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\'

Answer 1

The valid value of android:fontFamily is defined in /system/etc/system_fonts.xml(4.x) or /system/etc/fonts.xml(5.x). But Device Manufacturer might modify it, so the actual font used by setting fontFamily value depends on the above-mentioned file of the specified device.

In AOSP, the Arial font is valid but must be defined using "arial" not "Arial", for example android:fontFamily="arial". Have a qucik look at Kitkat's system_fonts.xml

    <family>
    <nameset>
        <name>sans-serif</name>
        <name>arial</name>
        <name>helvetica</name>
        <name>tahoma</name>
        <name>verdana</name>
    </nameset>
    <fileset>
        <file>Roboto-Regular.ttf</file>
        <file>Roboto-Bold.ttf</file>
        <file>Roboto-Italic.ttf</file>
        <file>Roboto-BoldItalic.ttf</file>
    </fileset>
</family>

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There are three relevant xml-attributes for defining a "font" in layout--android:fontFamily, android:typeface and android:textStyle. The combination of "fontFamily" and "textStyle" or "typeface" and "textStyle" can be used to change the appearance of font in text, so does used alone. Code snippet in TextView.java like this:

    private void setTypefaceFromAttrs(String familyName, int typefaceIndex, int styleIndex) {
    Typeface tf = null;
    if (familyName != null) {
        tf = Typeface.create(familyName, styleIndex);
        if (tf != null) {
            setTypeface(tf);
            return;
        }
    }
    switch (typefaceIndex) {
        case SANS:
            tf = Typeface.SANS_SERIF;
            break;

        case SERIF:
            tf = Typeface.SERIF;
            break;

        case MONOSPACE:
            tf = Typeface.MONOSPACE;
            break;
    }
    setTypeface(tf, styleIndex);
}


    public void setTypeface(Typeface tf, int style) {
    if (style > 0) {
        if (tf == null) {
            tf = Typeface.defaultFromStyle(style);
        } else {
            tf = Typeface.create(tf, style);
        }

        setTypeface(tf);
        // now compute what (if any) algorithmic styling is needed
        int typefaceStyle = tf != null ? tf.getStyle() : 0;
        int need = style & ~typefaceStyle;
        mTextPaint.setFakeBoldText((need & Typeface.BOLD) != 0);
        mTextPaint.setTextSkewX((need & Typeface.ITALIC) != 0 ? -0.25f : 0);
    } else {
        mTextPaint.setFakeBoldText(false);
        mTextPaint.setTextSkewX(0);
        setTypeface(tf);
    }
}

From the code We can see:

1. if "fontFamily" is set, then the "typeface" will be ignored.
2. "typeface" has standard and limited valid values. In fact, the values are "normal" "sans" "serif" and "monospace", they can be found in system_fonts.xml(4.x) or fonts.xml(5.x). Actually both "normal" and "sans" are the default font of system.
3. "fontFamily" can be used to set all fonts of build-in fonts, while "typeface" only provide the typical fonts of "sans-serif" "serif" and "monospace"(the three main category of font type in the world).
4. When only set "textStyle", We actually set the default font and the specified style. The effective value are "normal" "bold" "italic" and "bold | italic".

Answer 2

Typeface typeface = ResourcesCompat.getFont(context, R.font.font_name);
textView.setTypeface(typeface);

set easily font to any textview from res>font directory programmatically

Answer 3

Dynamically you can set the fontfamily similar to android:fontFamily in xml by using this,

For Custom font:

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

For Default font:

 tv.setTypeface(Typeface.create("sans-serif-medium",Typeface.NORMAL));

These are the list of default font family used, use any of this by replacing the double quotation string "sans-serif-medium"

FONT FAMILY                    TTF FILE                    

1  casual                      ComingSoon.ttf              
2  cursive                     DancingScript-Regular.ttf   
3  monospace                   DroidSansMono.ttf           
4  sans-serif                  Roboto-Regular.ttf          
5  sans-serif-black            Roboto-Black.ttf            
6  sans-serif-condensed        RobotoCondensed-Regular.ttf 
7  sans-serif-condensed-light  RobotoCondensed-Light.ttf   
8  sans-serif-light            Roboto-Light.ttf            
9  sans-serif-medium           Roboto-Medium.ttf           
10  sans-serif-smallcaps       CarroisGothicSC-Regular.ttf 
11  sans-serif-thin            Roboto-Thin.ttf             
12  serif                      NotoSerif-Regular.ttf       
13  serif-monospace            CutiveMono.ttf              

"mycustomfont.ttf" is the ttf file. Path will be in src/assets/fonts/mycustomfont.ttf , you can refer more about default font in this Default font family

Answer 4

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 5

<string name="font_family_display_4_material">sans-serif-light</string>
<string name="font_family_display_3_material">sans-serif</string>
<string name="font_family_display_2_material">sans-serif</string>
<string name="font_family_display_1_material">sans-serif</string>
<string name="font_family_headline_material">sans-serif</string>
<string name="font_family_title_material">sans-serif-medium</string>
<string name="font_family_subhead_material">sans-serif</string>
<string name="font_family_menu_material">sans-serif</string>
<string name="font_family_body_2_material">sans-serif-medium</string>
<string name="font_family_body_1_material">sans-serif</string>
<string name="font_family_caption_material">sans-serif</string>
<string name="font_family_button_material">sans-serif-medium</string>

Answer 6

With some trial and error I learned the following.

Within the *.xml you can combine the stock fonts with the following functions, not only with typeface:

 android:fontFamily="serif" 
 android:textStyle="italic"

With this two styles, there was no need to use typeface in any other case. The range of combinations is much more bigger with fontfamily&textStyle.