How to change EditText cursor height?

Question

I want to change the EditText cursor height, does anyone know how?

Answer 1

I had to dig far into the Android source to find the answer to this, but you essentially have to use padding on a custom shape drawable.

note: only works on API 12 and greater due to support for textCursorDrawable

Use positive top padding to move the top of your cursor higher

User positive bottom padding to move the bottom of your cursor lower

I usually end up using negative bottom padding to shorten the cursor because the it drops too low below baseline when you increase the line height with lineSpacingMultiplier or lineSpacingExtra.

example cursor_red.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape="rectangle" >
    <size 
        android:width="2dip" />
    <solid
        android:color="@color/red" />
    <padding 
        android:top="2sp"
        android:bottom="-11sp" />
</shape>

This will make a 2dip wide red cursor that is

• 2sp higher (longer) at the top
• 11sp higher (shorter) on the bottom.

Then in your edittext, just specify android:textCursorDrawable:

<EditText
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:textCursorDrawable="@drawable/cursor_red" />

Relevant Android source code inside Editor.java from which I figured out the solution:

private void updateCursorPosition(int cursorIndex, int top, int bottom, float horizontal) {
    ...

    mCursorDrawable[cursorIndex].getPadding(mTempRect);

    ...

    mCursorDrawable[cursorIndex].setBounds(left, top - mTempRect.top, left + width,
            bottom + mTempRect.bottom);
}

Answer 2

Paddings can be used to control cursor height

cursor.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape="rectangle">
    <size android:width="2dp" />
    <solid android:color="@color/black" />
</shape>

cursor_with_padding.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item
        android:bottom="7dp"
        android:drawable="@drawable/cursor"
        android:top="8dp" />
</layer-list>

layout

<EditText
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:textCursorDrawable="@drawable/cursor_with_padding"/>