How to change appearance of android soft keyboard as in kitkat/lollipop system keyboard

Question

I am trying to create custom ime/softkeyboard for Android devices. How to change its appearance as in kitkat/lollipop system keyboard

Answer 1

You have to create a custom KeyboardView and override the onDraw method.

public class CustomKeyboardView extends KeyboardView {
    package com.example.xyz;
    -----
    -----
    -----

    @Override
    public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {

        List<Keyboard.Key> keys = getKeyboard().getKeys();
        for (Keyboard.Key key : keys) {

            if (key.icon != null) {
                key.icon.setBounds(key.x, key.y, key.x + key.width, key.y + key.height);
                key.icon.draw(canvas);
            } else if (key.label != null) {
                String keyLabel = key.label.toString();
                if (caps) {
                    keyLabel = keyLabel.toUpperCase();
                }
                canvas.drawText(keyLabel, key.x + (key.width / 2),
                        key.y + (key.height / 2) + Utils.dpToPx(5, mContext), mPaint);
            }
          }


      }

    -----
    -----
}

Now in your keyboard layout (.xml) file, you must be using <android.inputmethodservice.KeyboardView /> tag.

Change it to <com.example.xyz.CustomKeyboardView />.

The layout will look like KitKat/Lollipop. You can make other changes as per your requirement.

Note that onDraw() is called every time you press a key on keyboard. So, do not add code that will take time to process. It can cause keyboard to lag.