android: set textColor with textAppearance attribute

Question

I have created several styles for font in my app.

How can I add these styles to views? - 1) Using style attribute 2) Using textAppearance.

To use style is not an option because views may have other attributes (margins, paddings, min width, etc - I cant specify 2 styles for a view), so I need to specify text-related attributes separately, but android:textColor doesnt work here:

styles.xml:

<style name="TextAppearance.baseText" parent="@android:style/TextAppearance">
    <item name="android:textAppearance">?android:textAppearanceSmall</item>
    <item name="android:typeface">sans</item>
    <item name="android:textColor">@android:color/white</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">15sp</item> 
</style>

layout.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="65dp"
      android:orientation="horizontal" >

      <Button
           android:id="@+id/backButton"
           android:layout_width="wrap_content"
           android:layout_height="wrap_content"
           android:text="@string/sometext"
           android:textAppearance="@style/TextAppearance.baseText"/>
</RelativeLayout>

Why doesnt it work? How can I specify textcolor in textappearance?

Answer 1

As Oderik has mentioned in the comments, the Button view has a default value for it's textColor attribute. This textColor value overrides whatever value is set through the textAppearance attribute. Therefore you have two options:

• Set the textColor to @null in the style:

  <style name="Application.Button">   
    <item name="android:textAppearance">@style/Application.Text.Medium.White</item>
    <item name="android:textColor">@null</item> 
  </style>
  
  <Button
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      style="@style/Application.Button" />
  

• Set the textColor to @null in the Button XML:

  <Button
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  style="@style/Application.Button"   
  android:textColor="@null" />
  

Answer 2

It works. Your text color is white - the same as default color. Put there any other color like <item name="android:textColor">#AA6699</item> and you will see difference. Second thing is that you are trying to set text appearance in text appearance - doen's make sense. If you want to set small letters do this using parent parent="@android:style/TextAppearance.Small and delete line <item name="android:textAppearance">?android:textAppearanceSmall</item> Third thing is that you want to have small letters and put additional textSize - doesn't make sense. Try this, works for me:

<style name="BaseText" parent="@android:style/TextAppearance.Small">
        <item name="android:typeface">sans</item>
        <item name="android:textColor">#AA7755</item>
  </style>

If you want to set everything in style:

<style name="BaseText" parent="@android:style/TextAppearance.Large">
        <item name="android:typeface">sans</item>
        <item name="android:textColor">#AA7755</item>
    </style>

   <style name="BaseText.Margins">
       <item name="android:layout_margin">10dip</item>
   </style>

Where BaseText.Margins inherits from BaseText. Then you can just use:

<TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="TextView"
        style="@style/BaseText.Margins" />