What is the default text size on Android?

Question

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"

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.

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

Kotlin

val size = Button(this).textSize

Java

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

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>

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

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

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