Android customized button; changing text color

Question

I made a button that changes the background drawable on different states, this way:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
     <item android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/btn_location_pressed" /> <!-- pressed -->
     <item android:state_focused="true" android:drawable="@drawable/btn_location_pressed"/> <!-- focused -->
     <item android:drawable="@drawable/btn_location"/> <!-- default -->
</selector>

The problem here is that I'm also trying to change the textColor as I do with the drawable but I'm not being able to. I already tried android:textColor and android:color but the first doesn't work whilst the seconds changes my background.

The next code is part of my layout. Regarding to the text color it only works for the normal state text color, thus not changing it to the white one while pressed

<Button android:id="@+id/location_name"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingTop="5dp"
        android:background="@drawable/location"          
        android:textSize="15sp"
        android:textColor="@color/location_color"
        android:textColorHighlight="#FFFFFF"
   />

Has anybody got a clue?

Tomlin

Answer 1

Create a stateful color for your button, just like you did for background, for example:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <!-- Focused and not pressed -->
    <item android:state_focused="true" 
          android:state_pressed="false" 
          android:color="#ffffff" />

    <!-- Focused and pressed -->
    <item android:state_focused="true" 
          android:state_pressed="true" 
          android:color="#000000" />

    <!-- Unfocused and pressed -->
    <item android:state_focused="false" 
          android:state_pressed="true" 
          android:color="#000000" />

    <!-- Default color -->
    <item android:color="#ffffff" />

</selector>

Place the xml in a file at res/drawable folder i.e. res/drawable/button_text_color.xml. Then just set the drawable as text color:

android:textColor="@drawable/button_text_color"

Titanism

Note that (for me, at least) there is a bug where the "normal" state (<item android:color="#ffffff" /> in your answer) must be placed at the end of the file as in your answer. Placing the normal state at the top of the file (above the other states) stops the selector from working. – Titanate

it's not a bug. It's the way state selection is supposed to work. It's not a best match, instead the first that fits will make it through. – Offence

Do you how to do this with an integer value? I am trying to do something similar with the text padding. – Forensic

spent some time trying this to no avail, then discovered that I had still been setting it to the background property instead of the textcolor property. Not used to seeing textcolor take a drawable! – Lacey

It beter if the color selector is located in res/color folder. And when call, use: android:textColor="@color/button_text_color" – Bathyscaphe

I noticed that there are a lot of different properties to make use of in the selector item. In my case, I made use of <selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <item android:state_checked="false" android:color="@color/texts" /> <item android:state_checked="true" android:color="@color/green" /> </selector> to create two states that represent whenever a switch is on or off. Thanks for the help! – Overtire

it is works but its shows warning that <item> tab required a 'drawable' attribute or child tag defining drawable. – Statistician

Using this solution when I click on any Button for just a fraction of a second the color change happens and after that, it turns to its original color. Does anyone face a similar issue? – Consolation

Answer 2

Another way to do it is in your class:

import android.graphics.Color; // add to top of class  

Button btn = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btn);

// set button text colour to be blue
btn.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("blue"));

// set button text colour to be red
btn.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#FF0000"));

// set button text color to be a color from your resources (could be strings.xml)
btn.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.yourColor));

// set button background colour to be green
btn.setBackgroundColor(Color.GREEN);

Leekgreen

This will change the text color on the button, but will stay that color during the different states of the button (e.g. pressed). In most scenarios, when a button's background color changes during a state, it is also desired to change the button's text color as well, this is where @Konstantin Burov's answer comes handy. – Brinson

This does not answer the original question. The question is about how to define state based colors to a text view just like you can set state based drawables. – Anu

Answer 3

ok very simple first go to 1. res-valuse and open colors.xml 2.copy 1 of the defined text their for example #FF4081 and change name for instance i changed to white and change its value for instance i changed to #FFFFFF for white value like this

<color name="White">#FFFFFF</color>

then inside your button add this line

 b3.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(getApplicationContext(), R.color.White));

ok b3 is the name of my button so changed of the name of ur button all others will be same if u use white color if you change different color then change white to the name of your color but first you have define that color in colors.xml like i explained in pont 2

Fresh

Answer 4

Changing text color of button

Because this method is now deprecated

button.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.your_color));

I use the following:

button.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(mContext, R.color.your_color));

Huth

Answer 5

Use getColorStateList like this

setTextColor(resources.getColorStateList(R.color.button_states_color))

instead of getColor

setTextColor(resources.getColor(R.color.button_states_color))

Fosse

helped thanks, on api 30 this is the way of doing it – Arondell

Answer 6

if you want to change the background color of button, you can go res/values/themes/themes.xml and change Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight.DarkActionBar to Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar

Analyst