What is the default text size on Android?

Question

I have a mixture of Buttons and an own View, where I set my text size using Paint.setTextSize(). I want the text size to look the same like the text on the Button. Now, I can of course set the text size of the button to e.g. 18sp, and use 18 in my view. But for a better integration, I simply would like to know, what text size is "normal" for buttons. From my test, it should be something like 12sp, but I have not found any documentation on this.

Leaving the default sizes leaves way too small text on the view.

Maybe I should use still another approach to this issue?

Answer 1

This will return default size of text on button in pixels.

Kotlin

val size = Button(this).textSize

Java

float size = new Button(this).getTextSize();

Answer 2

In general:

Three "default" textSize values:

 - 14sp
 - 18sp
 - 22sp

These values are defined within the following TextAppearances:

 - TextAppearance.Small
 - TextAppearance.Medium
 - TextAppearance.Large

More information about Typography can be found in the design guidelines

Related to your question:

If you don't set a custom textSize or textAppearance, TextAppearance.Small will be used.

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Update: Material design:

New guidelines related to font and typefaces. The standard rule of 14sp remains (body).

Examples how to set textappearances

AppCompat version:

android:textAppearance="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Body"

Lollipop and up version:

android:textAppearance="@android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Body"

Answer 3

Looks like someone else found it: What are the default font characteristics in Android ?

There someone discovered the default text size, for TextViews (which use TextAppearance.Small) it's 14sp.

Answer 4

Default values in appcompat-v7

<dimen name="abc_text_size_body_1_material">14sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_body_2_material">14sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_button_material">14sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_caption_material">12sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_display_1_material">34sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_display_2_material">45sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_display_3_material">56sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_display_4_material">112sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_headline_material">24sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_large_material">22sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_medium_material">18sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_menu_material">16sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_small_material">14sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_subhead_material">16sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_subtitle_material_toolbar">16dp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_title_material">20sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_title_material_toolbar">20dp</dimen>

Answer 5

http://petrnohejl.github.io/Android-Cheatsheet-For-Graphic-Designers/

Text size

Type    Dimension
Micro   12 sp
Small   14 sp
Medium  18 sp
Large   22 sp

Answer 6

You can find standard sizes for everything in Google's style guide.

Here are the values they use for for buttons:

Buttons

English: Medium 14sp, all caps

Dense: Medium 15sp, all caps

Tall: Bold 15sp

Answer 7

the default text size of the textview

if you not used any of the below

TextAppearance.Small

TextAppearance.Medium

TextAppearance.Large

then the default size is 14sp

Answer 8

Default text size vary from device to devices

Type Dimension Micro 12 sp Small 14 sp Medium 18 sp Large 22 sp