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;
    }
}