How to set the text color of TextView in code?

In XML, we can set a text color by the textColor attribute, like android:textColor="#FF0000". But how do I change it by coding?

I tried something like:

holder.text.setTextColor(R.color.Red);

Where holder is just a class and text is of type TextView. Red is an RGB value (#FF0000) set in strings.

But it shows a different color rather than red. What kind of parameter can we pass in setTextColor()? In documentation, it says int, but is it a resource reference value or anything else?

You should use:

holder.text.setTextColor(Color.RED);

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You can use various functions from the Color class to get the same effect of course.

• Color.parseColor (Manual) (like LEX uses)

    text.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#FFFFFF"));
  

• Color.rgb and Color.argb (Manual rgb) (Manual argb) (like Ganapathy uses)

    holder.text.setTextColor(Color.rgb(200,0,0));
    holder.text.setTextColor(Color.argb(0,200,0,0));
  

• And of course, if you want to define your color in an XML file, you can do this:

    <color name="errorColor">#f00</color>
  

  because the getColor() function is deprecated¹, you need to use it like so:

    ContextCompat.getColor(context, R.color.your_color);
  

• You can also insert plain HEX, like so:

    myTextView.setTextColor(0xAARRGGBB);
  

  Where you have an alpha-channel first, then the color value.

Check out the complete manual of course, public class Color extends Object.

---

¹This code used to be in here as well:

textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.errorColor));

This method is now deprecated in Android M. You can however use it from the contextCompat in the support library, as the example now shows.

If you still want to specify your colors in your XML file:

<color name="errorColor">#f00</color>

Then reference it in your code with one of these two methods:

textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.errorColor, getResources().newTheme()));    

or

textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.errorColor, null));

The first is probably preferable if you're compiling against Android M, however the theme you pass in can be null, so maybe that's easier for you?

And if you're using the Compat library you can do something like this

textView.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(context, R.color.errorColor));

And another one:

TextView text = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.text);
text.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#FFFFFF"));

You can do this only from an XML file too.

Create a color.xml file in the values folder:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <color name="textbody">#ffcc33</color>
    
</resources>

Then in any XML file, you can set color for text using,

android:textColor="@color/textbody"

Or you can use this color in a Java file:

final TextView tvchange12 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textView2);
//Set color for textbody from color.xml file
tvchange1.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.textbody));

You can use

holder.text.setTextColor(Color.rgb(200,0,0));

You can also specify what color you want with Transparency.

holder.text.setTextColor(Color.argb(0,200,0,0));

a for Alpha (Transparent) value r-red g-green b-blue

use the following code in layout.xml

<TextView  android:id="@+id/textView1"    
android:layout_width="wrap_content"    
android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
android:text="@string/add"
android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
android:textAppearance="?
android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:textColor="#25383C"
android:textSize="13sp" />

<TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/add"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
        android:textColor="#25383C"
        android:textSize="13sp" />

There are many different ways to set color on text view.

1. Add color value in studio res->values->colors.xml as

    <color name="color_purple">#800080</color>
   

   Now set the color in xml or actvity class as

    text.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.color_purple)
   

2. If you want to give color code directly use below Color.parseColor code

    textView.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#ffffff"));   
   

3. You can also use RGB

    text.setTextColor(Color.rgb(200,0,0));
   

4. Use can also use direct hexcode for textView. You can also insert plain HEX, like so:

    text.setTextColor(0xAARRGGBB);
       
   

5. You can also use argb with alpha values.

       text.setTextColor(Color.argb(0,200,0,0));
   

   a for Alpha (Transparent) v.

6. And if you're using the Compat library you can do something like this

      text.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(context, R.color.color_purple));
   

I normally do this for any views:

myTextView.setTextColor(0xAARRGGBB);

where

• AA defines alpha (00 for transparent, FF for opaque)

• RRGGBB defines the normal HTML color code (like FF0000 for red).

textView.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(getApplicationC‌​ontext(),R.color.col‌​orWhite)); 

In the colors.xml file, write in the code below:

<color name="colorWhite">#FFFFFF</color>

If you plan to use setTextAppearance you should know that it will overwrite the text color with the style inherited from the theme. So if you want to use both, set the color afterwards.

This works:

textView.setTextAppearance(context, android.R.style.TextAppearance_Medium);
textView.setTextColor(Color.RED);

While this will cause your textcolor to be for instance white(for dark theme) or black(for the light theme):

textView.setTextColor(Color.RED);
textView.setTextAppearance(context, android.R.style.TextAppearance_Medium);

Contrary to this in XML the order is arbitrary.

I believe that if you want to specify a color as a resource (in the XML file), you'll have to provide its ARGB value (not simply the RGB value).

Try changing your color value to #FFFF0000. It should give you RED.

text.setTextColor(getResource().getColor(R.color.black)) you have create black color in color.xml.

OR

text.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#000000")) here type desired hexcode

OR

text.setTextColor(Color.BLACK) you can use static color fields

Use:

TextView tv = new TextView(this);
tv.setTextColor(Color.rgb(285,0,0));

holder.text.setTextColor(Color.rgb(200,0,0));

or

myTextView.setTextColor(0xAARRGGBB);

Kotlin Extension Solution

Add these to make changing text color simpler

For setting ColorInt

myView.textColor = Color.BLACK // or Color.parseColor("#000000"), etc.

var TextView.textColor: Int
get() = currentTextColor
set(@ColorInt color) {
    setTextColor(color)
}

For setting ColorRes

myView.setTextColorRes(R.color.my_color)

fun TextView.setTextColorRes(@ColorRes colorRes: Int) {
    val color = ContextCompat.getColor(context, colorRes)
    setTextColor(color)
}

Using Adapter you can set the text color by using this code:

holder.text_view = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.text_view);
holder.text_view.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#FF00FF"));

text1.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#000000"));

TextView text = new TextView(context);
text.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("any hex value of a color"));

Above code is working on my side. Here text is a TextView on which color is needed to be set.

if you use Kotlin, there are 4 ways: (with Holder)

1. Use Android resource:

   holder.textView.setTextColor(Color.GREEN)

2. Use RGB:

   holder.textView.setTextColor(Color.rgb(255, 87, 34))

3)Use Hex:

holder.textView.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#C2185B"))

4)Use Project resource: (requires API level 23)

holder.textView.setTextColor(context.resources.getColor(R.color.colorMax,null))

From API 23 onward, getResources().getColor() is deprecated.

Use this instead:

textView.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(getApplicationContext(), R.color.color_black));

In Adapter you can set the text color by using this code:

holder.my_text_view = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.my_text_view);
holder.my_text_view.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#FFFFFF"));

   textViewStatus.setTextColor(res.getColor(R.color.green));

if you want to give color code directly then use

textView.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#ffffff"));

or if you want to give color code from colors folder then use

textView.setTextColor(R.color.white);

I did this way: Create a XML file, called Colors in res/values folder.

My Colors.xml:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <color name="vermelho_debito">#cc0000</color>
    <color name="azul_credito">#4c4cff</color>
    <color name="preto_bloqueado">#000000</color>
    <color name="verde_claro_fundo_lista">#CFDBC5</color>
    <color name="branco">#ffffff</color>
    <color name="amarelo_corrige">#cccc00</color>
    <color name="verde_confirma">#66b266</color>
</resources>

To get this colors from the xml file, I've used this code: valor it's a TextView, and ctx it's a Context object. I'm not using it from an Activity, but a BaseAdapter to a ListView. That's why I've used this Context Object.

valor.setTextColor(ctx.getResources().getColor(R.color.azul_credito));

Hope it helps.

In order to set color of a TextView, TextView.setTextColor(R.color.YOURCOLOR) is not enough!

It has to be used like this –

TextView myText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.YoutTextViewID);

myText.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.YOURCOLOR);

OR

myText.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#54D66A"));

holder.userType.setTextColor(context.getResources().getColor(
					R.color.green));

Try this:

TextView textview = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview );
textview .setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#85F85F"));

Similarly, I was using color.xml:

<color name="white">#ffffff</color>
    <color name="black">#000000</color>   

For setting the TextView background like:

textView.setTextColor(R.color.white);

I was getting a different color, but when I used the below code I got the actual color.

textView.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#ff6363"));

For providing rgb values: text.setTextColor(Color.rgb(200,0,0));
For parsing the color from a hex value: text.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#FFFFFF"));

You can use textView.setTextColor(Color.BLACK) to use any of the in-built colors of the Color class.

You can also use textView.setTextColor(Color.parseColor(hexRGBvalue)) to define custom colors.

If you are in an adapter and still want to use a color defined in resources you can try the following approach:

holder.text.setTextColor(holder.text.getContext().getResources().getColor(R.color.myRed));

TextView textresult = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView1);
textresult.setTextColor(Color.GREEN);

getColor() is depreceted

So try this way:

 tv_title.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(getApplicationContext(), R.color.sf_white));

I was doing this for a TextView in a ViewHolder for a RecyclerView. I'm not so sure why, but it didn't work for me in the ViewHolder initialization.

public ViewHolder(View itemView) {
    super(itemView);
    textView = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.text_view);
    textView.setTextColor(context.getResources().getColor(R.color.myColor));
    // Other stuff
}

But when I moved it to the onBindViewHolder, it worked fine.

public void onBindViewHolder(ViewHolder holder, int position){
    // Other stuff
    holder.textView.setTextColor(context.getResources().getColor(R.color.myColor));
}

Hope this helps someone.

Try this:

textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.errorColor, null));

TextView color= (TextView)findViewById(R.id.color);
text.setTextColor(Color.RED);

if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.M) { 
    b.numberDay1.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(requireContext(), R.color.secondary_100))
} else {                
    b.numberDay1.setTextColor(resources.getColor(R.color.secondary_100))
}

Try using the following code :

holder.text.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("F00"));