How to change text color of preference category in Android?

Question

The textColor attribute isn't working. Here's my XML:

<PreferenceCategory
        android:title="Title"
        android:textColor="#00FF00">

Any ideas?

Earsplitting

Answer 1

use this customize PreferenceCategory class :

public class MyPreferenceCategory extends PreferenceCategory {
    public MyPreferenceCategory(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public MyPreferenceCategory(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    public MyPreferenceCategory(Context context, AttributeSet attrs,
            int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onBindView(View view) {
        super.onBindView(view);
        TextView titleView = (TextView) view.findViewById(android.R.id.title);
        titleView.setTextColor(Color.RED);
    }
}

and add this at your Pref.xml file :

<ali.UI.Customize.MyPreferenceCategory android:title="@string/pref_server" />

Timeconsuming

I found that findViewById() still didn't work in onBindView(). I did it in onCreateView() instead, which worked. – Authoritative

titleView.setTextColor(Color.RED); throws NullPointerException. Any fix? – Diaeresis

Note that one must replace ali.UI.Customize with the package name of your own MyPreferenceCategory. – Matheny

Great thanks! This is the code for overriding the android.support.v7.preference.PreferenceViewHolder, in replacement of the method onBindView: @Override public final void onBindViewHolder(final PreferenceViewHolder vh) { super.onBindViewHolder(vh); TextView txt = (TextView) vh.findViewById(android.R.id.title); txt.setTextColor(Color.RED); } – Nessie

Answer 2

An easy way to do this is to set the custom layout for the preferenceCategory here:

<PreferenceCategory
    android:layout="@layout/preferences_category"
    android:title="Privacy" >

Then set your code inside your preferences_category layout file:

<TextView
    android:id="@android:id/title"
    android:textColor="@color/deep_orange_500"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:textSize="16sp"
    android:textStyle="bold"
    android:textAllCaps="true"/>

Crossfade

The best solution, because you have direct control of everything inside the textview – Revoice

I can't get the text from the Category-title to the layout-textView, it's simply a blank area. How do I add it? – Gizela

The android:id="@android:id/title" part is necessary for the preference category text to be visible. – Pitchblende

"The resource @layout/preferences_category is marked as private in androidx.preference:preference:1.2.0" is there a way around this? – Capping

Answer 3

One solution is to make a theme for your PreferenceScreen. So in your themes.xml or styles.xml (better to put it in themes.xml) :

<style name="PreferenceScreen" parent="YourApplicationThemeOrNone">
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/yourCategoryTitleColor</item>
</style>

then in your AndroidManifest.xml :

<activity
      android:name="MyPreferenceActivity"
      ...
      android:theme="@style/PreferenceScreen" >
</activity>

It worked perfectly for me.

Crochet

@Javi Same here, this answer allows you to dynamically change the theme details! :) – Juice

Holy sh*t, how are all the other answers everywhere so complicated and long when you can make it so simple?? Thank you! – Eichelberger

It worked perfectly but you need Add these lines to the Style <item name="android:textColorTertiary">@color/with</item> <item name="android:textColorSecondary">@color/with</item> – Belfast

This still doesn't change the color of PreferenceCategory title (` <PreferenceCategory android:title="Settings">`) – Omission

Answer 4

To change text color of preference category only set a theme to your PreferenceActivity in your Android Manifest and make sure that colorAccent item exists. This color is taken by your PreferenceCategory.

Germany

This is the correct answer! Add <item name="colorAccent">@android:color/white</item> to the theme for your PreferenceActivity and the color of the checkboxes and titles will change to white. – Vietnam

This is no longer true as of Android P and it's support libraries. They arbitrarily get set to grey. Will look at the source and figure out something – Tokenism

Answer 5

Actually just found out that preference category text using colorAccent.

If your app didn't using style of colorAccent, you can go to styles.xml and find
<item name="colorAccent">@color/colorPrimary</item>, and change the color as you want.

Waspish

IMO, this is the correct answer as of Lollipop and material design. Reference - grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/ext/… – Glottal

Thanks, this was actually my mistake. – Crocus

Answer 6

Other way around will be mention the theme in your AppTheme, application level

    <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        .....//your other items
        <item name="preferenceTheme">@style/PrefTheme</item>
    </style>

    <style name="PrefTheme" parent="@style/PreferenceThemeOverlay">
        <item name="preferenceCategoryStyle">@style/CategoryStyle</item>
    </style>

    <style name="CategoryStyle" parent="Preference.Category">
        <item name="android:layout">@layout/pref_category_view</item>
    </style>

XML : pref_category_view

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView android:id="@android:id/title"
          style="?android:attr/listSeparatorTextViewStyle"
          xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          android:layout_width="match_parent"
          android:textColor="@color/red"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    />

For more customization visit v7 Preferences res

Important: I am using PreferenceFragmentCompat from lib v7 Preference.

Isadora

This is the most correct answer to cover all API levels. Just setting colorAccent will not work for API <21. For the lazy like myself, there is an color defined in values '<color name="preference_fallback_accent_color">#ff80cbc4</color>' which one could override in their own colors.xml. Setting this along with 'colorAccent' should handle changing the text color on all APIs. – Mcclintock

I didn't triy this but this will work probalbly and this is the best way I think. – Lumberman

Answer 7

Using Material Theme, you just have to override the following property :

<style name="YourTheme" parent="@style/Theme.MaterialComponents">
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/your_custom_color</item>
</style>

Kehr

This is so much easier! Why would I use a customized class to just set the category title color globally? – Woothen

Answer 8

public class MyPreferenceCategory extends PreferenceCategory {

 public MyPreferenceCategory(Context context) {
    super(context);
    // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
  }
 public MyPreferenceCategory(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
    super(context, attrs);
  }
 public MyPreferenceCategory(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
    super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
  }

 @Override
 protected View onCreateView(ViewGroup parent) {
    // It's just a TextView!
 TextView categoryTitle =  (TextView)super.onCreateView(parent);
 categoryTitle.setTextColor(parent.getResources().getColor(R.color.orange));

    return categoryTitle;
  }
}

And in your prefs.xml:

<com.your.packagename.MyPreferenceCategory android:title="General">
.
.
.
</com.your.packagename.MyPreferenceCategory>

Or you can also use this answer

Astaire

This worked perfectly for me with one modification. Instead of categoryTitle.setTextColor(parent.getResources().getColor(R.color.orange)); I had to use categoryTitle.setTextColor(Color.BLACK); – Mcgray

This doesn't work for me. I get a ClassCastException, because my Category class is tried to be cast to a Preference instead of a PreferenceCategory. Any ideas why? – Pitchblende

Answer 9

Define your own PreferenceTheme and override colors.

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item>
    <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
    <item name="preferenceTheme">@style/AppTheme.PreferenceTheme</item>
</style>

<style name="AppTheme.PreferenceTheme" parent="PreferenceThemeOverlay.v14.Material">
    <item name="colorAccent">`#color_value`</item>
</style>

Sworn

Answer 10

Inspired by @AliSh answer, but I needed to only change the colour of one Preference text item. So, for all the Kotlin guys out there:

class TextColorPreference : Preference {

    constructor(context: Context) : super(context)

    constructor(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet) : super(context, attrs)

    constructor(
        context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet,
        defStyle: Int
    ) : super(context, attrs, defStyle)

    override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: PreferenceViewHolder?) {
        super.onBindViewHolder(holder)

        context?.let {
            (holder?.findViewById(android.R.id.title) as? TextView)?.setTextColor(
                ContextCompat.getColor(
                    it,
                    R.color.colorPrimary
                )
            )
        }
    }
}

And then put it in your xml/prefs.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <this.should.be.your.package.TextColorPreference
        android:id="@+id/settings_logout"
        android:key="@string/prefs_key_logout"
        android:title="@string/settings_logout" />
</PreferenceScreen>

Transportation

Answer 11

For androidx preference library you can extend PreferenceCategory or Preference class like this:

class DangerPreference(
    context: Context?,
    attrs: AttributeSet?,
): Preference(context, attrs) {

    override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: PreferenceViewHolder?) {
        super.onBindViewHolder(holder)
        holder?.itemView?.findViewById<TextView>(android.R.id.title)?.setTextColor(Color.RED)
    }
}

then use it normally in your PreferenceScreen:

<com.github.anastr.myscore.util.pref.DangerPreference
    app:key="deleteServerData"
    app:title="@string/delete_server_data"
    app:iconSpaceReserved="false" />

Fonda

Answer 12

This answer might not be helpful for OP but might be useful for others.

If you want to change color of only 1 Preference and not all then u can use HTML, as

1. Add preference in PreferenceScreen file

<PreferenceScreen xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
<Preference app:key="deleteUser"/>
</PreferenceScreen>

2. Now in the onCreate() method of the class extending PreferenceFragmentCompat you can add title in HTML format as

Preference preference=findPreference("deleteUser");
if (preference!=null) 
preference.setTitle(Html.fromHtml("<span style='color:red;'>Delete User</span>"));

Sample Result :

Forerunner

Answer 13

A lot of the other answers didn't work for my case. I'm using a PreferenceFragmentCompat and I didn't want to have actual code doing this. So I simply made a copy of the preference category xml file and changed the textColor field. The file goes under the Apache license, Version 2.

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

<!--
  ~ Copyright (C) 2015 The Android Open Source Project
  ~
  ~ Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  ~ you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
  ~ You may obtain a copy of the License at
  ~
  ~      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  ~
  ~ Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
  ~ distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
  ~ WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
  ~ See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
  ~ limitations under the License -->

  <LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginBottom="8dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
    android:layout_marginStart="?android:attr/listPreferredItemPaddingLeft"
    android:orientation="vertical">
    <TextView
      android:id="@android:id/title"
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
      android:paddingEnd="?android:attr/listPreferredItemPaddingRight"
      android:textAlignment="viewStart"
      android:textColor="@color/app_accent"
      android:textStyle="bold"
      tools:ignore="RtlSymmetry"/>
    <TextView
      android:id="@android:id/summary"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:ellipsize="end"
      android:singleLine="true"
      android:textColor="?android:attr/textColorSecondary"/>
  </LinearLayout>

And imported it in my .xml layout for the Preference fragment:

 <PreferenceCategory
    android:layout="@layout/preference_category_companion"
    android:key="my_preference_title"
    android:title="@string/my_preference_title">

Episcopal

Answer 14

This worked for me,

In your AndroidManifest.xml, add the following style:

    <activity
        android:theme="@style/PreferenceScreen"
        android:name="com.yourapp.id"
        android:label="About"
        android:exported="true">
    </activity>

Then go to your styles.xml and add the following:

<style name="PreferenceScreen" parent="Theme.MaterialComponents.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <item name="android:background">#333333</item>          <!--Change color in Preference background-->
    <item name="android:colorAccent">#FFFFFF</item>         <!--Change color in PreferenceCategory title-->
    <item name="android:textColorPrimary">#FFFFFF</item>    <!--Change color in PreferenceCategory->Preference->app:title -->
    <item name="android:textColorSecondary">#BDBDBD</item>  <!--Change color in PreferenceCategory->Preference->app:summary -->
</style>

Willumsen