How to change the color of GUI elements in Android in the whole application?

Question

I have created a Custom style in which I changed the background of the complete App. Now I want to change the light blue colored items to red. I do not want to change each individual view... Is there a simple and fast method to change this just like the background of the App?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <color name="colorBackground">#A0A0A3</color>
    <color name="windowBackground">#0B2265</color>
    <color name="textColor">#FFFFFF</color>
    <color name="highlight">#ED1B24</color>

    <style name="CustomStyle" parent="android:Theme.Holo">
        <item name="android:windowBackground">@color/windowBackground</item>
        <item name="android:colorBackground">@color/colorBackground</item>
        <item name="android:textColor">@color/textColor</item>

    </style>
</resources>

Colors I want to change

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 21 '12 at 13:26

2

You can't just change a color and everything will change. Most of the UI elements are png graphics, so you have to change all graphics by yourself and create your own theme.

answered Aug 21 '12 at 13:26

Sprigg

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:24

As for the ActionBar and EditText - those are 9-patch drawables that you can replace with your own to change the appearance. For examples, check out this answer for the line beneath the ActionBar and this answer for the EditText.

As for the DatePicker, I'm not quite sure - haven't had to use it yet. I'd suggest checking out the Android source code to figure out where the blue lines come from (e.g. from style attributes or hardcoded). One approach is to open DatePicker.class, see what XML file is loaded to build the layout and from there find any associated styles and drawables. If you find the XML / drawables, copy them to your project, change them to fit your needs, and apply them to (in this case) DatePicker in the same way the Android system does it (as can be seen in the source).

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 21 '12 at 13:18

0

You can create your own theme and apply it to the entire app

See the following link : http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/themes.html

answered Aug 21 '12 at 13:18

Aerilys

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I found that tutorial, but I can't find a list of all the android: style properties like android:textColor. – Roel Aug 21 '12 at 14:21

How to change the color of GUI elements in Android in the whole application?

3 Answers3