Auto Scale TextView Text to Fit within Bounds

From June 2018 Android officially started supporting this feature for Android 4.0 (API level 14) and higher.
Check it out at: Autosizing TextViews

With Android 8.0 (API level 26) and higher:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="200dp"
    android:autoSizeTextType="uniform"
    android:autoSizeMinTextSize="12sp"
    android:autoSizeMaxTextSize="100sp"
    android:autoSizeStepGranularity="2sp" />

Programmatically:

setAutoSizeTextTypeUniformWithConfiguration(int autoSizeMinTextSize, int autoSizeMaxTextSize, 
        int autoSizeStepGranularity, int unit)

textView.setAutoSizeTextTypeUniformWithConfiguration(
                1, 17, 1, TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP);


Android versions prior to Android 8.0 (API level 26):

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

  <TextView
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="200dp"
      app:autoSizeTextType="uniform"
      app:autoSizeMinTextSize="12sp"
      app:autoSizeMaxTextSize="100sp"
      app:autoSizeStepGranularity="2sp" />

</LinearLayout>

Programmatically:

TextViewCompat.setAutoSizeTextTypeUniformWithConfiguration(
TextView textView, int autoSizeMinTextSize, int autoSizeMaxTextSize, int autoSizeStepGranularity, int unit) 

TextViewCompat.setAutoSizeTextTypeUniformWithConfiguration(textView, 1, 17, 1,
TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP);

Attention: TextView must have layout_width="match_parent" or absolute size!


UPDATE: Following code also fulfills the requirement of an ideal AutoScaleTextView as described here : Auto-fit TextView for Android and is marked as winner.

UPDATE 2: Support of maxlines added, now works fine before API level 16.

Update 3: Support for android:drawableLeft, android:drawableRight, android:drawableTop and android:drawableBottom tags added, thanks to MartinH's simple fix here.


My requirements were little bit different. I needed an efficient way to adjust size because I was animating an integer from, may be 0 to ~4000 in TextView in 2 seconds and I wanted to adjust the size accordingly. My solution works bit differently. Here is what final result looks like:

enter image description here

and the code that produced it:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:padding="16dp" >

    <com.vj.widgets.AutoResizeTextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="100dp"
        android:ellipsize="none"
        android:maxLines="2"
        android:text="Auto Resized Text, max 2 lines"
        android:textSize="100sp" /> <!-- maximum size -->

    <com.vj.widgets.AutoResizeTextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="100dp"
        android:ellipsize="none"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:text="Auto Resized Text, max 1 line"
        android:textSize="100sp" /> <!-- maximum size -->

    <com.vj.widgets.AutoResizeTextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Auto Resized Text"
        android:textSize="500sp" /> <!-- maximum size -->

</LinearLayout>

And finally the java code:

import android.annotation.TargetApi;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.res.Resources;
import android.graphics.RectF;
import android.os.Build;
import android.text.Layout.Alignment;
import android.text.StaticLayout;
import android.text.TextPaint;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.util.SparseIntArray;
import android.util.TypedValue;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class AutoResizeTextView extends TextView {
private interface SizeTester {
    /**
     * 
     * @param suggestedSize
     *            Size of text to be tested
     * @param availableSpace
     *            available space in which text must fit
     * @return an integer < 0 if after applying {@code suggestedSize} to
     *         text, it takes less space than {@code availableSpace}, > 0
     *         otherwise
     */
    public int onTestSize(int suggestedSize, RectF availableSpace);
}

private RectF mTextRect = new RectF();

private RectF mAvailableSpaceRect;

private SparseIntArray mTextCachedSizes;

private TextPaint mPaint;

private float mMaxTextSize;

private float mSpacingMult = 1.0f;

private float mSpacingAdd = 0.0f;

private float mMinTextSize = 20;

private int mWidthLimit;

private static final int NO_LINE_LIMIT = -1;
private int mMaxLines;

private boolean mEnableSizeCache = true;
private boolean mInitiallized;

public AutoResizeTextView(Context context) {
    super(context);
    initialize();
}

public AutoResizeTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
    super(context, attrs);
    initialize();
}

public AutoResizeTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
    super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    initialize();
}

private void initialize() {
    mPaint = new TextPaint(getPaint());
    mMaxTextSize = getTextSize();
    mAvailableSpaceRect = new RectF();
    mTextCachedSizes = new SparseIntArray();
    if (mMaxLines == 0) {
        // no value was assigned during construction
        mMaxLines = NO_LINE_LIMIT;
    }
    mInitiallized = true;
}

@Override
public void setText(final CharSequence text, BufferType type) {
    super.setText(text, type);
    adjustTextSize(text.toString());
}

@Override
public void setTextSize(float size) {
    mMaxTextSize = size;
    mTextCachedSizes.clear();
    adjustTextSize(getText().toString());
}

@Override
public void setMaxLines(int maxlines) {
    super.setMaxLines(maxlines);
    mMaxLines = maxlines;
    reAdjust();
}

public int getMaxLines() {
    return mMaxLines;
}

@Override
public void setSingleLine() {
    super.setSingleLine();
    mMaxLines = 1;
    reAdjust();
}

@Override
public void setSingleLine(boolean singleLine) {
    super.setSingleLine(singleLine);
    if (singleLine) {
        mMaxLines = 1;
    } else {
        mMaxLines = NO_LINE_LIMIT;
    }
    reAdjust();
}

@Override
public void setLines(int lines) {
    super.setLines(lines);
    mMaxLines = lines;
    reAdjust();
}

@Override
public void setTextSize(int unit, float size) {
    Context c = getContext();
    Resources r;

    if (c == null)
        r = Resources.getSystem();
    else
        r = c.getResources();
    mMaxTextSize = TypedValue.applyDimension(unit, size,
            r.getDisplayMetrics());
    mTextCachedSizes.clear();
    adjustTextSize(getText().toString());
}

@Override
public void setLineSpacing(float add, float mult) {
    super.setLineSpacing(add, mult);
    mSpacingMult = mult;
    mSpacingAdd = add;
}

/**
 * Set the lower text size limit and invalidate the view
 * 
 * @param minTextSize
 */
public void setMinTextSize(float minTextSize) {
    mMinTextSize = minTextSize;
    reAdjust();
}

private void reAdjust() {
    adjustTextSize(getText().toString());
}

private void adjustTextSize(String string) {
    if (!mInitiallized) {
        return;
    }
    int startSize = (int) mMinTextSize;
    int heightLimit = getMeasuredHeight() - getCompoundPaddingBottom()
        - getCompoundPaddingTop();
    mWidthLimit = getMeasuredWidth() - getCompoundPaddingLeft()
        - getCompoundPaddingRight();
    mAvailableSpaceRect.right = mWidthLimit;
    mAvailableSpaceRect.bottom = heightLimit;
    super.setTextSize(
            TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_PX,
            efficientTextSizeSearch(startSize, (int) mMaxTextSize,
                    mSizeTester, mAvailableSpaceRect));
}

private final SizeTester mSizeTester = new SizeTester() {
    @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN)
    @Override
    public int onTestSize(int suggestedSize, RectF availableSPace) {
        mPaint.setTextSize(suggestedSize);
        String text = getText().toString();
        boolean singleline = getMaxLines() == 1;
        if (singleline) {
            mTextRect.bottom = mPaint.getFontSpacing();
            mTextRect.right = mPaint.measureText(text);
        } else {
            StaticLayout layout = new StaticLayout(text, mPaint,
                    mWidthLimit, Alignment.ALIGN_NORMAL, mSpacingMult,
                    mSpacingAdd, true);
            // return early if we have more lines
            if (getMaxLines() != NO_LINE_LIMIT
                    && layout.getLineCount() > getMaxLines()) {
                return 1;
            }
            mTextRect.bottom = layout.getHeight();
            int maxWidth = -1;
            for (int i = 0; i < layout.getLineCount(); i++) {
                if (maxWidth < layout.getLineWidth(i)) {
                    maxWidth = (int) layout.getLineWidth(i);
                }
            }
            mTextRect.right = maxWidth;
        }

        mTextRect.offsetTo(0, 0);
        if (availableSPace.contains(mTextRect)) {
            // may be too small, don't worry we will find the best match
            return -1;
        } else {
            // too big
            return 1;
        }
    }
};

/**
 * Enables or disables size caching, enabling it will improve performance
 * where you are animating a value inside TextView. This stores the font
 * size against getText().length() Be careful though while enabling it as 0
 * takes more space than 1 on some fonts and so on.
 * 
 * @param enable
 *            enable font size caching
 */
public void enableSizeCache(boolean enable) {
    mEnableSizeCache = enable;
    mTextCachedSizes.clear();
    adjustTextSize(getText().toString());
}

private int efficientTextSizeSearch(int start, int end,
        SizeTester sizeTester, RectF availableSpace) {
    if (!mEnableSizeCache) {
        return binarySearch(start, end, sizeTester, availableSpace);
    }
    String text = getText().toString();
    int key = text == null ? 0 : text.length();
    int size = mTextCachedSizes.get(key);
    if (size != 0) {
        return size;
    }
    size = binarySearch(start, end, sizeTester, availableSpace);
    mTextCachedSizes.put(key, size);
    return size;
}

private static int binarySearch(int start, int end, SizeTester sizeTester,
        RectF availableSpace) {
    int lastBest = start;
    int lo = start;
    int hi = end - 1;
    int mid = 0;
    while (lo <= hi) {
        mid = (lo + hi) >>> 1;
        int midValCmp = sizeTester.onTestSize(mid, availableSpace);
        if (midValCmp < 0) {
            lastBest = lo;
            lo = mid + 1;
        } else if (midValCmp > 0) {
            hi = mid - 1;
            lastBest = hi;
        } else {
            return mid;
        }
    }
    // make sure to return last best
    // this is what should always be returned
    return lastBest;

}

@Override
protected void onTextChanged(final CharSequence text, final int start,
        final int before, final int after) {
    super.onTextChanged(text, start, before, after);
    reAdjust();
}

@Override
protected void onSizeChanged(int width, int height, int oldwidth,
        int oldheight) {
    mTextCachedSizes.clear();
    super.onSizeChanged(width, height, oldwidth, oldheight);
    if (width != oldwidth || height != oldheight) {
        reAdjust();
    }
}
}

As a mobile developer, I was sad to find nothing native that supports auto resizing. My searches did not turn up anything that worked for me and in the end, I spent the better half of my weekend and created my own auto resize text view. I will post the code here and hopefully it will be useful for someone else.

This class uses a static layout with the text paint of the original text view to measure the height. From there, I step down by 2 font pixels and remeasure until I have a size that fits. At the end, if the text still does not fit, I append an ellipsis. I had requirements to animate the text and reuse views and this seems to work well on the devices I have and seems to run fast enough for me.

/**
 *               DO WHAT YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE
 *                    Version 2, December 2004
 * 
 * Copyright (C) 2004 Sam Hocevar <[email protected]>
 * 
 * Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified
 * copies of this license document, and changing it is allowed as long
 * as the name is changed.
 * 
 *            DO WHAT YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE
 *   TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
 * 
 *  0. You just DO WHAT YOU WANT TO.
 */

import android.content.Context;
import android.text.Layout.Alignment;
import android.text.StaticLayout;
import android.text.TextPaint;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.util.TypedValue;
import android.widget.TextView;

/**
 * Text view that auto adjusts text size to fit within the view.
 * If the text size equals the minimum text size and still does not
 * fit, append with an ellipsis.
 * 
 * @author Chase Colburn
 * @since Apr 4, 2011
 */
public class AutoResizeTextView extends TextView {

    // Minimum text size for this text view
    public static final float MIN_TEXT_SIZE = 20;

    // Interface for resize notifications
    public interface OnTextResizeListener {
        public void onTextResize(TextView textView, float oldSize, float newSize);
    }

    // Our ellipse string
    private static final String mEllipsis = "...";

    // Registered resize listener
    private OnTextResizeListener mTextResizeListener;

    // Flag for text and/or size changes to force a resize
    private boolean mNeedsResize = false;

    // Text size that is set from code. This acts as a starting point for resizing
    private float mTextSize;

    // Temporary upper bounds on the starting text size
    private float mMaxTextSize = 0;

    // Lower bounds for text size
    private float mMinTextSize = MIN_TEXT_SIZE;

    // Text view line spacing multiplier
    private float mSpacingMult = 1.0f;

    // Text view additional line spacing
    private float mSpacingAdd = 0.0f;

    // Add ellipsis to text that overflows at the smallest text size
    private boolean mAddEllipsis = true;

    // Default constructor override
    public AutoResizeTextView(Context context) {
        this(context, null);
    }

    // Default constructor when inflating from XML file
    public AutoResizeTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        this(context, attrs, 0);
    }

    // Default constructor override
    public AutoResizeTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
        mTextSize = getTextSize();
    }

    /**
     * When text changes, set the force resize flag to true and reset the text size.
     */
    @Override
    protected void onTextChanged(final CharSequence text, final int start, final int before, final int after) {
        mNeedsResize = true;
        // Since this view may be reused, it is good to reset the text size
        resetTextSize();
    }

    /**
     * If the text view size changed, set the force resize flag to true
     */
    @Override
    protected void onSizeChanged(int w, int h, int oldw, int oldh) {
        if (w != oldw || h != oldh) {
            mNeedsResize = true;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Register listener to receive resize notifications
     * @param listener
     */
    public void setOnResizeListener(OnTextResizeListener listener) {
        mTextResizeListener = listener;
    }

    /**
     * Override the set text size to update our internal reference values
     */
    @Override
    public void setTextSize(float size) {
        super.setTextSize(size);
        mTextSize = getTextSize();
    }

    /**
     * Override the set text size to update our internal reference values
     */
    @Override
    public void setTextSize(int unit, float size) {
        super.setTextSize(unit, size);
        mTextSize = getTextSize();
    }

    /**
     * Override the set line spacing to update our internal reference values
     */
    @Override
    public void setLineSpacing(float add, float mult) {
        super.setLineSpacing(add, mult);
        mSpacingMult = mult;
        mSpacingAdd = add;
    }

    /**
     * Set the upper text size limit and invalidate the view
     * @param maxTextSize
     */
    public void setMaxTextSize(float maxTextSize) {
        mMaxTextSize = maxTextSize;
        requestLayout();
        invalidate();
    }

    /**
     * Return upper text size limit
     * @return
     */
    public float getMaxTextSize() {
        return mMaxTextSize;
    }

    /**
     * Set the lower text size limit and invalidate the view
     * @param minTextSize
     */
    public void setMinTextSize(float minTextSize) {
        mMinTextSize = minTextSize;
        requestLayout();
        invalidate();
    }

    /**
     * Return lower text size limit
     * @return
     */
    public float getMinTextSize() {
        return mMinTextSize;
    }

    /**
     * Set flag to add ellipsis to text that overflows at the smallest text size
     * @param addEllipsis
     */
    public void setAddEllipsis(boolean addEllipsis) {
        mAddEllipsis = addEllipsis;
    }

    /**
     * Return flag to add ellipsis to text that overflows at the smallest text size
     * @return
     */
    public boolean getAddEllipsis() {
        return mAddEllipsis;
    }

    /**
     * Reset the text to the original size
     */
    public void resetTextSize() {
        if (mTextSize > 0) {
            super.setTextSize(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_PX, mTextSize);
            mMaxTextSize = mTextSize;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Resize text after measuring
     */
    @Override
    protected void onLayout(boolean changed, int left, int top, int right, int bottom) {
        if (changed || mNeedsResize) {
            int widthLimit = (right - left) - getCompoundPaddingLeft() - getCompoundPaddingRight();
            int heightLimit = (bottom - top) - getCompoundPaddingBottom() - getCompoundPaddingTop();
            resizeText(widthLimit, heightLimit);
        }
        super.onLayout(changed, left, top, right, bottom);
    }

    /**
     * Resize the text size with default width and height
     */
    public void resizeText() {

        int heightLimit = getHeight() - getPaddingBottom() - getPaddingTop();
        int widthLimit = getWidth() - getPaddingLeft() - getPaddingRight();
        resizeText(widthLimit, heightLimit);
    }

    /**
     * Resize the text size with specified width and height
     * @param width
     * @param height
     */
    public void resizeText(int width, int height) {
        CharSequence text = getText();
        // Do not resize if the view does not have dimensions or there is no text
        if (text == null || text.length() == 0 || height <= 0 || width <= 0 || mTextSize == 0) {
            return;
        }

        if (getTransformationMethod() != null) {
            text = getTransformationMethod().getTransformation(text, this);
        }

        // Get the text view's paint object
        TextPaint textPaint = getPaint();

        // Store the current text size
        float oldTextSize = textPaint.getTextSize();
        // If there is a max text size set, use the lesser of that and the default text size
        float targetTextSize = mMaxTextSize > 0 ? Math.min(mTextSize, mMaxTextSize) : mTextSize;

        // Get the required text height
        int textHeight = getTextHeight(text, textPaint, width, targetTextSize);

        // Until we either fit within our text view or we had reached our min text size, incrementally try smaller sizes
        while (textHeight > height && targetTextSize > mMinTextSize) {
            targetTextSize = Math.max(targetTextSize - 2, mMinTextSize);
            textHeight = getTextHeight(text, textPaint, width, targetTextSize);
        }

        // If we had reached our minimum text size and still don't fit, append an ellipsis
        if (mAddEllipsis && targetTextSize == mMinTextSize && textHeight > height) {
            // Draw using a static layout
            // modified: use a copy of TextPaint for measuring
            TextPaint paint = new TextPaint(textPaint);
            // Draw using a static layout
            StaticLayout layout = new StaticLayout(text, paint, width, Alignment.ALIGN_NORMAL, mSpacingMult, mSpacingAdd, false);
            // Check that we have a least one line of rendered text
            if (layout.getLineCount() > 0) {
                // Since the line at the specific vertical position would be cut off,
                // we must trim up to the previous line
                int lastLine = layout.getLineForVertical(height) - 1;
                // If the text would not even fit on a single line, clear it
                if (lastLine < 0) {
                    setText("");
                }
                // Otherwise, trim to the previous line and add an ellipsis
                else {
                    int start = layout.getLineStart(lastLine);
                    int end = layout.getLineEnd(lastLine);
                    float lineWidth = layout.getLineWidth(lastLine);
                    float ellipseWidth = textPaint.measureText(mEllipsis);

                    // Trim characters off until we have enough room to draw the ellipsis
                    while (width < lineWidth + ellipseWidth) {
                        lineWidth = textPaint.measureText(text.subSequence(start, --end + 1).toString());
                    }
                    setText(text.subSequence(0, end) + mEllipsis);
                }
            }
        }

        // Some devices try to auto adjust line spacing, so force default line spacing
        // and invalidate the layout as a side effect
        setTextSize(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_PX, targetTextSize);
        setLineSpacing(mSpacingAdd, mSpacingMult);

        // Notify the listener if registered
        if (mTextResizeListener != null) {
            mTextResizeListener.onTextResize(this, oldTextSize, targetTextSize);
        }

        // Reset force resize flag
        mNeedsResize = false;
    }

    // Set the text size of the text paint object and use a static layout to render text off screen before measuring
    private int getTextHeight(CharSequence source, TextPaint paint, int width, float textSize) {
        // modified: make a copy of the original TextPaint object for measuring
        // (apparently the object gets modified while measuring, see also the
        // docs for TextView.getPaint() (which states to access it read-only)
        TextPaint paintCopy = new TextPaint(paint);
        // Update the text paint object
        paintCopy.setTextSize(textSize);
        // Measure using a static layout
        StaticLayout layout = new StaticLayout(source, paintCopy, width, Alignment.ALIGN_NORMAL, mSpacingMult, mSpacingAdd, true);
        return layout.getHeight();
    }

}

Warning. There is an important fixed bug affecting Android 3.1 - 4.04 causing all AutoResizingTextView widgets not to work. Please read: https://stackoverflow.com/a/21851157/2075875