[android] Set color of TextView span in Android

Is it possible to set the color of just span of text in a TextView?

I would like to do something similar to the Twitter app, in which a part of the text is blue. See image below:

_{(source: twimg.com)}

String text = "I don't like Hasina.";
textView.setText(spannableString(text, 8, 14));

private SpannableString spannableString(String text, int start, int end) {
    SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString(text);
    ColorStateList redColor = new ColorStateList(new int[][]{new int[]{}}, new int[]{0xffa10901});
    TextAppearanceSpan highlightSpan = new TextAppearanceSpan(null, Typeface.BOLD, -1, redColor, null);

    spannableString.setSpan(highlightSpan, start, end, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
    spannableString.setSpan(new BackgroundColorSpan(0xFFFCFF48), start, end, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
    spannableString.setSpan(new RelativeSizeSpan(1.5f), start, end, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

    return spannableString;
}

Output:

I always find visual examples helpful when trying to understand a new concept.

Background Color

SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString("Hello World!");
BackgroundColorSpan backgroundSpan = new BackgroundColorSpan(Color.YELLOW);
spannableString.setSpan(backgroundSpan, 0, spannableString.length(), Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
textView.setText(spannableString);

Foreground Color

SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString("Hello World!");
ForegroundColorSpan foregroundSpan = new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.RED);
spannableString.setSpan(foregroundSpan, 0, spannableString.length(), Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
textView.setText(spannableString);

Combination

SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString("Hello World!");
ForegroundColorSpan foregroundSpan = new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.RED);
BackgroundColorSpan backgroundSpan = new BackgroundColorSpan(Color.YELLOW);
spannableString.setSpan(foregroundSpan, 0, 8, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
spannableString.setSpan(backgroundSpan, 3, spannableString.length(), Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
textView.setText(spannableString);

Further Study

• Explain the meaning of Span flags like SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE
• Android Spanned, SpannedString, Spannable, SpannableString and CharSequence

From the developer docs, to change the color and size of a spannable:

1- create a class:

    class RelativeSizeColorSpan(size: Float,@ColorInt private val color: Int): RelativeSizeSpan(size) {

    override fun updateDrawState(textPaint: TextPaint?) {
        super.updateDrawState(textPaint)
        textPaint?.color = color
    } 
}

2 Create your spannable using that class:

    val spannable = SpannableStringBuilder(titleNames)
spannable.setSpan(
    RelativeSizeColorSpan(1.5f, Color.CYAN), // Increase size by 50%
    titleNames.length - microbe.name.length, // start
    titleNames.length, // end
    Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE
)

Another way that could be used in some situations is to set the link color in the properties of the view that is taking the Spannable.

If your Spannable is going to be used in a TextView, for example, you can set the link color in the XML like this:

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/myTextView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:textColorLink="@color/your_color"
</TextView>

You can also set it in the code with:

TextView tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.myTextView);
tv.setLinkTextColor(your_color);

Below works perfectly for me

    tvPrivacyPolicy = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.tvPrivacyPolicy);
    String originalText = (String)tvPrivacyPolicy.getText();
    int startPosition = 15;
    int endPosition = 31;

    SpannableString spannableStr = new SpannableString(originalText);
    UnderlineSpan underlineSpan = new UnderlineSpan();
    spannableStr.setSpan(underlineSpan, startPosition, endPosition, Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

    ForegroundColorSpan backgroundColorSpan = new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.BLUE);
    spannableStr.setSpan(backgroundColorSpan, startPosition, endPosition, Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

    StyleSpan styleSpanItalic  = new StyleSpan(Typeface.BOLD);

    spannableStr.setSpan(styleSpanItalic, startPosition, endPosition, Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

    tvPrivacyPolicy.setText(spannableStr);

Output for above code

If you want more control, you might want to check the TextPaint class. Here is how to use it:

final ClickableSpan clickableSpan = new ClickableSpan() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(final View textView) {
        //Your onClick code here
    }

    @Override
    public void updateDrawState(final TextPaint textPaint) {
        textPaint.setColor(yourContext.getResources().getColor(R.color.orange));
        textPaint.setUnderlineText(true);
    }
};

Set Color on Text by passing String and color:

private String getColoredSpanned(String text, String color) {
  String input = "<font color=" + color + ">" + text + "</font>";
  return input;
}

Set text on TextView / Button / EditText etc by calling below code:

TextView:

TextView txtView = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.txtView);

Get Colored String:

String name = getColoredSpanned("Hiren", "#800000");

Set Text on TextView:

txtView.setText(Html.fromHtml(name));

Done

Here's a Kotlin Extension Function I have for this

    fun TextView.setColouredSpan(word: String, color: Int) {
        val spannableString = SpannableString(text)
        val start = text.indexOf(word)
        val end = text.indexOf(word) + word.length
        try {
            spannableString.setSpan(ForegroundColorSpan(color), start, end,Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE)
            text = spannableString
        } catch (e: IndexOutOfBoundsException) {
         println("'$word' was not not found in TextView text")
    }
}

Use it after you have set your text to the TextView like so

private val blueberry by lazy { getColor(R.color.blueberry) }

textViewTip.setColouredSpan("Warning", blueberry)

Just to add to the accepted answer, as all the answers seem to talk about android.graphics.Color only: what if the color I want is defined in res/values/colors.xml?

For example, consider Material Design colors defined in colors.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <color name="md_blue_500">#2196F3</color>
</resources>

(android_material_design_colours.xml is your best friend)

Then use ContextCompat.getColor(getContext(), R.color.md_blue_500) where you would use Color.BLUE, so that:

wordtoSpan.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.BLUE), 15, 30, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

becomes:

wordtoSpan.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(ContextCompat.getColor(getContext(), R.color.md_blue_500)), 15, 30, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

Where I found that:

• Working with spans in Android – Michael Spitsin – Medium

There's a factory for creating the Spannable, and avoid the cast, like this:

Spannable span = Spannable.Factory.getInstance().newSpannable("text");

Set your TextView´s text spannable and define a ForegroundColorSpan for your text.

TextView textView = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.mytextview01);    
Spannable wordtoSpan = new SpannableString("I know just how to whisper, And I know just how to cry,I know just where to find the answers");          
wordtoSpan.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.BLUE), 15, 30, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);    
textView.setText(wordtoSpan);

Here is a little help function. Great for when you have multiple languages!

private void setColor(TextView view, String fulltext, String subtext, int color) {
    view.setText(fulltext, TextView.BufferType.SPANNABLE);
    Spannable str = (Spannable) view.getText();
    int i = fulltext.indexOf(subtext);
    str.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(color), i, i + subtext.length(), Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}

Some answers here aren't up to date. Because, you will (in most of cases) add a custom clic action on your link.

Besides, as provided by the documentation help, your spanned string link color will have a default one. "The default link color is the theme's accent color or android:textColorLink if this attribute is defined in the theme".

Here is the way to do it safely.

 private class CustomClickableSpan extends ClickableSpan {

    private int color = -1;

    public CustomClickableSpan(){
        super();
        if(getContext() != null) {
            color = ContextCompat.getColor(getContext(), R.color.colorPrimaryDark);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void updateDrawState(@NonNull TextPaint ds) {
        ds.setColor(color != -1 ? color : ds.linkColor);
        ds.setUnderlineText(true);
    }

    @Override
    public void onClick(@NonNull View widget) {
    }
}

Then to use it.

   String text = "my text with action";
    hideText= new SpannableString(text);
    hideText.setSpan(new CustomClickableSpan(){

        @Override
        public void onClick(@NonNull View widget) {
            // your action here !
        }

    }, 0, text.length(), Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
    yourtextview.setText(hideText);
    // don't forget this ! or this will not work !
    yourtextview.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance());

Hope this will strongly help !

1. create textview in ur layout

2. paste this code in ur MainActivity

   TextView textview=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.textviewid);
   Spannable spannable=new SpannableString("Hello my name is sunil");
   spannable.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.BLUE), 0, 5, 
   Spannable.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
   textview.setText(spannable);
   //Note:- the 0,5 is the size of colour which u want to give the strring
   //0,5 means it give colour to starting from h and ending with space i.e.(hello), if you want to change size and colour u can easily