change font for editText hint

Question

Is it possible to change the font for the hint displayed in the EditText field? I want to set the font in the xml itself.

Answer 1

@francisco_ssb's answer is correct. However, I will provide an alternative solution which helps to change not only a hint's font, but also its size and style. I hope this solution will be helpful.

1) Create a custom Hint object:

import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.text.SpannableString;
import android.text.Spanned;
import android.text.style.MetricAffectingSpan;

public class CustomHint extends SpannableString
{
    public CustomHint(final CharSequence source, final int style)
    {
        this(null, source, style, null);
    }

    public CustomHint(final CharSequence source, final Float size)
    {
        this(null, source, size);
    }

    public CustomHint(final CharSequence source, final int style, final Float size)
    {
        this(null, source, style, size);
    }

    public CustomHint(final Typeface typeface, final CharSequence source, final int style)
    {
        this(typeface, source, style, null);
    }

    public CustomHint(final Typeface typeface, final CharSequence source, final Float size)
    {
        this(typeface, source, null, size);
    }

    public CustomHint(final Typeface typeface, final CharSequence source, final Integer style, final Float size)
    {
        super(source);

        MetricAffectingSpan typefaceSpan = new CustomMetricAffectingSpan(typeface, style, size);
        setSpan(typefaceSpan, 0, source.length(), Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
    }
}

2) Create custom MetricAffectingSpan object:

import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.text.TextPaint;
import android.text.style.MetricAffectingSpan;

public class CustomMetricAffectingSpan extends MetricAffectingSpan
{
    private final Typeface _typeface;
    private final Float    _newSize;
    private final Integer  _newStyle;

    public CustomMetricAffectingSpan(Float size)
    {
        this(null, null, size);
    }

    public CustomMetricAffectingSpan(Float size, Integer style)
    {
        this(null, style, size);
    }

    public CustomMetricAffectingSpan(Typeface type, Integer style, Float size)
    {
        this._typeface = type;
        this._newStyle = style;
        this._newSize = size;
    }

    @Override
    public void updateDrawState(TextPaint ds)
    {
        applyNewSize(ds);
    }

    @Override
    public void updateMeasureState(TextPaint paint)
    {
        applyNewSize(paint);
    }

    private void applyNewSize(TextPaint paint)
    {
        if (this._newStyle != null)
            paint.setTypeface(Typeface.create(this._typeface, this._newStyle));
        else
            paint.setTypeface(this._typeface);

        if (this._newSize != null)
            paint.setTextSize(this._newSize);
    }
}

3) Use:

Typeface newTypeface = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "AguafinaScript-Regular.ttf");
CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint(newTypeface, "Enter some text", Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC, 60f);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint(newTypeface, "Enter some text", Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint(newTypeface, "Enter some text", 60f);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint("Enter some text", Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC, 60f);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint("Enter some text", Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC);
        //        CustomHint customHint = new CustomHint("Enter some text", 60f);

customEditText.setHint(customHint);