Hello Mark!

hello, Gabriele

how can I help you today?

I had a question about drawables and resources and then another about applying layouts to screen sizes

go right ahead

So I have buttons, I created drawables for them in photoshop and I created it according to mdpi for the size (the resolution was something like 74) and it was all good.

these drawables are the background? or are these ImageButtons?

background

I just wanted to make sure that in order for me to have those drawables be represented well in the other dpi's is to change their size, and resolution in photoshop.

so whatever they were in mdpi, multiply that by 1.5 so it will be good for hdpi

well, first, I'm not a Photoshop user, so I can't provide any specific instructions

second, usually a button background is a nine-patch PNG, so it can stretch to fill whatever is in the foreground

(actually, a series of nine-patch PNG files, for different states)

you don't *have* to use a nine-patch PNGs, but that's what the standard buttons use

Yeah, i tried 9 patch and it lost some of the photoshop effects so i tried with just a normal ong

well, bear in mind that if Android has to stretch those PNGs to deal with your foreground, those "photoshop effects" may get screwed up that way too

all that being said, yes, saving the image in different resolutions based upon density changes is the right recipe

for whatever densities you want to ship

sweet!

everything else, Android will resample (again, with possible harm to your effects)

thats cool i guess, if its small

so for the layouts part

I have been testing these on emulators and of course the larger screened emulators place the widgets that aren't MATCH_PARENT in the wrong spot. How can i compensate for as many screens as possible?

I can't really answer that

a little misplacement is fine, but not when its totally wrong

snap

that's all tied into your layout definitions

and your fragment strategy, if relevant

i havent used any fragments

is that a problem?

layouts are usually flexible enough to handle modest size changes (e.g., 4" to 5" screen)

for larger changes (e.g., phones to 7" tablets to 10" tablets), you need to have a strategy

but I can't help you with that, because I don't know your app, your UI, or your objectives

understood

there's a chapter in the book on large-screen strategies and tactics that gets into this sort of thing

I found on some stack overflow question that you, if you were trying to cover all screen sizes or specify which ones you wish your app to function on, mention it in your manifest somehow. Is defining the screen sizes your app will support in the manifest a must?

you are probably referring to <supports-screens>

yes!

for tablets, the two relevant attributes are android:largeScreens and android:xlargeScreens

setting them to true means that you have explicitly written support for those screens in your app

setting them to false means that Android should use iOS-ish "pixel doubling"-type techniques to zoom your UI to fit the space

that's the so-called "screen compatibility mode": http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/sc...

usually, that's not what you want, if you want a nice-looking UI

which means usually you want to set them to true

for phones as well?

android:smallScreens and android:normalScreens are true by default

for smaller screens than you support, false is a filter

so I often set android:smallScreens to false if I am not going to try to take the time to figure out how to squeeze my UI into a < 3" screen

then, apps with such screens cannot install the app

i feel ya

are large screens 7" and up?

there's official definitions in the docs in terms of dp on each axis

roughly speaking:

small is < 3"

normal is 3-5"

large is 5-10"

xlarge is > 10"

well alright

well thats all i got for you Mark. thanks for the info!

you're welcome!