How do I put a border around an Android textview?
Is it possible to draw a border around a textview?
You can set a shape drawable (a rectangle) as background for the view.
<TextView android:text="Some text" android:background="@drawable/back"/>
And rectangle drawable back.xml (put into res/drawable folder):
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="rectangle" >
<solid android:color="@android:color/white" />
<stroke android:width="1dip" android:color="#4fa5d5"/>
</shape>
You can use @android:color/transparent for the solid color to have a transparent background.
You can also use padding to separate the text from the border.
for more information see: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/drawable-resource.html
Let me summarize a few different (non-programmatic) methods.
Using a shape drawable
Save the following as an XML file in your drawable folder (for example, my_border.xml):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:shape="rectangle" >
<!-- View background color -->
<solid
android:color="@color/background_color" >
</solid>
<!-- View border color and width -->
<stroke
android:width="1dp"
android:color="@color/border_color" >
</stroke>
<!-- The radius makes the corners rounded -->
<corners
android:radius="2dp" >
</corners>
</shape>
Then just set it as the background to your TextView:
<TextView
android:id="@+id/textview1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="@drawable/my_border" />
More help:
- Shape Drawable (Android docs)
- Android Developer Tips & Tricks: XML Drawables (Part I)
Using a 9-patch
A 9-patch is a stretchable background image. If you make an image with a border then it will give your TextView a border. All you need to do is make the image and then set it to the background in your TextView.
<TextView
android:id="@+id/textview1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="@drawable/my_ninepatch_image" />
Here are some links that will show how to make a 9-patch image:
- Draw 9-patch
- Simple Nine-patch Generator
- A simple guide to 9-patch for Android UI
- Creating & Using 9-patch images in Android
What if I just want the top border?
Using a layer-list
You can use a layer list to stack two rectangles on top of each other. By making the second rectangle just a little smaller than the first rectangle, you can make a border effect. The first (lower) rectangle is the border color and the second rectangle is the background color.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<!-- Lower rectangle (border color) -->
<item>
<shape android:shape="rectangle">
<solid android:color="@color/border_color" />
</shape>
</item>
<!-- Upper rectangle (background color) -->
<item android:top="2dp">
<shape android:shape="rectangle">
<solid android:color="@color/background_color" />
</shape>
</item>
</layer-list>
Setting android:top="2dp" offsets the top (makes it smaller) by 2dp. This allows the first (lower) rectangle to show through, giving a border effect. You can apply this to the TextView background the same way that the shape drawable was done above.
Here are some more links about layer lists:
- Understanding Android's <layer-list>
- How to make bottom border in drawable shape XML selector?
- Create borders on a android view in drawable xml, on 3 sides?
Using a 9-patch
You can just make a 9-patch image with a single border. Everything else is the same as discussed above.
Using a View
This is kind of a trick but it works well if you need to add a seperator between two views or a border to a single TextView.
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<TextView
android:id="@+id/textview1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<!-- This adds a border between the TextViews -->
<View
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="2dp"
android:background="@android:color/black" />
<TextView
android:id="@+id/textview2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>
Here are some more links:
- How to draw a line in Android
- How to put a horizontal divisor line between edit text's in a activity
- How to add a horizontal 1px line above image view in a relative layout?
The simple way is to add a view for your TextView. Example for the bottom border line:
<LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
android:text="@string/title"
android:id="@+id/title_label"
android:gravity="center_vertical"/>
<View
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="0.2dp"
android:id="@+id/separator"
android:visibility="visible"
android:background="@android:color/darker_gray"/>
</LinearLayout>
For the other direction borders, please adjust the location of the separator view.
I have solved this issue by extending the textview and drawing a border manually. I even added so you can select if a border is dotted or dashed.
public class BorderedTextView extends TextView {
private Paint paint = new Paint();
public static final int BORDER_TOP = 0x00000001;
public static final int BORDER_RIGHT = 0x00000002;
public static final int BORDER_BOTTOM = 0x00000004;
public static final int BORDER_LEFT = 0x00000008;
private Border[] borders;
public BorderedTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
super(context, attrs, defStyle);
init();
}
public BorderedTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
super(context, attrs);
init();
}
public BorderedTextView(Context context) {
super(context);
init();
}
private void init(){
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
paint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
paint.setStrokeWidth(4);
}
@Override
protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
super.onDraw(canvas);
if(borders == null) return;
for(Border border : borders){
paint.setColor(border.getColor());
paint.setStrokeWidth(border.getWidth());
if(border.getStyle() == BORDER_TOP){
canvas.drawLine(0, 0, getWidth(), 0, paint);
} else
if(border.getStyle() == BORDER_RIGHT){
canvas.drawLine(getWidth(), 0, getWidth(), getHeight(), paint);
} else
if(border.getStyle() == BORDER_BOTTOM){
canvas.drawLine(0, getHeight(), getWidth(), getHeight(), paint);
} else
if(border.getStyle() == BORDER_LEFT){
canvas.drawLine(0, 0, 0, getHeight(), paint);
}
}
}
public Border[] getBorders() {
return borders;
}
public void setBorders(Border[] borders) {
this.borders = borders;
}
}
And the border class:
public class Border {
private int orientation;
private int width;
private int color = Color.BLACK;
private int style;
public int getWidth() {
return width;
}
public void setWidth(int width) {
this.width = width;
}
public int getColor() {
return color;
}
public void setColor(int color) {
this.color = color;
}
public int getStyle() {
return style;
}
public void setStyle(int style) {
this.style = style;
}
public int getOrientation() {
return orientation;
}
public void setOrientation(int orientation) {
this.orientation = orientation;
}
public Border(int Style) {
this.style = Style;
}
}
Hope this helps someone :)