Android TextView Border

TextView Border

To draw a border around TextView, you can use background attribute of the TextView widget and assign a shape to it. The shape is such that the stroke on the shape outline appears as border.

The sample code to draw border for TextView is

<TextView
    android:text="Hello World!"
    android:background="@drawable/border"/>

You have to create the following drawable file in res/drawable/ folder.

border.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="rectangle" >
    <solid android:color="@android:color/white" />
    <stroke android:width="2dp" android:color="#4CAF50"/>
</shape>

Example

Create an Android Application with Kotlin support and Empty Activity.

Right click on res/drawable folder and click on New -> Drawable Resource File. Give file name as border(or any other name) and Root element as shape. border.xml file will be created in res/drawable/ folder. Copy the following code into the border.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="rectangle" >
    <solid android:color="@android:color/white" />
    <stroke android:width="2dp" android:color="#4CAF50"/>
</shape>

You may change the border width and color.

Create a TextView widget in activity_main.xml with background attribute set to border.xml as shown below.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:padding="10dp"
        android:textSize="30sp"
        android:textAlignment="center"
        android:layout_margin="10dp"
        android:background="@drawable/border"
        android:text="Hello World" />

</LinearLayout>

MainActivity.kt

package com.kotlinandroid.myapp

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import android.os.Bundle

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
    }
}

Screenshot