How to adjust text kerning in Android TextView?

Question

Is there a way to adjust the spacing between characters in an Android TextView? I believe this is typically called \"kerning\".

I\'m aware of the

Answer 1

If anyone is looking for a simple way to apply the kerning to any string (technically, CharSequence) without using a TextView:

public static Spannable applyKerning(CharSequence src, float kerning)
{
    if (src == null) return null;
    final int srcLength = src.length();
    if (srcLength < 2) return src instanceof Spannable
                              ? (Spannable)src
                              : new SpannableString(src);

    final String nonBreakingSpace = "\u00A0";
    final SpannableStringBuilder builder = src instanceof SpannableStringBuilder
                                           ? (SpannableStringBuilder)src
                                           : new SpannableStringBuilder(src);
    for (int i = src.length() - 1; i >= 1; i--)
    {
        builder.insert(i, nonBreakingSpace);
        builder.setSpan(new ScaleXSpan(kerning), i, i + 1,
                        Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
    }

    return builder;
}