How do you set a default textColor inside a LinearLayout that contains multiple TextViews?

Question

I have a LinearLayout with that has multiple TextViews and want to set up a default global color for that layout only without having to add a textColor field inside each TextView. Also, if it's possible, would it also be possible to override the color value by adding it inside the TextView? i.e. If I set blue as a default color and black for a single TextView, would the blue change to black?

Answer 1

To set the default global TextView colors, first you can create your own theme in AndroidManifest.xml file for the following items:

• textColorPrimary - for Large texts
• textColorSecondary - for Medium texts
• textColorTertiary - for Small texts
• textColorHint - for Hint texts

For example, in AndroidManifest.xml:

<style name="TextViewTheme" parent="android:Widget.TextView">
    <!-- Set the default global color for TextViews to Holo Blue Dark -->
    <item name="android:textColorPrimary">@android:color/holo_blue_dark</item>
    <item name="android:textColorSecondary">@android:color/holo_blue_dark</item>
    <item name="android:textColorTertiary">@android:color/holo_blue_dark</item>
    <item name="android:textColorHint">@android:color/holo_blue_dark</item>
</style>

Next, set the theme style on your LinearLayout. You can also override the default for a single TextView to black color, like the following which set the first TextView Hint text color to black in activity_main.xml:

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:theme="@style/TextViewTheme">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/phone_tv"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:hint="@string/phone_tv"
        android:textColor="@android:color/black"
        android:textColorHint="@android:color/black" />

     <TextView
        android:id="@+id/email_tv"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:hint="@string/email_tv" />

</LinearLayout>

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

If your TextViews are indeed very many to the extent that calling setTextColor() on each of them would be a herculean task, why not use a view that supports an adapter (i.e ListView, RecyclerView etc). Your TextViews would show up the exact same way as you intend them to appear with the LinearLayout.

While using an adapter, you can set up a model TextView layout and set a global textColor for all the TextViews. You can override this global textcolor in your adapter by using simple if and else statements.

I hope this helps.. Merry coding!

Answer 3

You can override default text colors for the entire application by setting textColorPrimary and textColorSecondary in your parent in styles.xml

<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item>
    <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
    <item name="textColorPrimary">@color/black</item>
    <item name="textColorSecondary">@color/grey</item>
</style>

Answer 4

This code will work even if you add or remove TextViews from your layout. Just put it in your activity's onCreate();

    LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.layout);

    for (int i = 0; i < layout.getChildCount(); i++) {
        View v = layout.getChildAt(i);
        if (v instanceof TextView) {
            ((TextView) v).setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
        } 
    }

change the color to what you like.
If you want after this code you can change the color for any specific TextView.

Answer 5

Pretty late answer but this does the trick. Inside style.xml lately changed to themes.xml

<style name="ErrorStyle">
        <item name="android:textColor">#FF0000</item>
</style>

Then inside your xml layout

<LinearLayout
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:theme="@style/ErrorStyle">

 .. All of your TextView
</LinearLayout>

Using this approach we can use other xml variation such as night mode, etc... and we still have te possibility to override the internal TextViews.