When supporting different screen sizes (densities) in Android often the focus is on creating different layouts for every possible screen. I.E.
ldpi
mdpi
hdpi
xhdpi
xxhdpi
xxxhdpi
I designed a layout for an xhdpi screen as a reference, and defined it's dimensions in dimens.xml. Now I want to give support it to every possible screen size. How can I do that?
As far as I know, I can use this tool to figure out the proper dimens.xml for other screen sizes and add it to my project. Is this the right way to do it in my situation?
Another question, do I only need to create dimens.xml for above screen dimensions? If yes then what is w820dp
?
Thanks for your help. I need to support phones only (not tablets or other devices).
dimesn.xml
files for different resolutions.
W820dp
is it something supporting different android version? Also can you suggest me any tutorial on supporting different screen on the basis of dimens.xml?
You have to create Different values folder for different screens . Like
values-sw720dp 10.1” tablet 1280x800 mdpi
values-sw600dp 7.0” tablet 1024x600 mdpi
values-sw480dp 5.4” 480x854 mdpi
values-sw480dp 5.1” 480x800 mdpi
values-xxhdpi 5.5" 1080x1920 xxhdpi
values-xxxhdpi 5.5" 1440x2560 xxxhdpi
values-xhdpi 4.7” 1280x720 xhdpi
values-xhdpi 4.65” 720x1280 xhdpi
values-hdpi 4.0” 480x800 hdpi
values-hdpi 3.7” 480x854 hdpi
values-mdpi 3.2” 320x480 mdpi
values-ldpi 3.4” 240x432 ldpi
values-ldpi 3.3” 240x400 ldpi
values-ldpi 2.7” 240x320 ldpi
https://i.stack.imgur.com/MsXds.png
For more information you may visit here
Different values folders in android http://android-developers.blogspot.in/2011/07/new-tools-for-managing-screen-sizes.html
Edited By @humblerookie
You can make use of Android Studio plugin called Dimenify to auto generate dimension values for other pixel buckets based on custom scale factors. Its still in beta, be sure to notify any issues/suggestions you come across to the developer.
Use Scalable DP
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.
How To Use:
To use sdp
:
Include implementation 'com.intuit.sdp:sdp-android:1.0.5' in your build.gradle, Replace any dp value such as 50dp with a @dimen/50_sdp like so:
How It Works:
sdp
scales with the screen size because it is essentially a huge list of different dimens.xml
for every possible dp
value.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/OYuSr.png
See It In Action:
Here it is on three devices with widely differing screen dimensions, and densities:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/dulQm.png
Note that the sdp
size unit calculation includes some approximation due to some performance and usability constraints.
we want to see the changes of required view size in different screens.
We need to create a different values folders for different screens and put dimens.xml file based on screen densities.
I have taken one TextView and observed the changes when i changed dimens.xml in different values folders.
Please follow the process
normal - xhdpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the normal - xhdpi \ dimens.xml
nexus 5X ( 5.2" * 1080 * 1920 : 420dpi )
nexus 6P ( 5.7" * 1440 * 2560 : 560dpi)
nexus 6 ( 6.0" * 1440 * 2560 : 560dpi)
nexus 5 (5.0", 1080 1920 : xxhdpi)
nexus 4 (4.7", 768 * 1280 : xhdpi)
Galaxy nexus (4.7", 720 * 1280 : xhdpi)
4.65" 720p ( 720 * 1280 : xhdpi )
4.7" WXGA ( 1280 * 720 : Xhdpi )
Xlarge - xhdpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the Xlarge - xhdpi \ dimens.xml
nexus 9 ( 8.9", 2048 * 1556 : xhdpi)
nexus 10 (10.1", 2560 * 1600 : xhdpi)
large - xhdpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the large - xhdpi \ dimens.xml
nexus 7 ( 7.0", 1200 * 1920: xhdpi)
nexus 7 (2012) (7.0", 800 * 1280 : tvdpi)
The below screens are visible in " Search Generic Phones and Tablets "
large - mdpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the large - mdpi \ dimens.xml
5.1" WVGA ( 480 * 800 : mdpi )
5.4" FWVGA ( 480 * 854 : mdpi )
7.0" WSVGA (Tablet) ( 1024 * 600 : mdpi )
normal - hdpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the normal - hdpi \ dimens.xml
nexus s ( 4.0", 480 * 800 : hdpi )
nexus one ( 3.7", 480 * 800: hdpi)
small - ldpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the small - ldpi \ dimens.xml
2.7" QVGA Slider ( 240 * 320 : ldpi )
2.7" QVGA ( 240 * 320 : ldpi )
xlarge - mdpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the xlarge - mdpi \ dimens.xml
10.1" WXGA ( tABLET) ( 1280 * 800 : MDPI )
normal - ldpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the normal - ldpi \ dimens.xml
3.3" WQVGA ( 240 * 400 : LDPI )
3.4" WQVGA ( 240 * 432 : LDPI )
normal - hdpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the normal - hdpi \ dimens.xml
4.0" WVGA ( 480 * 800 : hdpi )
3.7" WVGA ( 480 * 800 : hdpi )
3.7" FWVGA Slider ( 480 * 854 : hdpi )
normal - mdpi \ dimens.xml
The below devices can change the sizes of screens when we change the normal - mdpi \ dimens.xml
3.2" HVGA Slider ( ADP1 ) ( 320 * 480 : MDPI )
3.2" QVGA ( ADP2 ) ( 320 * 480 : MDPI )
values-normal-xhdpi
?
There are nice libraries which will handle everything and reduce your pain. For using it, just add two dependencies in gradle:
implementation 'com.intuit.ssp:ssp-android:1.0.5'
implementation 'com.intuit.sdp:sdp-android:1.0.5'
After that, use dimens
like this:
android:layout_marginTop="@dimen/_80sdp"
You have to create a different values
folder for different screens and put dimens.xml
file according to densities.
1) values
2) values-hdpi (320x480 ,480x800)
3) values-large-hdpi (600x1024)
4) values-xlarge (720x1280 ,768x1280 ,800x1280 ,Nexus7 ,Nexus10)
5) values-sw480dp (5.1' WVGA screen)
6) values-xhdpi (Nexus4 , Galaxy Nexus)
ldpi
,mdpi
manner
values-xxhdpi
for Nexus 6?
320x480
is typical mdpi. So, put it either in values
or in values-mdpi
I've uploaded a simple java program which takes your project location and the dimension file you want as input. Based on that, it would output the corresponding dimension file in the console. Here's the link to it:
https://github.com/akeshwar/Dimens-for-different-screens-in-Android/blob/master/Main.java
Here's the full code for the reference:
public class Main {
/**
* You can change your factors here. The current factors are in accordance with the official documentation.
*/
private static final double LDPI_FACTOR = 0.375;
private static final double MDPI_FACTOR = 0.5;
private static final double HDPI_FACTOR = 0.75;
private static final double XHDPI_FACTOR = 1.0;
private static final double XXHDPI_FACTOR = 1.5;
private static final double XXXHDPI_FACTOR = 2.0;
private static double factor;
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Enter the location of the project/module");
String projectPath = in.nextLine();
System.out.println("Which of the following dimension file do you want?\n1. ldpi \n2. mdpi \n3. hdpi \n4. xhdpi \n5. xxhdpi \n6. xxxhdpi");
int dimenType = in.nextInt();
switch (dimenType) {
case 1: factor = LDPI_FACTOR;
break;
case 2: factor = MDPI_FACTOR;
break;
case 3: factor = HDPI_FACTOR;
break;
case 4: factor = XHDPI_FACTOR;
break;
case 5: factor = XXHDPI_FACTOR;
break;
case 6: factor = XXXHDPI_FACTOR;
break;
default:
factor = 1.0;
}
//full path = "/home/akeshwar/android-sat-bothIncluded-notintegrated/code/tpr-5-5-9/princetonReview/src/main/res/values/dimens.xml"
//location of the project or module = "/home/akeshwar/android-sat-bothIncluded-notintegrated/code/tpr-5-5-9/princetonReview/"
/**
* In case there is some I/O exception with the file, you can directly copy-paste the full path to the file here:
*/
String fullPath = projectPath + "/src/main/res/values/dimens.xml";
FileInputStream fstream = new FileInputStream(fullPath);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fstream));
String strLine;
while ((strLine = br.readLine()) != null) {
modifyLine(strLine);
}
br.close();
}
private static void modifyLine(String line) {
/**
* Well, this is how I'm detecting if the line has some dimension value or not.
*/
if(line.contains("p</")) {
int endIndex = line.indexOf("p</");
//since indexOf returns the first instance of the occurring string. And, the actual dimension would follow after the first ">" in the screen
int begIndex = line.indexOf(">");
String prefix = line.substring(0, begIndex+1);
String root = line.substring(begIndex+1, endIndex-1);
String suffix = line.substring(endIndex-1,line.length());
/**
* Now, we have the root. We can use it to create different dimensions. Root is simply the dimension number.
*/
double dimens = Double.parseDouble(root);
dimens = dimens*factor*1000;
dimens = (double)((int)dimens);
dimens = dimens/1000;
root = dimens + "";
System.out.println(prefix + " " + root + " " + suffix );
}
System.out.println(line);
}
}
You can put dimens.xml
in
1) values
2) values-hdpi
3) values-xhdpi
4) values-xxhdpi
And give different sizes in dimens.xml
within corresponding folders according to densities.
In case you want to view more: Here's a link for a list of devices (tablet, mobile, watches), including watch
,chromebook
, windows
and mac
. Here you can find the density, dimensions, and etc. Just based it in here, it's a good resource if your using an emulator too.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/f0ncY.png
https://i.stack.imgur.com/NoXXV.png
https://i.stack.imgur.com/ExDLH.png
~ It's better if you save a copy of the web. To view it offline.
Android 3.2 introduces a new approach to screen sizes,the numbers describing the screen size are all in “dp” units.Mostly we can use
smallest width dp: the smallest width available for application layout in “dp” units; this is the smallest width dp that you will ever encounter in any rotation of the display.
To create one right click on res >>> new >>> Android resource directory
From Available qualifiers window move Smallest Screen Width to Chosen qualifiers
In Screen width window just write the "dp" value starting from you would like Android Studio to use that dimens.
Than change to Project view,right click on your new created resource directory
new >>> Values resource file enter a new file name dimens.xml and you are done.
The basic principle of getting more flexibility in your code is by encapsulating what is varying/changing.
If your case dimensions are changing. So you start with moving your dimensions (the ones you think need to change) from XML code or from java/kotlin code to a file values/dimens.xml
For the context of this question. You may have res folders by density qualifiers or by small-width qualifiers.
values/dimens.xml
values-ldpi/dimens.xml
values-hdpi/dimens.xml
values/dimens.xml
values-sw320dp/dimens.xml
values-sw320dp/dimens.xml
One important point to note here the items in values/dimens.xml will apply to screens smaller than the lowest breakpoint you have specified.
values/dimens.xml //smallest screen
values-sw320dp/dimens.xml //320dp or more till next breakpoint folder
values-sw360dp/dimens.xml//360dp or more till next breakpoint folder
Another important point to note is that a high pixel density device may have a small screen. So be sure whether you want to density qualifier or screen width qualifier.
Some further briefing for those who are new to this aspect.
You can add qualifiers to different resource folders such as values, drawable, and layout.
These qualifiers may represent a language (-en,-hi) ,an orientation (-land,-port), or screen size range (-ldpi,-hdpi).
The naming convention has a hierarchy of qualifiers and qualifiers must be added in that order only.
values-en-hdpi (it cannot be values-hdpi-en)
values-en-land-hdpi (it cannot be values values-hdpi-en-land or any other order)
layout-hdpi
The order is documented in Table 2 at this page
Some qualifiers represent absolute values whereas others like ldpi,hdpi represent breakpoints.
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