Accessing a font under assets folder from XML file in Android

Question

I am trying to do a application-wide font change and creating a style file to do so. In this file (below) I just want to change typeface value of TextAppearance style of Android.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <resources>     <style name="NightRiderFont" parent="@android:style/TextAppearance">         <item name="android:typeface"> /***help need here***/ </item>     </style> </resources> 

However font is in "assets/fonts/". How can I access this font, so I can use that style as a theme to get rid of changing all TextViews by hand programatically.

As summary: How can I access 'a file from assets folder' in XML?

Answer 1

In my research, there is no way to add external font to the xml file. Only the 3 default font is available in xml

But you can use in java using this code.

Typeface tf = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"fonts/verdana.ttf");   textfield.setTypeface(tf,Typeface.BOLD); 

Update:

Now I find a way to do this by creating a custom class extending the TextView and use that in the xml file.

public class TextViewWithFont extends TextView {     private int defaultDimension = 0;     private int TYPE_BOLD = 1;     private int TYPE_ITALIC = 2;     private int FONT_ARIAL = 1;     private int FONT_OPEN_SANS = 2;     private int fontType;     private int fontName;      public TextViewWithFont(Context context) {         super(context);         init(null, 0);     }     public TextViewWithFont(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {         super(context, attrs);         init(attrs, 0);     }     public TextViewWithFont(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {         super(context, attrs, defStyle);         init(attrs, defStyle);     }     private void init(AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {         // Load attributes         final TypedArray a = getContext().obtainStyledAttributes(                 attrs, R.styleable.font, defStyle, 0);         fontName = a.getInt(R.styleable.font_name, defaultDimension);         fontType = a.getInt(R.styleable.font_type, defaultDimension);         a.recycle();         MyApplication application = (MyApplication ) getContext().getApplicationContext();         if (fontName == FONT_ARIAL) {             setFontType(application .getArialFont());         } else if (fontName == FONT_OPEN_SANS) {             setFontType(application .getOpenSans());         }     }     private void setFontType(Typeface font) {         if (fontType == TYPE_BOLD) {             setTypeface(font, Typeface.BOLD);         } else if (fontType == TYPE_ITALIC) {             setTypeface(font, Typeface.ITALIC);         } else {             setTypeface(font);         }     } } 

and in xml

<com.example.customwidgets.TextViewWithFont         font:name="Arial"         font:type="bold"         android:layout_width="wrap_content"         android:text="Hello world "         android:padding="5dp"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"/> 

dont forget to add the schema in root of your xml

xmlns:font="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" 

And create an attrs.xml file inside values directory, which is holding our custom attribues:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <resources>     <declare-styleable name="font">         <attr name="type">         <enum name="bold" value="1"/>             <enum name="italic" value="2"/>         </attr>         <attr name="name">             <enum name="Arial" value="1"/>             <enum name="OpenSans" value="2"/>         </attr>     </declare-styleable> </resources> 

Update:

Found some performance issue when this custom view is used in listview, that is because the font Object is creating every time the view is loaded. Solution I found is to initialize the font in Application Class and refer that font object by

MyApplication application = (MyApplication) getContext().getApplicationContext(); 

Application class will look like this

public class MyApplication extends Application {      private Typeface arialFont, openSans;      public void onCreate() {         super.onCreate();          arialFont = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), QRUtils.FONT_ARIAL);         openSans = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), QRUtils.FONT_OPEN_SANS);     }      public Typeface getArialFont() {         return arialFont;     }      public Typeface getOpenSans() {         return openSans;     } }