How to change letter spacing in a Textview?
AndroidTextviewTypefaceAndroid Problem Overview
How can i change letter spacing in a textview? Will it help if I have HTML text in it (I cannot use webview in my code).
P.S. I'm using my own typeface in the textview with HTML text.
Android Solutions
Solution 1 - Android
Since API 21 there is an option set letter spacing. You can call method setLetterSpacing or set it in XML with attribute letterSpacing.
Solution 2 - Android
More space:
android:letterSpacing="0.1"
Less space:
android:letterSpacing="-0.07"
Solution 3 - Android
check out android:textScaleX
Depending on how much spacing you need, this might help. That's the only thing remotely related to letter-spacing in the TextView.
Edit: please see @JerabekJakub's response below for an updated, better method to do this starting with api 21 (Lollipop)
Solution 4 - Android
This answer is based on Pedro's answer but adjusted so it also works if text attribute is already set:
package nl.raakict.android.spc.widget;
import android.content.Context;
import android.text.Spannable;
import android.text.SpannableString;
import android.text.style.ScaleXSpan;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.widget.TextView;
public class LetterSpacingTextView extends TextView {
private float letterSpacing = LetterSpacing.BIGGEST;
private CharSequence originalText = "";
public LetterSpacingTextView(Context context) {
super(context);
}
public LetterSpacingTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs){
super(context, attrs);
originalText = super.getText();
applyLetterSpacing();
this.invalidate();
}
public LetterSpacingTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle){
super(context, attrs, defStyle);
}
public float getLetterSpacing() {
return letterSpacing;
}
public void setLetterSpacing(float letterSpacing) {
this.letterSpacing = letterSpacing;
applyLetterSpacing();
}
@Override
public void setText(CharSequence text, BufferType type) {
originalText = text;
applyLetterSpacing();
}
@Override
public CharSequence getText() {
return originalText;
}
private void applyLetterSpacing() {
if (this == null || this.originalText == null) return;
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
for(int i = 0; i < originalText.length(); i++) {
String c = ""+ originalText.charAt(i);
builder.append(c.toLowerCase());
if(i+1 < originalText.length()) {
builder.append("\u00A0");
}
}
SpannableString finalText = new SpannableString(builder.toString());
if(builder.toString().length() > 1) {
for(int i = 1; i < builder.toString().length(); i+=2) {
finalText.setSpan(new ScaleXSpan((letterSpacing+1)/10), i, i+1, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
super.setText(finalText, BufferType.SPANNABLE);
}
public class LetterSpacing {
public final static float NORMAL = 0;
public final static float NORMALBIG = (float)0.025;
public final static float BIG = (float)0.05;
public final static float BIGGEST = (float)0.2;
}
}
If you want to use it programatically:
LetterSpacingTextView textView = new LetterSpacingTextView(context);
textView.setSpacing(10); //Or any float. To reset to normal, use 0 or LetterSpacingTextView.Spacing.NORMAL
textView.setText("My text");
//Add the textView in a layout, for instance:
((LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.myLinearLayout)).addView(textView);
Solution 5 - Android
after API >=21 there is inbuild method provided by TextView called setLetterSpacing
check this for more
Solution 6 - Android
I built a custom class that extends TextView
and solves this problem... Check out my answer here =)
Solution 7 - Android
As android doesn't support such a thing, you can do it manually with FontCreator. It has good options for font modifying. I used this tool to build a custom font, even if it takes some times but you can always use it in your projects.
Solution 8 - Android
For embedding HTML text in your textview you can use Html.fromHTML()
syntax.
More information you will get from http://developer.android.com/reference/android/text/Html.html#fromHtml%28java.lang.String%29