How can I change the NavigationView's item text size?

Google recently released the android.support.design.widget.NavigationView widget as part of the com.android.support:design:22.2.0 library, which greatly simplified (and standardises) the process of creating a NavigationDrawer.

However according to the design specs, the list item should be Roboto Medium, 14sp, 87% #000000. The NavigationView exposes no textSize or textStyle to customise this.

What are my options if I'm pedantic about maintaining the correct design specifications using the Google provided NavigationView (or customising it in any other way)?

Create new style at the file app/src/main/res/values/styles.xml

<style name="NavigationDrawerStyle">

        <item name="android:textSize">20sp</item><!-- text size in menu-->

        <!-- item size in menu-->
        <item name="android:listPreferredItemHeightSmall">40dp</item>
        <item name="listPreferredItemHeightSmall">40dp</item>

        <!-- item padding left in menu-->
        <item name="android:listPreferredItemPaddingLeft">8dp</item>
        <item name="listPreferredItemPaddingLeft">8dp</item>

        <!-- item padding right in menu-->
        <item name="android:listPreferredItemPaddingRight">8dp</item>
        <item name="listPreferredItemPaddingRight">8dp</item>
    </style>

Add it to your main_layout.xml

  <android.support.design.widget.NavigationView
       ...
        app:theme="@style/NavigationDrawerStyle"
       ....>
        

    </android.support.design.widget.NavigationView>

All params of the navigation items (which you can change) are located here (path to file ...\sdk\extras\android\support\design\res\layout\design_navigation_item.xml )

design_navigation_item.xml

<android.support.design.internal.NavigationMenuItemView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="?attr/listPreferredItemHeightSmall"
    android:paddingLeft="?attr/listPreferredItemPaddingLeft"
    android:paddingRight="?attr/listPreferredItemPaddingRight"
    android:drawablePadding="@dimen/navigation_icon_padding"
    android:gravity="center_vertical|start"
    android:maxLines="1"
    android:fontFamily="sans-serif-thin"
    android:textSize="22sp"
    android:textAppearance="?attr/textAppearanceListItem" />

Also you can override *.xml file (copy file from ...\sdk\extras\android\support\design\res\layout\design_navigation_item.xml), just in your app/src/main/res/layout folder create a layout named the same design_navigation_item.xml.

All layouts which can be Overriden are located here ...\sdk\extras\android\support\design\res\layout\

design_layout_snackbar.xml
design_layout_snackbar_include.xml
design_layout_tab_icon.xml
design_layout_tab_text.xml
design_navigation_item.xml
design_navigation_item_header.xml
design_navigation_item_separator.xml
design_navigation_item_subheader.xml
design_navigation_menu.xml

[UPDATE] Each version of com.android.support:design-{version} lib has different items to override. Check all what you need in

[UPDATE 04/14/2020]

If you are using com.google.android.material.navigation.NavigationView then open the class, and you will see:

public NavigationView(@NonNull Context context, @Nullable AttributeSet attrs) {
    this(context, attrs, R.attr.navigationViewStyle);
  }

So you can use attr navigationViewStyle to set your own style for the NavigationView via theme of your app:

NB: parent theme of AppTheme should be Theme.MaterialComponents

    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.MaterialComponents.Light.NoActionBar.Bridge">
   ...
<item name="navigationViewStyle">@style/AppNavigationViewStyle</item>
   ...
    </style>

<style name="AppNavigationViewStyle" parent="Widget.MaterialComponents.NavigationView">
        <item name="itemTextAppearance">@style/AppNavigationViewItemTextAppearance</item>
   </style>
<style name="AppNavigationViewItemTextAppearance" parent="@style/TextAppearance.MaterialComponents.Subtitle2">
         <item name="android:textSize">18sp</item>
   </style>

Just open parent theme to see all <item name attrs for override

Since Android Support Library 22.2.1, Google has changed default textSize of items in NavigationView from 16sp to 14sp, which suits Material Design guideline well. However, in some cases(for example, when you want to support Chinese language), it seems larger textSize is better. Solution is simple:

1. add app:theme="@style/yourStyle.Drawer" to your NavigationView in your layout.xml
2. in styles.xml, add android:textSize="16sp" in style yourStyle.Drawer

You can customize everything from text color to size and font in your style.xml

<style name="NavDrawerTextStyle" parent="Base.TextAppearance.AppCompat">
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
    <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
</style>

and then in your NavigationView:

<android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:fitsSystemWindows="true"
tools:openDrawer="start">

<android.support.design.widget.NavigationView
    ...
    android:itemTextAppearance="@style/NavDrawerTextStyle"
     />

you can use this attributes inside xml file

app:itemTextAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"

or for small text

app:itemTextAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearance"

or for large text

app:itemTextAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"

This worked for me:

activity_main.xml

<android.support.design.widget.NavigationView
    android:id="@+id/navigation_view"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_gravity="start"
    android:theme="@style/NavigationDrawerStyle"
    app:headerLayout="@layout/navdrawer_header"
    app:menu="@menu/navdrawer_menu" />

styles.xml

<style name="NavigationDrawerStyle">
    <item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
</style>

Scouring through the source code I found this layout file

> /platform/frameworks/support/.../design/res/layout/design_drawer_item.xml

with the following attribute

<android.support.design.internal.NavigationMenuItemView
    ...
    android:textAppearance="?attr/textAppearanceListItem"

Which meant all we had to do was to override the textAppearanceListItem style in our project.

---

res/values/styles.xml

<style name="AppTheme" ... >
    ...
    <item name="textAppearanceListItem">@style/list_item_appearance</item>
</style>

<style name="list_item_appearance">
    <item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
    <item name="android:fontFamily">sans-serif-medium</item>
</style>

I'm not totally sure what else this will affect but if anyone has a better answer I'd be happy to accept that instead!

Maybe it might help. Recently I had to do this programmatically. I used this class:

public class CustomTypefaceSpan extends TypefaceSpan {

private final Typeface newType;
private final float newSp;

public CustomTypefaceSpan(String family, Typeface type, float sp) {
    super(family);
    newType = type;
    newSp = sp;
}

@Override
public void updateDrawState(TextPaint ds) {
    applyCustomTypeFace(ds, newType, newSp);
}

@Override
public void updateMeasureState(TextPaint paint) {
    applyCustomTypeFace(paint, newType, newSp);
}

private static void applyCustomTypeFace(Paint paint, Typeface tf, float sp) {
    int oldStyle;
    Typeface old = paint.getTypeface();
    if (old == null) {
        oldStyle = 0;
    } else {
        oldStyle = old.getStyle();
    }

    int fake = oldStyle & ~tf.getStyle();
    if ((fake & Typeface.BOLD) != 0) {
        paint.setFakeBoldText(true);
    }

    if ((fake & Typeface.ITALIC) != 0) {
        paint.setTextSkewX(-0.25f);
    }

    paint.setTextSize(sp);
    paint.setTypeface(tf);
}

@SuppressWarnings("unused")
public static final Parcelable.Creator<CustomTypefaceSpan> CREATOR = new Parcelable.Creator<CustomTypefaceSpan>() {
    @Override
    public CustomTypefaceSpan createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public CustomTypefaceSpan[] newArray(int size) {
        return new CustomTypefaceSpan[size];
    }
};
}

Then I used like this:

// This is for color
SpannableString s = new SpannableString(item.getTitle().toString());
                    s.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.RED), 0, s.length(), 0);

// This is for typeface and size
Typeface typeFace = Functions.getTypeface(this, "Avenir");

if (typeFace != null) {
    int size = 19;
    float scaledSizeInPixels = size * getResources().getDisplayMetrics().scaledDensity;
    CustomTypefaceSpan spanTypeFace = new CustomTypefaceSpan(item.getTitle().toString(), typeFace, scaledSizeInPixels);
    s.setSpan(spanTypeFace, 0, s.length(), 0);
}
item.setTitle(s);

Hope this helps.

Goto activity_main.xml and select nav_view in design and you can change menu item text size by updating itemTextAppearance and itemTextColor like as follows

For com.google.android.material.navigation.NavigationView you should use the app namespace with your custom style: app:itemTextAppearance="@style/NavDrawerTextStyle"

List Adapter Layout of your Navigation bar:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">

<RelativeLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:padding="10dp"
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:background="@drawable/pressed_state">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView_list_item"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/imageView_icons"
        android:textStyle="bold"
        android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
        android:textColor="@color/white"
        android:textSize="17sp" />
    
    
    <ImageView 
        android:id="@+id/list_adapter_image"
        android:layout_width="10dp"
        android:layout_height="10dp"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:visibility="visible"
        android:layout_marginRight="50dp"
        android:background="@drawable/circle_orange"/>

</RelativeLayout>

<LinearLayout 
    android:layout_height="1dp"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:background="#EC1294"></LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

This param in RelativeLayout set the background color --> android:background="@drawable/pressed_state"

Make this "pressed_state.xml" in drawable folder.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

 <item android:drawable="@color/light_blue" android:state_pressed="true"/>

Excuse me for my english.

1. Open or create values\dimens.xml
2. Add this code:

<dimen name="design_bottom_navigation_text_size" tools:override="true">11sp</dimen>
<dimen name="design_bottom_navigation_active_text_size" tools:override="true">12sp</dimen>

It should work