How to Set TextView TextStyle Programmatically in Android

How to Set TextView TextStyle Programmatically in Android

22 May 2024 Stephan Petzl Leave a comment Tech-Help

When developing Android applications, you might encounter situations where you need to set the text style of a TextView programmatically, rather than through XML. This guide will walk you through the steps to achieve this, offering practical examples and solutions.

Setting TextStyle in Java

To set the text style of a TextView in Java, you can use the setTypeface() method. This method allows you to specify the typeface and style of the text. Here are some common examples:


    textView.setTypeface(null, Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC);
    textView.setTypeface(null, Typeface.BOLD);
    textView.setTypeface(null, Typeface.ITALIC);
    textView.setTypeface(null, Typeface.NORMAL);

If you want to keep the previous typeface and just change the style, you can use:


    textView.setTypeface(textView.getTypeface(), Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC);

Alternative Approaches

There are multiple ways to set the text style programmatically. Here are a few other methods:

Using HTML Tags

You can use HTML tags to style your text. This approach is useful for bold, italic, and underline styles:


    String styledText = "<b>Bolded text</b>, <i>italic text</i>, even <u>underlined</u>!";
    textView.setText(Html.fromHtml(styledText));

Using Spannable

The Spannable interface allows for more complex text styling, including color changes and dynamic modifications:


    SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString("Bold and Italic");
    spannableString.setSpan(new StyleSpan(Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC), 0, spannableString.length(), 0);
    textView.setText(spannableString);

XML Configuration

While this guide focuses on programmatic solutions, it’s worth mentioning that you can also set text styles directly in your XML layout files:


    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textStyle="bold|italic" />

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