Android Dimens.xml For Different Screens Download
Kylee Evancho
Supporting Multiple Screens - A padding of 8dp might look fine on a phone but terrible on a 10" tablet. You can create multiple dimens.xml to be used with different screens. That way you could do something like set 8dp for the phone and 64dp for the tablet. To create another dimens.xml file, right click your res folder and choose New > Value resource file. (see this answer for details)
Although making a different layout for different screen sizes is theoretically a good idea, it can get very difficult to accommodate for all screen dimensions, and pixel densities. Having over 20+ different dimens.xml files as suggested in the above answers, is not easy to manage at all.
Do you create different layout files for each size and manually set the values? Do you develop for one device and then adjust for the others? How can you be sure that there won't be a display error on weird screen sizes that aren't on AS? Any tips and tricks for a beginner to avoid views overlapping on smaller screens?
One of the most popular articles on this blog has been the one on the dashboard user interface pattern: How To Build A Dashboard User Interface In Android. It presents what I hope is an easy to understand explanation of all the different pieces that go into a dashboard on Android. It was done with phones in mind. Recently, I wrote up what I described as a pretty good solution for tablets, but I am not very happy with that result. It does not do a good enough job at supporting the larger screens.
Numeric selectors for layout folders are a very good thing. However, for me, what was even better was that the same numeric selectors could be used on the values folders too. I wanted to have a single set of images, and it turns out that I could do so, changing the dimensions by having a dimens.xml file for each of the different screen sizes.
I have one set of images in the drawable folder. All the different configurations get them from there so they are reasonably high resolution images. Early on, I experimented with having a different set of images. Once I learned that values folders allowed name qualifiers, I found that I could adjust the scale of images in my dimens.xml and the single set approach worked fine.
If you like, you can always add additional drawables later. But start out with images that look good on the largest screen you plan to support. Then edit the dimens.xml to scale appropriately for the smaller screens.
Android Wear is about choice. From the beginning, users could choose the style they wanted, including watches with circular screens. With Android Wear API 23, we have enabled even better developer support so that you can code delightful experiences backed by beautiful code. The key component of this is the new round resource identifier which helps you separate resource files such as layouts, dimens between round and square devices. In this blog post, I will lay out the options that developers have and why you should consider dimens.xml! In addition, I will outline how best to deal with devices which have a chin.
Maintaining multiple layout files is potentially painful. Each time you add a screen element, you need to go to all the layout files and add this. With mobile devices, you will usually only do this to specify different layouts for phones and tablets and rarely for different phone resolutions. For watches, unless your screen layout is significantly different between round and square (which is rare based on the applications I have seen thus far), you should consider using different dimens.xml instead.
As I experimented with the -round identifier, I found that the easiest way to build for round and square watches is actually by specifying values/dimens.xml and values-round/dimens.xml. By specifying different padding settings, I am able to create the following layout with the same layout.xml file and two dimens files - one for square and one for round. The values used suits this layout, you should experiment with different values to see what works best:
By default, the icon image is 48dp x 48dp, but you may want to use an image with a different width and height for different sized screens/devices. To change the image size, you modify an XML file called dimens.xml, located in the following res -> values folder.
Each values-* folder has the icon image for a different screen resolutions. For example, if you are using a phone with very high image resolution, you would need to modify dimens.xml in values-xxhdpi.
By default, the icon image is 48dp x 48dp, but you may want to use an image with a different width and height for different sized screens/devices. To change the image size, you modify an XML file called dimens.xml, located in the following res -> values-* folders.
Each values-* folder has the icon image for a different screen resolution. For example, if you are using a phone with very high image resolution, you would need to modify dimens.xml in values-xxhdpi.
'Resolution' is a term used in software development to denote the number of pixels displayed on the screen, typically represented as width x height (e.g., 1080x1920). Higher resolution screens display sharper images and text but may require more system resources to render graphics. Developers need to consider screen resolution when designing apps to ensure graphic elements appear correctly on screens with different resolutions. More details can be found in this Android Developer's guide.
Note: It is also possible to define different user based colours for different types of resources.
- dimens.xml: The dimens.xml is used for defining the dimensions for different widgets to be included in the Android project. It is a good coding practice to use dimens.xml to define a dimension rather than just writing the dimension in the resource, due to the fact that if ever any need arises to change the dimension, instead of making a change to all, only the dimens.xml can be changed once and the change is reflected in all.
Below mentioned is the implementation of dimens.xml resource:
It is also possible to apply user-defined dimensions.
Note: Always remember the difference in using dp or sp. Generally use sp for font size and dp for others.
- strings.xml: One of the most important as well as widely used values file is the strings.xml due to its applicability in the Android project. Basic function of the strings.xml is to define the strings in one file so that it is easy to use same string in different positions in the android project plus it makes the project looks less messy.
We can also define an array in this file as well.
Below mentioned is the implementation of strings.xml resource:
If any feature used in the files in values folder does not match with the minimum SDK version of the user, then android studio gives the option to define a separate file with the same name but for different API level. For eg., styles and styles(v21)[for API levels of 21 and above].
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As you go through designing for different UIs in multiple screens, you will find that each design requires a minimum amount of space. So, each generalized set requires a minimum resolution that is well marked by the system. These minimum sizes are also in dp units to exclude any trouble while changing in screen density.
As you undergo designing for different UIs in multiple screens, you will learn that each design needs a minimum amount of space. So, each generalized set requires a minimum resolution that is very well marked by the system. These minimum sizes are also in dp units in order to avoid any trouble while making changes in screen density.
The idea behind using multiple screens is to create an application that can work properly and be visually compatible with any generalized screen configurations in both Android and iOS. I hope the above article will serve as a good guide for complete information on dimensions and resolutions so that you can successfully customize the look of your application on different screen configurations and deliver an optimized experience to the users.
Tablet optimized apps often take advantage of multi-pane layouts. A single tablet screen can display the content of several separate phone screens side by side. Optimising for tablets can involve creating several alternative layouts for different screen widths. Sections of UI can be designed once and laid out in different configurations for different screen sizes. Multi-pane layouts help to avoid overly wide list items and sparse layouts.
Like creating an alternative layout for a different orientation, you can also create a special named resource directory (e.g., dimens (w820dp)) for dimensions on large screen devices. Unlike the layout directory, there are two files with the SAME name of dimens.xml in the Android scope view:
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