TabLayout (Android Design Library) Text Color

Question

I'm using the new TabLayout from the Android Design library. I managed to set the textcolor statelist using tabLayout.setTabTextColors(colorstatelist)

How can i achieve the same using styles.xml?

Solution 1

Via XML attributes:

<android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:tabMode="fixed"
        app:tabGravity="fill"
        app:tabTextColor="@color/your_unselected_text_color"
        app:tabSelectedTextColor="@color/your_selected_text_color"/>

Additionally, there are attributes like tabIndicatorColor or tabIndicatorHeight for further styling.

In code:

tabLayout.setTabTextColors(
    getResources().getColor(R.color.your_unselected_text_color),
    getResources().getColor(R.color.your_selected_text_color)
);

Since this old way is deprecated as of API 23, the alternative is:

tabLayout.setTabTextColors(
    ContextCompat.getColor(context, R.color.your_unselected_text_color),
    ContextCompat.getColor(context, R.color.your_selected_text_color)
);

Solution 2

Here is snippet code to override text style and selected text color

<style name="MyCustomTabLayout" parent="Widget.Design.TabLayout">
    <item name="tabTextAppearance">@style/MyCustomTabText</item>
    <item name="tabSelectedTextColor">@color/tab_text_act</item>
</style>

<style name="MyCustomTabText" parent="TextAppearance.AppCompat.Button">
    <item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/tab_text</item>
</style>

And here is snippet code for layout

<android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            style="@style/MyCustomTabLayout" />

Solution 3

All the answers above are correct but I just think its better to override the default styles and only change the specific element you want to change. Example below will make the text bold:

<style name="Widget.TabItem" parent="TextAppearance.Design.Tab">
    <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
</style>

Then..,

app:tabTextAppearance="@style/Widget.TabItem"

Solution 4

You just have to override android:textAppearance style. Because TabLayout use textAppearance. here is the small snippet code of style.

<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <!-- Below will reference with our custom style -->
    <item name="android:textAppearance">@style/my_tab_text</item>
</style>

<style name="my_tab_text" parent="Base.TextAppearance.AppCompat">
    <item name="android:textColor">@android:color/holo_blue_dark</item>
</style>

And if you dont want to reference from your Apptheme you can directly specify to TabLayout using Below snippet.

 <android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            app:tabTextAppearance="@style/my_tab_text"
            app:tabIndicatorHeight="48dp"/>

Solution 5

For custom tabs we have to override the following : 1) app:tabTextColor //for_unselected_text"

        <android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
            android:id="@+id/tabs"
            style="@style/MyCustomTabLayout"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="56dp"
            android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
            android:scrollbarSize="24sp"
            android:visibility="gone"
            app:tabTextColor="@color/white_40_percent"
            app:tabMode="scrollable" />

2) tabSelectedTextColor // for selected tab color 3) tabIndicatorColor // color for tab indicator

   <style name="MyCustomTabLayout" parent="Widget.Design.TabLayout">
    <item name="android:textColorPrimary">@color/white</item>
    <item name="tabSelectedTextColor">@color/white</item>
    <item name="tabTextAppearance">@style/TabTextStyle</item>
    <item name="tabIndicatorColor">?attr/colorAccent</item>
    <item name="tabIndicatorHeight">4dp</item>
    <item name="android:tabStripEnabled">true</item>
    <item name="android:padding">0dp</item>
  </style>



<style name="TabTextStyle">
    <item name="android:fontFamily">@string/font_fontFamily_medium</item>
    <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
    <item name="android:textAllCaps">true</item>
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/tab_text_color</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
</style>

tab_text_color.xml

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <item android:color="@color/white_40_percent"android:state_selected="false"/>
  <item android:color="@color/white_100_percent"android:state_selected="true"/>
 </selector>

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Comments

[Moinkhan]

make sure you are using AppCompact as a parent

[sebastian]

ok you are right, it works. but only for the "unselected"-tab. the selected tab-text is always black for me

[Moinkhan]

Ok there is no code in design library available for assigning a textColor of selected tab in design support library. So for selected tab text color you have to set it using property ..

[Simon]

Thanks - this works for me. Just like to point out that the tabSelectedTextColor is the color for the line under the tab and the text of the tab when the tab i selected.

[SpaceMonkey]

Why are you inheriting Widget.Design.TabLayout ?

[SpaceMonkey]

why do we have to use "style" here on TabLayout? Why it doesn't work if I use "android:theme"?

[sweetrenard]

@Spacemonkey because Widget.Design.TabLayout contains base styles for tabs such like "tabIndicatorColor", "tabIndicatorHeight"

[SpaceMonkey]

@sweetrenard oh, so it's overriding the theme I specify in "android:theme"?

[SafaOrhan]

Why not use: <style name="AppTabTextAppearance" parent="TextAppearance.Design.Tab"> ?

[deadfish]

Im sorry but where did You find this way?

[PriyankaChauhan]

@Fe Le what if I want to change pragmatically ?

[Fe Le]

@pcpriyanka thanks for the tip, I've updated my answer with an as easy way to define selected and unselected color in code.