How to use Roboto in xml layout

Question

I hear it often nowadays: “Roboto is the default font type”. But how do I use this default font type? What I mean specifically is that in the old days when I used to download the assets, etc., I used to have to specify things like

<item name="typeface">roboto_bold</item>

Imagine I am interested in using all of say (in turn)

roboto_thin
 roboto_thin_italic
 roboto_light
 roboto_light_italic
 roboto_regular
 roboto_italic
 roboto_medium
 roboto_medium_italic
 roboto_bold
 roboto_bold_italic
 roboto_black
 roboto_black_italic
 roboto_condensed_light
 roboto_condensed_light_italic
 roboto_condensed_regular
 roboto_condensed_italic
 roboto_condensed_bold
 roboto_condensed_bold_italic
 roboto_slab_thin
 roboto_slab_light
 roboto_slab_regular
 roboto_slab_bold

How do I specify them in my xml layout file or style.xml file?

score 110 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

I've already found some possibilities

Using `fontfamily`

The simplest way would be add fontFamily attribute to your specific view like TextView

According to How to change fontFamily of TextView in Android

From android 4.1 / 4.2 / 5.0, the following Roboto font families are available:
android:fontFamily="sans-serif"           // roboto regular
android:fontFamily="sans-serif-light"     // roboto light
android:fontFamily="sans-serif-condensed" // roboto condensed
android:fontFamily="sans-serif-thin"      // roboto thin (android 4.2)
android:fontFamily="sans-serif-medium"    // roboto medium (android 5.0)
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:typeface

in combination with
android:textStyle="normal|bold|italic"
this 14 variants are possible:

Roboto regular

Roboto italic

Roboto bold

Roboto bold italic

Roboto-Light

Roboto-Light italic

Roboto-Thin

Roboto-Thin italic

Roboto-Condensed

Roboto-Condensed italic

Roboto-Condensed bold

Roboto-Condensed bold italic

Roboto-Medium

Roboto-Medium italic

You can also do this programmatically using code as below:

textView.setTypeface(Typeface.create("sans-serif-thin", Typeface.NORMAL));

Using `typeface`

Available built-ibn fonts are:

normal
sans
serif
monospace

You can cobine them like below:

   android:typeface="sans" | "serif" | "monospace"

See android:typeface.

Using `styles.xml`

You set style in styles.xml` like that:

<style name="boldText">
    <item name="android:textStyle">bold|italic</item>
    <item name="android:textColor">#FFFFFF</item>
</style>

and to use this style in main.xml layout file just use:

style="@style/boldText"

Combining Text atrributes

You can mix TextView attributes like in code below:

 android:fontFamily="serif" 
 android:textStyle="italic"

Using third-party libraries

Foundry - apply custom typefaces through XML layouts and styles.

android-typeface-helper - Typeface helper for Android

Additional lecture

You may also want to read about Roboto typeface and Typography Google's Design Guide.

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score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 20 '17 at 22:17

7

In addition to piotrek's answer, here is a quick cheatsheet if you haven't decided which Roboto font to use:

answered Nov 20 '17 at 22:17

Simon

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Where can we download these fonts? – IgorGanapolsky Jul 19 '21 at 21:11
1

@IgorGanapolsky https://fonts.google.com/?query=roboto – Simon Aug 02 '21 at 09:55

How to use Roboto in xml layout

2 Answers2

Using `fontfamily`

Using `typeface`

Using `styles.xml`

Combining Text atrributes

Using third-party libraries

Additional lecture

Linked

How to use Roboto in xml layout

2 Answers2

Using fontfamily

Using typeface

Using styles.xml

Combining Text atrributes

Using third-party libraries

Additional lecture

Linked

Using `fontfamily`

Using `typeface`

Using `styles.xml`