ActionBar text color

Question

how can I change the text color of the ActionBar  I ve inherited the Holo Light Theme  I m able to change the background of the ActionBar but I don t find out what is the attribute to tweak to change the text color     Ok  I m able to change the text color with the attribute android textColorPrimary but it also changes the text color of the dropdown menu displayed when an overflow happen on the ActionBar buttons  Any idea how to change the color of those dropdown menu   List

User · Answer

If you want to style the subtitle also then simply add this in your custom style.

<item name="android:subtitleTextStyle">@style/MyTheme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle</item>

People who are looking to get the same result for AppCompat library then this is what I used:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="CustomActivityTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
        <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>
        <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>
        <!-- other activity and action bar styles here -->
    </style>

    <!-- style for the action bar backgrounds -->
    <style name="MyActionBar" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
        <item name="android:background">@drawable/actionbar_background</item>
        <item name="background">@drawable/actionbar_background</item>
        <item name="android:titleTextStyle">@style/MyTheme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle</item>
        <item name="android:subtitleTextStyle">@style/MyTheme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle</item>
        <item name="titleTextStyle">@style/MyTheme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle</item>
        <item name="subtitleTextStyle">@style/MyTheme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle</item>
     </style>
    <style name="MyTheme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle" parent="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
        <item name="android:textColor">@color/color_title</item>
      </style>
</resources>

User · Answer

Add it to the root of the action bar  I had this problem     lt style name  ActionBar  parent   style Theme AppCompat Light  gt       lt item name  actionBarStyle  gt  style Widget Styled ActionBar lt  item gt       lt item name  actionMenuTextColor  gt  color stdDarkBlueText lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  Widget Styled ActionBar  parent   style Widget AppCompat Light ActionBar  gt       lt item name  titleTextStyle  gt  style ActionBarTitleText lt  item gt       lt item name  subtitleTextStyle  gt  style ActionBarSubTitleText lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  ActionBarTitleText  parent   style TextAppearance AppCompat Widget ActionBar Title  gt       lt item name  android textColor  gt  color stdDarkBlueText lt  item gt       lt item name  android textSize  gt 12sp lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  ActionBarSubTitleText  parent   style TextAppearance AppCompat Widget ActionBar Subtitle  gt       lt item name  android textColor  gt  color stdDarkBlueText lt  item gt       lt item name  android textSize  gt 12sp lt  item gt   lt  style gt    actionMenuTextColor - changes text color for the action bar text  it never worked when it was part of the Widget Styled ActionBar  so I had to add it to the root  Other 2 attributes change title and subtitle of an action bar

User · Answer

Setting a HTML string on the action bar doesn t work on the Material theme in SDK v21   If you want to change it you should set the primary text color in your style xml   lt resources gt       lt  -- Base application theme  -- gt       lt style name  AppTheme  parent  android Theme Material Light  gt           lt  -- Customize your theme here  -- gt           lt item name  android textColorPrimary  gt  color actionbar-text-color lt  item gt       lt  style gt   lt  resources gt

User · Answer

A lot of answers are deprecated so I ll update the thread and show how to change text color and backgroundcolor on ActionBar  Toolbar  and in ActionBar pop up menu   The latest approach in Android  as of May 2018  in working with Action bar  Toolbar  is to use Theme with NoActionBar and use Toolbar instead   so here is what you need    In Activity  which extends AppCompatActivity  declare Toolbar   Toolbar myToolbar    Toolbar  findViewById R id toolbar   setSupportActionBar myToolbar    Add Toolbar in the Activity s layout xml  Here we will set our custom  overwritten themes   note android theme   style ThemeOverlay AppTheme ActionBar  and app popupTheme   style ThemeOverlay AppTheme PopupMenu   they will do the trick    lt android support v7 widget Toolbar android id    id toolbar  android layout width  match parent  android layout height  wrap content  android minHeight   attr actionBarSize  android theme   style ThemeOverlay AppTheme ActionBar  app popupTheme   style ThemeOverlay AppTheme PopupMenu  app layout constraintTop toTopOf  parent    gt   In your styles xml you will have to overwrite those two styles to set custom colors    lt style name  AppTheme  parent  Theme AppCompat Light NoActionBar  gt   lt  -- Customize your theme here  -- gt   lt item name  colorPrimary  gt  color colorPrimary lt  item gt   lt item name  colorPrimaryDark  gt  color colorPrimaryDark lt  item gt   lt item name  colorAccent  gt  color colorAccent lt  item gt   lt item name  actionBarTheme  gt  style ThemeOverlay AppTheme ActionBar lt  item gt   lt item name  actionBarPopupTheme  gt  style ThemeOverlay AppTheme PopupMenu lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  ThemeOverlay AppTheme ActionBar  parent  ThemeOverlay AppCompat Dark ActionBar  gt   lt item name  android textColorPrimary  gt  color action bar text color lt  item gt   lt item name  android background  gt  color action bar bg color lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  ThemeOverlay AppTheme PopupMenu  parent  ThemeOverlay AppCompat Dark ActionBar  gt   lt item name  android background  gt  color popup bg color lt  item gt   lt item name  android textColorPrimary  gt  color popup text color lt  item gt   lt  style gt     That s it folks  p s  if you ask me I would say  YES  this whole Theme thing is a hell of a mess

User · Answer

just put this in your thme style    lt item name  android textColorPrimary  gt  color yourcolor lt  item gt

User · Answer

Try adding this in your Activity s onCreate  Works on almost every Android version    actionBar setTitle Html fromHtml   lt font color   ffff00  gt Your Title lt  font gt          or  getSupportActionBar   setTitle Html fromHtml   lt font color   ffff00  gt Your Title lt  font gt

User · Answer

Try a lot of methods  in the low version of the API a feasible method is  lt item name  actionMenuTextColor  gt  color your color lt  item gt  and don t use the Android namespace hope can help you  ps      lt style name  AppTheme  parent  Theme AppCompat Light NoActionBar  gt       lt  -- Customize your theme here  -- gt       lt item name  colorPrimary  gt  color colorPrimary lt  item gt       lt item name  colorPrimaryDark  gt  color colorPrimaryDark lt  item gt       lt item name  colorAccent  gt  color colorAccent lt  item gt       lt item name  actionMenuTextColor  gt  color actionMenuTextColor lt  item gt   lt  style gt

User · Answer

i have done with simple one line code   actionBar setTitle Html fromHtml   lt font color   ff0000  gt ActionBartitle  lt  font gt

User · Answer

These functions work well In Java private void setActionbarTextColor ActionBar actBar  int color         String title   actBar getTitle   toString        Spannable spannablerTitle   new SpannableString title       spannablerTitle setSpan new ForegroundColorSpan color   0  spannablerTitle length    Spannable SPAN EXCLUSIVE EXCLUSIVE       actBar setTitle spannablerTitle       then to use it just feed it your action bar and the new color i e  ActionBar actionBar   getActionBar          Or getSupportActionBar   if using appCompat int red   Color RED setActionbarTextColor actionBar  red     In Kotlin You can use an extension function like this  private fun ActionBar setTitleColor color  Int        val text   SpannableString title     quot  quot       text setSpan ForegroundColorSpan color  0 text length  Spannable SPAN INCLUSIVE INCLUSIVE      title   text    And then apply to your ActionBar with actionBar  setTitleColor Color RED

User · Answer

This is the solution I used after checking all answers    lt  -- Base application theme  -- gt   lt style name  AppTheme  parent   style Theme AppCompat Light DarkActionBar  gt       lt  -- Customize your theme here  -- gt       lt item name  colorAccent  gt  color Button color lt  item gt       lt item name  android editTextStyle  gt  style EditTextStyle lt  item gt       lt item name  android typeface  gt monospace lt  item gt       lt item name  android windowActionBar  gt true lt  item gt       lt item name  colorPrimary  gt  color Title Bar Color lt  item gt       lt item name  android actionBarStyle  gt  style Widget Styled ActionBar lt  item gt       lt item name  actionBarStyle  gt  style Widget Styled ActionBar lt  item gt    lt  style gt    lt style name  EditTextStyle  parent  Widget AppCompat EditText   gt    lt style name  Widget Styled ActionBar  parent   style Widget AppCompat Light ActionBar  gt       lt item name  titleTextStyle  gt  style ActionBarTitleText lt  item gt       lt item name  android background  gt  color Title Bar Color lt  item gt       lt item name  background  gt  color Title Bar Color lt  item gt       lt item name  subtitleTextStyle  gt  style ActionBarSubTitleText lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  ActionBarTitleText  parent   style TextAppearance AppCompat Widget ActionBar Title  gt       lt item name  android textColor  gt  color solid white lt  item gt       lt item name  android textSize  gt 12sp lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  ActionBarSubTitleText  parent   style TextAppearance AppCompat Widget ActionBar Subtitle  gt       lt item name  android textColor  gt  color solid white lt  item gt       lt item name  android textSize  gt 12sp lt  item gt   lt  style gt      Change the required colors it will work

User · Answer

Found the way to do it nicely without creating your own layout on API    21   It will only colorize texts and control drawables inside the action bar   Hope it will be useful for someone    lt  --Material design primary colors-- gt   lt style name  AppBaseTheme  parent  Theme AppCompat Light  gt       lt item name  colorPrimary  gt  color primary lt  item gt       lt item name  colorPrimaryDark  gt  color primary dark lt  item gt       lt item name  colorAccent  gt  color accent lt  item gt       lt item name  android navigationBarColor  gt  color primary dark lt  item gt       lt item name  actionBarTheme  gt  style AppBaseTheme Toolbar lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt  --Action bar-- gt   lt style name  AppBaseTheme Toolbar  parent  Widget AppCompat ActionBar Solid  gt       lt item name  android textColorPrimary  gt  color action bar text lt  item gt       lt item name  colorControlNormal  gt  color action bar text lt  item gt   lt  style gt

User · Answer

The ActionBar ID is not available directly  so you have to do little bit of hacking here   int actionBarTitleId   Resources getSystem   getIdentifier  action bar title    id    android    if  actionBarTitleId  gt  0        TextView title    TextView  findViewById actionBarTitleId       if  title    null            title setTextColor Color RED

User · Answer

The most simple way is    Add these two lines to your styles xml file   lt style name  AppTheme  parent  Theme AppCompat Light NoActionBar  gt       lt item name  android textColorSecondary  gt  color white lt  item gt   lt item name  android textColor  gt  color white lt  item gt   lt  style gt    Replace the color with your color

User · Answer

A nice solution is to user a SpannableStringBuilder and set the color that way  You can even use different colors on different parts of the string  add images etc   Tested with the new support library   See Android  Coloring part of a string using TextView setText

User · Answer

Ok  I ve found a better way  I m now able to only change the color of the title  You can also tweak the subtitle   Here is my styles xml    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt resources gt     lt style name  MyTheme  parent   android style Theme Holo Light  gt       lt item name  android actionBarStyle  gt  style MyTheme ActionBarStyle lt  item gt     lt  style gt      lt style name  MyTheme ActionBarStyle  parent   android style Widget Holo Light ActionBar  gt       lt item name  android titleTextStyle  gt  style MyTheme ActionBar TitleTextStyle lt  item gt     lt  style gt      lt style name  MyTheme ActionBar TitleTextStyle  parent   android style TextAppearance Holo Widget ActionBar Title  gt       lt item name  android textColor  gt  color red lt  item gt     lt  style gt   lt  resources gt

User · Answer

It s an old topic but for future readers  using ToolBar makes everything very easy   Toolbar toolbar    Toolbar  findViewById R id tool bar   toolbar setTitle R string app name   toolbar setTitleTextColor getResources   getColor R color someColor    setSupportActionBar toolbar

User · Answer

This is not the recommended solution as I am going in android apis here but as my application requires to change the theme dynmically on conditions  xml not possible here  So I need to do this  But This solution is working very nice   Solution --               author Kailash Dabhi     email kailash09dabhi gmail com          public static void setActionbarTextColor Activity activity  int color        Field mActionViewField      try           mActionViewField   activity getActionBar   getClass                    getDeclaredField  mActionView            mActionViewField setAccessible true           Object mActionViewObj   mActionViewField get activity                  getActionBar              Field mTitleViewField   mActionViewObj getClass   getDeclaredField                   mTitleView            mTitleViewField setAccessible true           Object mTitleViewObj   mTitleViewField get mActionViewObj            TextView mActionBarTitle    TextView  mTitleViewObj          mActionBarTitle setTextColor color              Log i  field   mActionViewObj getClass   getName           catch  NoSuchFieldException e            e printStackTrace          catch  IllegalAccessException e            e printStackTrace          catch  IllegalArgumentException e            e printStackTrace

User · Answer

If you need to set the color programmatically this is the way to do it  static void setActionBarTextColor Activity activity  int color          ActionBar actionBar   activity instanceof AppCompatActivity                         AppCompatActivity  activity  getSupportActionBar                         activity getActionBar          String title   activity getTitle       or any title you want       SpannableString ss   new SpannableString title         ss setSpan new ForegroundColorSpan color   0  title length    Spanned SPAN INCLUSIVE EXCLUSIVE         actionBar setTitle ss

User · Answer

Here Style xml is like   lt resources gt   lt style name  quot AppTheme quot  parent  quot Theme AppCompat Light DarkActionBar quot  gt       lt  -- Customize your theme here  -- gt       lt item name  quot colorPrimary quot  gt  color colorPrimary lt  item gt       lt item name  quot colorPrimaryDark quot  gt  color colorPrimaryDark lt  item gt       lt item name  quot colorAccent quot  gt  color colorAccent lt  item gt       lt item name  quot actionBarTheme quot  gt  style MyTheme lt  item gt   lt  style gt      lt style name  quot MyTheme quot  parent  quot  android style Theme Holo Light quot  gt       lt item name  quot android actionBarStyle quot  gt  style AppTheme ActionBarStyle lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  quot AppTheme ActionBarStyle quot  parent  quot  android style Widget Holo Light ActionBar quot  gt       lt item name  quot android titleTextStyle quot  gt  style AppTheme ActionBar TitleTextStyle lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  quot AppTheme ActionBar TitleTextStyle quot  parent  quot  android style TextAppearance Holo Widget ActionBar Title quot  gt       lt item name  quot android textColor quot  gt  color colorBlack lt  item gt   lt  style gt    You should add  lt item name  quot actionBarTheme quot  gt  style MyTheme lt  item gt    in AppTheme

User · Answer

lt android support v7 widget Toolbar   xmlns android  quot http   schemas android com apk res android quot    xmlns app  quot http   schemas android com apk res-auto quot    android id  quot   id toolbar quot    android layout width  quot match parent quot    android layout height  quot wrap content quot    android background  quot  color color primary quot    android theme  quot  style GalaxyZooThemeToolbarDarkOverflow quot    app popupTheme  quot  style Theme AppCompat NoActionBar quot    gt     lt style name  quot GalaxyZooThemeToolbarDarkOverflow quot  parent  quot Theme AppCompat NoActionBar quot  gt     lt  -- android textColorPrimary is the  color of the title text        in the Toolbar  in the Theme AppCompat theme   -- gt     lt item name  quot android textColorPrimary quot  gt  color abc primary text material light lt  item gt       lt  -- android textColorPrimaryInverse is the  color of the title        text in the Toolbar  in the Theme AppCompat Light theme   -- gt     lt  --  lt item name  quot android textColorPrimaryInverse quot  gt  color abc primary text material light lt  item gt  -- gt       lt  -- android actionMenuTextColor is the color of the text of         action  menu  items in the Toolbar  at least in the         Theme AppCompat theme          For some reason  they already get the textColorPrimary         when running on API 21  but not on older versions of         Android  so this is only necessary to support older         Android versions -- gt           lt item name  quot actionMenuTextColor quot  gt  color abc primary text material light lt  item gt     lt  -- android textColorSecondary is the color of the menu        overflow icon  three vertical dots  -- gt     lt item name  quot android textColorSecondary quot  gt  color abc secondary text material light lt  item gt       lt  -- This would set the toolbar s background color          but setting this also changes the popup menu s background          even if we define popupTheme for our  lt Toolbar gt  -- gt     lt  --  lt item name  quot android background quot  gt  color color primary lt  item gt  -- gt   lt  style gt      Reference     https   www murrayc com permalink 2014 10 28 android-changing-the-toolbars-text-color-and-overflow-icon-color   1

User · Answer

I found a way that works well with any flavor of ActionBar  Sherlock  Compat  and Native    Just use html to set the title  and specify the text color  For example  to set the ActionBar text color to red  simply do this   getActionBar     or getSupportActionBar      setTitle Html fromHtml   lt font color   red   gt     getString R string app name      lt  font gt        You can also use the red hex code  FF0000 instead of the word red  If you are having trouble with this  see Android Html fromHtml String  doesn  39 t work for  lt font color   39    39  gt text lt  font gt      Additionally  if you want to use a color resource  this code can be used to get the correct HEX String  and removing the alpha if needed  the font tag does not support alpha    int orange   getResources   getColor R color orange   String htmlColor   String format Locale US     06X    0xFFFFFF  amp  Color argb 0  Color red orange   Color green orange   Color blue orange

User · Answer

you can change color of any text by use html  lt font gt  attribute directly in xml files  for example in strings xml     lt resources gt       lt string name    app name  gt           lt html gt  lt font color   001aff  gt Multi lt  font gt  lt  html gt           lt html gt  lt font color   ff0044  gt color lt  font gt  lt  html gt           lt html gt  lt font color   e9c309  gt Text  lt  font gt  lt  html gt       lt  string gt   lt  resources gt

User · Answer

For Android 5  lollipop  you will have to use android actionBarPopupTheme to set the textColor for the overflow menu

User · Answer

I was having the same problem as you  it s a Holo Light theme but I wanted to style the ActionBar color  so I needed to change the text color as well and also both Title and Menus  So at the end I went to git hub and looked at source code until I find the damn correct style    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  -- For honeycomb and up -- gt   lt resources gt        lt style name  myTheme  parent   android style Theme Holo Light  gt           lt item name  android actionBarStyle  gt  style myTheme ActionBar lt  item gt           lt item name  android actionMenuTextColor  gt  color actionBarText lt  item gt       lt  style gt        lt style name  myTheme ActionBar  parent   android style Widget Holo Light ActionBar  gt           lt item name  android background  gt  drawable actionbarbground lt  item gt           lt item name  android titleTextStyle  gt  style myTheme ActionBar Text lt  item gt       lt  style gt        lt style name  myTheme ActionBar Text  parent   android style TextAppearance  gt           lt item name  android textColor  gt  color actionBarText lt  item gt       lt  style gt    lt  resources gt    so now all you have to do is set whatever  color actionBarText and drawable actionbarbground you want

User · Answer

The most straight-forward way is to do this in the styles xml   Google s template styles xml currently generates the following    lt style name  AppTheme  parent  Theme AppCompat Light  gt       lt  -- Customize your theme here  -- gt       lt item name  colorPrimary  gt  color colorPrimary lt  item gt       lt item name  colorPrimaryDark  gt  color colorPrimaryDark lt  item gt       lt item name  colorAccent  gt  color colorAccent lt  item gt   lt  style gt    If you add one more line before the closing  tag  as shown  that will change the text color to what it should be with a Dark ActionBar    lt style name  AppTheme  parent  Theme AppCompat Light  gt       lt  -- Customize your theme here  -- gt       lt item name  colorPrimary  gt  color colorPrimary lt  item gt       lt item name  colorPrimaryDark  gt  color colorPrimaryDark lt  item gt       lt item name  colorAccent  gt  color colorAccent lt  item gt       lt item name  actionBarTheme  gt  style ThemeOverlay AppCompat Dark ActionBar lt  item gt   lt  style gt    If you want to customize the color to something else  you can either specify your own color in colors xml or even use a built-in color from Android using the android textColorPrimary attribute    lt style name  AppTheme  parent  Theme AppCompat Light  gt       lt  -- Customize your theme here  -- gt       lt item name  colorPrimary  gt  color colorPrimary lt  item gt       lt item name  colorPrimaryDark  gt  color colorPrimaryDark lt  item gt       lt item name  colorAccent  gt  color colorAccent lt  item gt       lt item name  actionBarTheme  gt  style AppTheme AppBarOverlay lt  item gt   lt  style gt     lt style name  AppTheme AppBarOverlay  parent  ThemeOverlay AppCompat Dark ActionBar  gt       lt item name  android textColorPrimary  gt  android color darker gray lt  item gt   lt  style gt    Note  This changes the color of the title and also the titles of any MenuItems displayed in the ActionBar

[android] ActionBar text color

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