Question

I’m facing a serious issue with my Application, published on Google Play and apparently working fine on all versions of Android except for > 4.0.

This is a screenshoot from my Android 4.0 HTC phone:

And this is what I get on Nexus 7, Android 4.2.1 (same behaviour in the emulator):

I see the same behaviour for each text drawn using canvas.drawText()

the Paint used to draw text is:

paint = new Paint();
paint.setAntiAlias(true);
paint.setColor(color); //some color
paint.setTextSize(size); //some size
paint.setTypeface(Typeface.defaultFromStyle(Typeface.BOLD));
paint.setTextAlign(Align.CENTER);

In the logCat (4.2.1 emulator) I see a lot of

12-18 20:42:21.096: W/Trace(276): Unexpected value from nativeGetEnabledTags: 0

I use these settings in the manifest:

 <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="8"
        android:targetSdkVersion="8" />

Answer 1

I answer my own question after a lot of googling…

The trick consist in the use of setLinearText(true) for the Paint object used for drawing the text. Now, everything looks great.

paint = new Paint();
paint.setAntiAlias(true);
paint.setColor(color);
paint.setTextSize(size);
paint.setTypeface(Typeface.defaultFromStyle(Typeface.BOLD));
paint.setTextAlign(Align.CENTER);
paint.setLinearText(true);

Here the link that saves my day:

http://gc.codehum.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39755

I hope it can help someonelse.

The text is not rendered at the best yet:

Edited (14/01/2013)

I’m still facing a kering problem (only on 4.2.1). Please see my other question here:

Android 4.2.1 wrong character kerning (spacing)

Edited (05/02/2013)

I see another projects has the same problem. Look at the link below:

http://mindtherobot.com/blog/272/android-custom-ui-making-a-vintage-thermometer/

If you run the sample on Nexus 4.2.1 (or in the simulator Android 4.2) you get the same “strange” text…

Edited (20/02/2013)

Found a workaround that not uses setLinearText(true), look here:

Android 4.2.1 wrong character kerning (spacing)