Accessing a font under assets folder from XML file in Android

Edit 2:

Finally fonts are supported by xml (also backwards compatible via support library): https://developer.android.com/preview/features/fonts-in-xml.html

---

Edit:

I now use the Calligraphy library . It is the easiest way for custom fonts.

What can you do:

• Custom font in a TextView
• Custom font in TextAppearance
• Custom font in Styles
• Custom font in Themes
• FontSpannable to only apply font to a part of the text

---

I found another way to do this.

You have to make your own TextView using this tutorial

It is not that difficult and after this you can just use that TextView with your own font.

I don't know if anybody still watches this, but I thought it might help.

In my research, there is no way to add external font to the xml file. Only the 3 default font is available in xml

But you can use in java using this code.

Typeface tf = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"fonts/verdana.ttf");  
textfield.setTypeface(tf,Typeface.BOLD);

Update:

Now I find a way to do this by creating a custom class extending the TextView and use that in the xml file.

public class TextViewWithFont extends TextView {
    private int defaultDimension = 0;
    private int TYPE_BOLD = 1;
    private int TYPE_ITALIC = 2;
    private int FONT_ARIAL = 1;
    private int FONT_OPEN_SANS = 2;
    private int fontType;
    private int fontName;

    public TextViewWithFont(Context context) {
        super(context);
        init(null, 0);
    }
    public TextViewWithFont(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        init(attrs, 0);
    }
    public TextViewWithFont(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
        init(attrs, defStyle);
    }
    private void init(AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        // Load attributes
        final TypedArray a = getContext().obtainStyledAttributes(
                attrs, R.styleable.font, defStyle, 0);
        fontName = a.getInt(R.styleable.font_name, defaultDimension);
        fontType = a.getInt(R.styleable.font_type, defaultDimension);
        a.recycle();
        MyApplication application = (MyApplication ) getContext().getApplicationContext();
        if (fontName == FONT_ARIAL) {
            setFontType(application .getArialFont());
        } else if (fontName == FONT_OPEN_SANS) {
            setFontType(application .getOpenSans());
        }
    }
    private void setFontType(Typeface font) {
        if (fontType == TYPE_BOLD) {
            setTypeface(font, Typeface.BOLD);
        } else if (fontType == TYPE_ITALIC) {
            setTypeface(font, Typeface.ITALIC);
        } else {
            setTypeface(font);
        }
    }
}

and in xml

<com.example.customwidgets.TextViewWithFont
        font:name="Arial"
        font:type="bold"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:text="Hello world "
        android:padding="5dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

dont forget to add the schema in root of your xml

xmlns:font="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"

And create an attrs.xml file inside values directory, which is holding our custom attribues:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <declare-styleable name="font">
        <attr name="type">
        <enum name="bold" value="1"/>
            <enum name="italic" value="2"/>
        </attr>
        <attr name="name">
            <enum name="Arial" value="1"/>
            <enum name="OpenSans" value="2"/>
        </attr>
    </declare-styleable>
</resources>

Update:

Found some performance issue when this custom view is used in listview, that is because the font Object is creating every time the view is loaded. Solution I found is to initialize the font in Application Class and refer that font object by

MyApplication application = (MyApplication) getContext().getApplicationContext();

Application class will look like this

public class MyApplication extends Application {

    private Typeface arialFont, openSans;

    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();

        arialFont = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), QRUtils.FONT_ARIAL);
        openSans = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), QRUtils.FONT_OPEN_SANS);
    }

    public Typeface getArialFont() {
        return arialFont;
    }

    public Typeface getOpenSans() {
        return openSans;
    }
}