How to set TextStyle of PagerTabStrip to Bold?

Question

I'm using PagerTabStrip in ViewPager to show the title of each page. Here is my XML code:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" 
    android:background="@drawable/bg">

    <android.support.v4.view.ViewPager
        android:id="@+id/pager"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
    <android.support.v4.view.PagerTabStrip
            android:id="@+id/pager_title_strip"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="top"
            android:background="#33b5e5"
            android:textColor="#a4c639"
            android:paddingTop="4dp"
            android:paddingBottom="4dp" />
    </android.support.v4.view.ViewPager>

</RelativeLayout>

I want to set the textStyle to bold in PagerTabStrip like this: android:textStyle="bold". But this is not possible in PagerTabStrip. Seems like it has only textcolor property for text. What is the way by which I can set the style to bold?

Solution 1

What you need to do is create a style for the text, and then use the android:textAppearance attribute...

Perhaps something like this:

 <style name="PagerTabStripText">
      <item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
      <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
      <item name="android:textColor">#a4c639</item>
 </style>

And then in your PagerTabStrip XML do this:

 <android.support.v4.view.PagerTabStrip
        android:id="@+id/pager_title_strip"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="top"
        android:background="#33b5e5"
        android:paddingTop="4dp"
        android:paddingBottom="4dp" 
        android:textAppearance="@style/PagerTabStripText"/>

Solution 2

PagerTabStrip doesn't aceppts textAppearance.

Like @Justin said above, but on xml put:

style="@style/PagerTabStripText"

not:

android:textAppearance="@style/PagerTabStripText"

Solution 3

If you'd like to style the center tab title differently from the others, then you'll need to use reflection:

try {
    final Class pagerTitleStripClass = PagerTitleStrip.class;
    final Field mCurrTextField = pagerTitleStripClass.getDeclaredField("mCurrText");
    mCurrTextField.setAccessible(true);

    // mTitle is my class's PagerTabStrip member variable
    final TextView mCurrText = (TextView) mCurrTextField.get(mTitle);
    mCurrText.setTypeface(Typeface.DEFAULT_BOLD);
} catch (final Exception e) {
    Log.w(TAG, "Exception when styling currently selected title!", e);
}

Unfortunately, this solution is subject to potentially not working anymore when updates for the Android Support Library are released (as that's where the PagerTitleStrip class is from). In particular, this code sample is working with revision 20.

Comments

[Eugene Chumak]

By the way, eclipse doesnt autosuggest android:textAppearance inside android.support.v4.view.PagerTabStrip. But dont be confused by that, textAppearance works for PagerTabStrip.

[ambit]

I need to use custom typeface for my pagertabstrip. Any idea how to use that?

[Braj]

@Justin - textMultiLine property is not working in this way. Any other way around?

[Charles Madere]

Any idea on how one specifically styles the center tab title? As in, the user's current tab title would be bold and the others be normal?

[therealprashant]

android studio doesnt have textAppearance

[kamathln]

I personally wouldn't recommend using reflection for these kind of "tricks". There is a reason it is private - It may change at any time - even during different commits of the same revision. Reflection should be used for meta-level-stuff like writing frameworks, and such.