Creating A Digital Clock Widget With A Custom Font

Question

I\'m trying to create a digital clock widget with a custom font. And this has proven to be the biggest challenge of my Android experience. (Thought it would be as simple as

Answer 1

I had the same problem... You have 2 options as I know till now:

1. The easiest - If you are using API level 16 or higher you can simply add android:fontFamily="sans-serif-thin" attribute for example in your xml file. Works like a charm!

This is my TextView:

<TextView
   android:id="@+id/Time"
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:ellipsize="none"
   android:fontFamily="sans-serif-thin"
   android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
   android:includeFontPadding="false"
   android:singleLine="true"
   android:text="12:01"
   android:textColor="#fff"
   android:textSize="80sp" />

And this is how it looks like:

The only disadvantage of this method is that there isn't large selection of system fonts you can use.

2. The hard way is just to use your own Class, witch extends the TextView object like that and define it instead normal TextView in your xml file. I do not recommend it because it is possible to appear bugs.

Edit: For updating the widget every minute - you need to start a Service which can update your clock each minute (or second if you want). Check this example too.

Answer 2

For API 17 or higher to customize fonts, you need to download .ttf file for any fonts you want then create a directory assets/fonts/ then save your fonts

Typeface fonttype
fonttype = Typeface.createFromAsset(getActivity().getAssets(), "fonts/robotoregular.ttf");
textclock.setTypeface(fonttype);

Answer 3

Use this link to get Textclock below API level 17. You could use .setTypeface(Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),fonts/font.ttf")); with it.