How to change the font size of tabhost in android

Question

How can the font size of the tabs be changed? I extend TabActivity for the tabs.

Cymograph

Answer 1

You can define themes, use styles to achieve this:

First you create the theme (name:CustomTheme) for your Activity in your res/values/styles.xml:

<style name="CustomTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme">
    <item name="android:tabWidgetStyle">@style/CustomTabWidget</item>
</style>
<style name="CustomTabWidget" parent="@android:style/Widget.TabWidget">
    <item name="android:textAppearance">@style/CustomTabWidgetText</item>
</style>
<style name="CustomTabWidgetText" 
    parent="@android:style/TextAppearance.Widget.TabWidget">
    <item name="android:textSize">20sp</item>
    <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
</style>

Then in your androidManifest.xml you specify the theme above for your TabActivity or Activity containing your TabWidget:

<activity android:name="MyTabActivity" android:theme="@style/CustomTheme">

This will serve you with the output you want (of course you should change the size and style for your preference).

Kreiker

In Android 4.1.2 emulator this seems to set the tab style to some weird looking one to me: the buttons are orange, when pressed. (perhaps its applying some Android 1.0 style instead of the 4.1 default one?) – Tadeo

I got errors when I put it under res but fixed it by putting it under res/values. – Allsun

@Tadeo You should derive from Widget.Holo.TabWidget – Suspiration

Answer 2

Its not pretty but try this Dirty Fix :

TabWidget tw = (TabWidget)tabHost.findViewById(android.R.id.tabs);
View tabView = tw.getChildTabViewAt(0);
TextView tv = (TextView)tabView.findViewById(android.R.id.title);
tv.setTextSize(20);

or

 //Do this to hack font size of title text
 LinearLayout ll = (LinearLayout) tabHost.getChildAt(0);
 TabWidget tw = (TabWidget) ll.getChildAt(0);

 // for changing the text size of first tab
 RelativeLayout rllf = (RelativeLayout) tw.getChildAt(0);
 TextView lf = (TextView) rllf.getChildAt(1);
 lf.setTextSize(21);
 lf.setPadding(0, 0, 0, 6);

Adumbrate

The above code snippet is working for android below 2.3. Not working for android 4.0 and 4.1. – Bess

Answer 3

Slightly generalized:

final TabWidget tw = (TabWidget)mTabHost.findViewById(android.R.id.tabs);
    for (int i = 0; i < tw.getChildCount(); ++i)
    {
        final View tabView = tw.getChildTabViewAt(i);
        final TextView tv = (TextView)tabView.findViewById(android.R.id.title);
        tv.setTextSize(20);
    }

Goosestep

Answer 4

i use this piece of code in my Code but it effect only on first Tab the other 3 Tabs are still unchanged.

    TabWidget tw = (TabWidget)tabHost.findViewById(android.R.id.tabs);
    View tabView = tw.getChildTabViewAt(0);
    TextView tv = (TextView)tabView.findViewById(android.R.id.title);
    tv.setTextSize(10);

Discrepancy