Is it possible to write vertically in a textview in android?

Let's say you have a normal TextView, with "Stackoverflow" written in it, Is it possible to rotate the TextView by -90°, to have the S at the bottom and the W at the top of the screen? Of course I could write my text as an image, rotate it and use it that way, but I am interested in the text right now. Thanks.

You can set your textview as you would normally do

for example:

 <TextView android:id="@+id/txtview"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" />

and write a function in your activity to

• reverse the characters in your text
• insert \n after every characters

and then set the text to the TextView.

If you dont want to insert the \n, you will have to set the size of android:layout_width and play with font size not to have 2 characters fitting on the same line and no truncation

Edit If I have understood you correctly, you can get what you want by using animation.

For example

Under res/anim/myanim.xml:

<rotate  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
           android:fromDegrees="0" 
           android:toDegrees="-90"
           android:pivotX="50%"
           android:duration="0" />

You will have to play with this file to define where you want your text view to be placed.

In your activity:

  TextView t = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.txtview);
  String txt = "Stackoverflow";         
  t.setText(txt);

  RotateAnimation ranim = (RotateAnimation)AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.myanim);
  ranim.setFillAfter(true); //For the textview to remain at the same place after the rotation
  t.setAnimation(ranim);

Worked for me:

public class VerticalTextView extends TextView {

    private int _width, _height;
    private final Rect _bounds = new Rect();

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

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

    public VerticalTextView(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onMeasure(int widthMeasureSpec, int heightMeasureSpec) {
        super.onMeasure(widthMeasureSpec, heightMeasureSpec);
        // vise versa
        _height = getMeasuredWidth();
        _width = getMeasuredHeight();
        setMeasuredDimension(_width, _height);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
        canvas.save();

        canvas.translate(_width, _height);
        canvas.rotate(-90);

        TextPaint paint = getPaint();
        paint.setColor(getTextColors().getDefaultColor());

        String text = text();

        paint.getTextBounds(text, 0, text.length(), _bounds);
        canvas.drawText(text, getCompoundPaddingLeft(), (_bounds.height() - _width) / 2, paint);

        canvas.restore();
    }

    private String text() {
        return super.getText().toString();
    }
}

xml:

<VerticalTextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="left|center_vertical"
            android:background="@color/feedback_background"
            android:padding="4dip"
            android:text="@string/feedback"
            android:textColor="@color/feedback_text_color"
            android:textSize="@dimen/text_xlarge" />

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:text="xyz"
            android:rotation="-90"
            android:gravity="fill_vertical"/>

Try this. It works fine for me. It can display one line of text vertically, but just one line. colors, size, paddings, margins and background all work fine.

public class VerticalTextView extends TextView {

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

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

    public VerticalTextView(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
        final ColorStateList csl = getTextColors();
        final int color = csl.getDefaultColor();
        final int paddingBottom = getPaddingBottom();
        final int paddingTop = getPaddingTop();
        final int viewWidth = getWidth();
        final int viewHeight = getHeight();
        final TextPaint paint = getPaint();
        paint.setColor(color);
        final float bottom = viewWidth * 9.0f / 11.0f;
        Path p = new Path();
        p.moveTo(bottom, viewHeight - paddingBottom - paddingTop);
        p.lineTo(bottom, paddingTop);
        canvas.drawTextOnPath(getText().toString(), p, 0, 0, paint);
    }
}

If you are using API 11 or later, you may try:

TextView t = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtview);
String txt = "Stackoverflow";         
t.setText(txt);
t.setRotation(90); // 90 degree rotation