.ttf");
CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint(newTypeface, "Enter some text", Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC, 60f);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint(newTypeface, "Enter some text", Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint(newTypeface, "Enter some text", 60f);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint("Enter some text", Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC, 60f);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint("Enter some text", Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint("Enter some text", 60f);

customEditText.setHint(customHint);

Answer 4

I can change the hint font by use this library .

After compiling the library you must create a class of applications and the class definition following command:

CalligraphyConfig.initDefault(new CalligraphyConfig.Builder()
                  .setDefaultFontPath("font.ttf")
                  .setFontAttrId(R.attr.fontPath)
                  .build()
          );

After each activity you want Override it with the following command:

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

Answer 5

Its not possible in XML -

Text and hint can only have the same font in XML.

Answer 6

You can change it with a SpannableString and a Custom TypefaceSpan.

First, create a Custom TypefaceSpan class:

public class CustomTypefaceSpan extends TypefaceSpan {
    private final Typeface mNewType;

    public CustomTypefaceSpan(Typeface type) {
        super("");
        mNewType = type;
    }

    public CustomTypefaceSpan(String family, Typeface type) {
        super(family);
        mNewType = type;
    }

    @Override
    public void updateDrawState(TextPaint ds) {
        applyCustomTypeFace(ds, mNewType);
    }

    @Override
    public void updateMeasureState(TextPaint paint) {
        applyCustomTypeFace(paint, mNewType);
    }

    private static void applyCustomTypeFace(Paint paint, Typeface tf) {
        int oldStyle;
        Typeface old = paint.getTypeface();
        if (old == null) {
            oldStyle = 0;
        } else {
            oldStyle = old.getStyle();
        }

        int fake = oldStyle & ~tf.getStyle();
        if ((fake & Typeface.BOLD) != 0) {
            paint.setFakeBoldText(true);
        }

        if ((fake & Typeface.ITALIC) != 0) {
            paint.setTextSkewX(-0.25f);
        }

        paint.setTypeface(tf);
    }
}

Then just set the TypefaceSpan to a SpannableString:

TypefaceSpan typefaceSpan = new CustomTypefaceSpan(typeface);
SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString(hintText);

spannableString.setSpan(typefaceSpan, 0, spannableString.length(), Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

And finally just set the hint of your EditText:

mEditText.setHint(spannableString);