Android textview outline text

Question

Is there a simple way to have text be able to have a black outline? I have textviews that will be different colors, but some of the colors don't show up on my background so well, so I was wondering if there's an easy way to get a black outline or something else that will do the job? I'd prefer not to have to create a custom view and make a canvas and such.

Answer 1

outline effect can be achieved using shadow in TextView:

    android:shadowColor="#000000"
    android:shadowDx="1.5"
    android:shadowDy="1.3"
    android:shadowRadius="1.6"
    android:text="CCC"
    android:textAllCaps="true"
    android:textColor="@android:color/white"

Answer 2

So, little late, but MagicTextView will do text outlines, amongst other things.

<com.qwerjk.better_text.MagicTextView
    xmlns:qwerjk="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/com.qwerjk.better_text"
    android:textSize="78dp"
    android:textColor="#ff333333"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    qwerjk:strokeColor="#FFff0000"
    qwerjk:strokeJoinStyle="miter"
    qwerjk:strokeWidth="5"
    android:text="Magic" />

Note: I made this, and am posting more for the sake of future travelers than the OP. It's borderline spam, but being on-topic, perhaps acceptable?

Answer 3

You can put a shadow behind the text, which can often help readability. Try experimenting with 50% translucent black shadows on your green text. Details on how to do this are over here: Android - shadow on text?

To really add a stroke around the text, you need to do something a bit more involved, like this: How do you draw text with a border on a MapView in Android?