Develop Reference

How to mix styles from different themes in Android?

I am new to Android themes, so this is probably a beginners question but I just can't figure it out.
<style name="MyAppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Material">
<item name="android:colorPrimary">#color/primary</item>
<item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">#color/primary_dark</item>
</style>
I want to use the new Material theme, so I used Theme.Material with my own colorPrimary and primaryDark colors to get the action bar the way I want it. But for the context menu (the one that opens when you press the 3-dots icon in the top right corner) I want to use the Theme.Material.Light version. So I want the context menu with black text on a white background instead of white text on a gray background.
How can I do this?

I would advise against using the "Material" theme. It's not supported on older devices. However if you use AppCompat then it will achieve the same effect but with backwards compatibility.
If you create a new Activity using the template it will work as you want. Nevertheless, this is the code:
<!--Application-->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
<item name="popupTheme">#style/NewAppTheme.PopupOverlay</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.PopupOverlay" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light"/>

Add this theme to your Toolbar:
app:popupTheme="#style/myStyle"
Define backgroundcolor and textColor in your custom theme for the pop-up menu:
<style name="myStyle" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:colorBackground">yourBackgroundColor</item>
<item name="android:textColor"yourTextcolor></item>
</style>
If you are using ActionBar then use ActionBar Generator and use the generated files in your res folder.
Hope this helps.

Light theme action bar have weird artefact since AppCompat v21

Since I upgraded appcompat to v21 (now on v22.2.1), when using light theme, the action bar have a very odd artefact as seen on the screenshot below. When using dark theme, no problems whatsoever!
I tried to change the style of the action bar using this and it works, however there's no more title! All other ActionBar styles are showing the artefact.
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.TabBar</item>
Here are my dark/light themes definitions:
<style name="AT_Theme" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#android:color/black</item>
<item name="android:colorBackground">#android:color/black</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#ffffffff</item>
<item name="switchStyle">#style/switch_dark</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceButton">#style/CustomTheme.ButtonTextAppearance</item>
<item name="android:listChoiceIndicatorSingle">#drawable/abc_btn_radio_material_light</item>
<item name="android:listChoiceIndicatorMultiple">#drawable/abc_btn_check_material_light</item>
</style>
<style name="AT_Theme_Light" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="android:colorBackground">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#ff000000</item>
<item name="switchStyle">#style/switch_light</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceButton">#style/CustomTheme.ButtonTextAppearance</item>
<item name="android:listChoiceIndicatorSingle">#drawable/abc_btn_radio_material</item>
<item name="android:listChoiceIndicatorMultiple">#drawable/abc_btn_check_material</item>
</style>
I tried tweaking/overriding a lot of things to no avail. Also search for a color definition or drawable that would do that, no result there either.
Please help me get rid of that artefact:

Turns out the solution was so simple:
1) Change actionBarStyle in app's custom theme, both light/dark works with this:
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Toolbar</item>
2) Enable title in code:
ActionBar ab = aba.getSupportActionBar();
if (ab != null)
ab.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_TITLE,ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_TITLE);

Lollipop Theme issue

I am using sherlock action bar in my project, I have used Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:homeAsUpIndicator">#drawable/transparent</item>
<item name="homeAsUpIndicator">#drawable/transparent</item>
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
<item name="android:titleTextStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.TitleTextStyle</item>
<item name="android:textAllCaps">false</item>
</style>
Problem :
I am getting light color menu with lollipop:
pre lollipop image :
Lollipop image :
can some one guide me, how can I get slimier menu color on both .

You can create a style which extends from actionbar sherlock to change color of you actionbar with other properties.
<style name="Theme.MyTheme" parent="Theme.Sherlock.ForceOverflow">
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar" parent="Widget.Sherlock.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#ff000000</item>
<item name="background">#ff000000</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#CC3232</item>
</style>
For TextColor only
<style name="YOURTHEME.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle" parent="TextAppearance.Sherlock.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/yourColor</item>
<item name="textColor">#color/yourColor</item>
</style>
Last resort Solution
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#color/yourColor</item>

You should create a new styles.xml in a separate values-21 folder. There, you can define a specific theme/style that suits your needs for Lollipop devices only.

You should be using the ActionBar or ToolBar provided by app-compat library, instead of ActionBarSherlock.
ABS uses replacement Holo themes for older versions, which I guess hasn't been updated in a while.

Android - How to change text color of action tab menu?

I'm trying to tweak my app with some custom colors but I cannot change the text color of the action bar.
This is how it is currently showing:
If you look close you might see letters in the white tab bar. I'm trying to change this color to black without changing anything else of the action bar.
This is how my styles.xml looks like:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="ActionBar" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#color/default_green</item>
<item name="android:backgroundStacked">#color/stacked_white</item>
<item name="android:backgroundSplit">#color/sa_green</item>
</style>
Any help is appreciated.

You can make your custom theme here:
http://jgilfelt.github.io/android-actionbarstylegenerator/
Which includes all tabs and other component.

Try this ...
This should be in the theme
<item name="actionBarTabTextStyle">#style/tabtextcolor</item>
<item name="android:actionBarTabTextStyle">#style/tabtextcolor</item>
This should be where you define the tab text color.
<style name="tabtextcolor" parent="#style/Widget.Sherlock.ActionBar.TabText">
<item name="android:textColor">#android:color/white</item>
</style>

How to set custom ActionBar color / style?

I am using Android Navigation bar in my project,
I want to change the top color in action bar to something red, How can i do that?
I have something like this,
and i want something like this,
how can i achieve that?

You can define the color of the ActionBar (and other stuff) by creating a custom Style:
Simply edit the res/values/styles.xml file of your Android project.
For example like this:
<resources>
<style name="MyCustomTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBarTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBarTheme" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">ANY_HEX_COLOR_CODE</item>
</style>
</resources>
Then set "MyCustomTheme" as the Theme of your Activity that contains the ActionBar.
You can also set a color for the ActionBar like this:
ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.RED)); // set your desired color
Taken from here: How do I change the background color of the ActionBar of an ActionBarActivity using XML?

In general Android OS leverages a “theme” to allow app developers to globally apply a universal set of UI element styling parameters to Android applications as a whole, or, alternatively, to a single Activity subclass.
So there are three mainstream Android OS “system themes,” which you can specify in your Android Manifest XML file when you are developing apps for Version 3.0 and later versions
I am referring the (APPCOMPAT)support library here:--
So the three themes are
1. AppCompat Light Theme (Theme.AppCompat.Light)
AppCompat Dark Theme(Theme.AppCompat),
And a hybrid between these two ,AppCompat Light Theme with the Darker ActionBar.( Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar)
AndroidManifest.xml and see the tag, the android theme is mentioned as:-- android:theme="#style/AppTheme"
Open the Styles.xml and we have base application theme declared there:--
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
</style>
We need to override these parent theme elements to style the action bar.
ActionBar with different color background:--
To do this we need to create a new style MyActionBar(you can give any name) with a parent reference to #style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse that holds the style characteristics for the Android ActionBar UI element. So definition would be
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="background">#color/red</item>
</style>
And this definition we need to reference in our AppTheme, pointing to overridden ActionBar styling as--
#style/MyActionBar
Change the title bar text color (e.g black to white):--
Now to change the title text color, we need to override the parent reference parent="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
So the style definition would be
<style name="MyActionBarTitle" parent="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/white</item>
</style>
We’ll reference this style definition inside the MyActionBar style definition, since the TitleTextStyle modification is a child element of an ActionBar parent OS UI element. So the final definition of MyActionBar style element will be
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="background">#color/red</item>
<item name="titleTextStyle">#style/MyActionBarTitle</item>
</style>
SO this is the final Styles.xml
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<!-- This is the styling for action bar -->
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="background">#color/red</item>
<item name="titleTextStyle">#style/MyActionBarTitle</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBarTitle" parent="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/white</item>
</style>
</resources>
For further ActionBar options Menu styling, refer this link

For Android 3.0 and higher only
When supporting Android 3.0 and higher only, you can define the action bar's background like this:
res/values/themes.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
<style name="CustomActionBarTheme" parent="#style/Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- ActionBar styles -->
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#ff0000</item>
</style>
</resources>
For Android 2.1 and higher
When using the Support Library, your style XML file might look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
<style name="CustomActionBarTheme" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
<!-- Support library compatibility -->
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- ActionBar styles -->
<style name="MyActionBar"
parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/actionbar_background</item>
<!-- Support library compatibility -->
<item name="background">#drawable/actionbar_background</item>
</style>
</resources>
Then apply your theme to your entire app or individual activities:
for more details Documentaion

You can change action bar color on this way:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/green_action_bar</item>
</style>
Thats all you need for changing action bar color.
Plus if you want to change the status bar color just add the line:
<item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">#color/green_dark_action_bar</item>
Here is a screenshot taken from developer android site to make it more clear, and here is a link to read more about customizing the color palete

Another possibility of making.
actionBar.setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.parseColor("#0000ff")));

I can change ActionBar text color by using titleTextColor
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="titleTextColor">#333333</item>
</style>

Custom Color:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/ColorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/ColorPrimaryDark</item>
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
</style>
Custom Style:
<style name="Theme.AndroidDevelopers" parent="android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:selectableItemBackground">#drawable/ad_selectable_background</item>
<item name="android:popupMenuStyle">#style/MyPopupMenu</item>
<item name="android:dropDownListViewStyle">#style/MyDropDownListView</item>
<item name="android:actionBarTabStyle">#style/MyActionBarTabStyle</item>
<item name="android:actionDropDownStyle">#style/MyDropDownNav</item>
<item name="android:listChoiceIndicatorMultiple">#drawable/ad_btn_check_holo_light</item>
<item name="android:listChoiceIndicatorSingle">#drawable/ad_btn_radio_holo_light</item>
</style>
For More: Android ActionBar

As I was using AppCompatActivity above answers didn't worked for me. But the below solution worked:
In res/styles.xml
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
</style>
PS: I've used colorPrimary instead of android:colorPrimary

in the style.xml add this code
<resources>
<style name="MyTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyAction</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBarTheme" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#333333</item>
</style>
</resources>

Use this - http://jgilfelt.github.io/android-actionbarstylegenerator/
Good tool to customize your actionbar with a live preview in couple of minutes.