I have to make the Android app with this screen (it'll be Android version of existing iOS app):
You can see that there're several images, buttons and text label in very specific positions relative to each other.
The problem is that Android devices are very various in screen sizes and dimensions. How to keep the elements' relative sizes on different screens?
Taking this picture as an example, I can calculate, for example, ratio between screen width and circle radius. However, how to keep this ratio with the multitude of Android screens?
You have to create multiple resources for your app. Android has 4 resolutions (ldpi,mdpi,hdpi and xhdpi) and 4 generalized screen sizes (small, medium, large and extra large). So you have to make 4 layouts (or 3 if you don't plan on supporting tablets, since tablets come under the extra large category) to support the screen sizes.
Here's a general guide:
put layouts for small, medium, large and extra large in your res/ folder as follows:
res/layout/sample_layout.xml // default layout
res/layout-small/sample_layout.xml // layout for small screen size
res/layout-large/sample_layout.xml // layout for large screen size
res/layout-xlarge/sample_layout.xml // layout for extra large screen size
you can also use
res/layout-land/sample_layout.xml for landscape orientation for all screen sizes or you can target landscape layouts for specific screen sizes as res/layout-medium-land/sample_layout.xml
note that all the layouts have the same name.
once you have your layouts ready, you need to take care of image resolutions also
once again in your res/ folder add images like this:
res/drawable-ldpi/sample_image.png // low density
res/drawable-mdpi/sample_image.png // medium density
res/drawable-hdpi/sample_image.png // high density
res/drawable-xhdpi/sample_image.png // extra high density
once again, all the images have the same name.
general guidelines for designing images are:
ldpi is 0.75x dimensions of mdpi
hdpi is 1.5x dimensions of mdpi
xhdpi is 2x dimensinons of mdpi
generally, I design mdpi images for a 320x480 screen and then multiply the dimensions as per the above rules to get images for other resolutions.
Android will automatically select the best combination of layout and image depending on the device. For example, for a high resolution medium size device, layout-medium and high density image will be displayed to the user.
Make sure you create emulators for all these combinations and test your app thoroughly. here's the official docs for more info:
https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
For units of measurement, you can use density independent pixels (dp or dip) which will maintain your relative heights, distances etc across multiple resolutions in a stable fashion.
Related
Anyone know of a convenient way to zoom in and look at individual pixels on a web page without scaling the page ?
I want to be able to see a representation of the individual pixels as rendered at 100% but with the naked eye - as you can in various drawing/paint programs.
Ideally I'd like to be able to do this from chrome developer tools but there doesn't seem to be a way.
Chrome zooming doesn't do it ; it scales the image eg. so a 4 pixel square becomes 9 pixels, 16 pixels etc.
Windows magnifier doesn't do it - it also scales the image not the pixels (though differently to the chrome zoom ; you end up with blurring).
I am new in godot engine and I am trying to make mobile game (portrait mode only). I would like to make background image fit screen size. How do I do that? Do i have to import images with specific sizes and implement them all for various screens? If I import image to big, it will just cut out parts that don't fit screen.
Also, while developing, which width and height values should I use for these purposes?
With Godot 3, I am able to set size and position of sprite / other UI elements using script. I am not using the stretch mode for display window.
Here is how you can easily make the sprite to match viewport size -
var viewportWidth = get_viewport().size.x
var viewportHeight = get_viewport().size.y
var scale = viewportWidth / $Sprite.texture.get_size().x
# Optional: Center the sprite, required only if the sprite's Offset>Centered checkbox is set
$Sprite.set_position(Vector2(viewportWidth/2, viewportHeight/2))
# Set same scale value horizontally/vertically to maintain aspect ratio
# If however you don't want to maintain aspect ratio, simply set different
# scale along x and y
$Sprite.set_scale(Vector2(scale, scale))
Also for targeting mobile devices I would suggest importing a PNG of size 1080x1920 (you said portrait).
Working with different screen sizes is always a bit complicated. Especially for mobile games due to the different screen sizes, resolutions and aspect ratios.
The easiest way I can think of, is scaling of the viewport. Keep in mind that your root node is always a viewport. In Godot you can stretch the viewport in the project settings (you have to enable the stretch mode option). You can find a nice little tutorial here.
However, viewport stretching might result in an image distortion or black bars at the edges.
Another elegant approach would be to create an image that is larger than you viewport and just define an area that has to be shown on every device no matter whats the resolution. Here is someone showing what I am meaning.
I can't really answer your second question about the optimal width and height but I would look for the most typical mobile phone resolutions and ratios and go with that settings. In the end you probably should start with using the width and height ratio of the phone you want to use for testing and debugging.
Hope that helps.
I'm told that DPI and Points are no longer relevant in terminology involving graphical displays on computer screens and mobile devices yet we use the term "High DPI Aware" and in Windows you can set the various DPI levels (96, 120, 144, 192).
Here is my understanding of the various terms that are used in displaying images on computer monitors and devices:
DPI = number of dots in one linear inch. But DPI refers to printers and printed images.
Resolution = the number of pixels that make up a picture whether it is printed on paper or displayed on a computer screen. Higher resolution provides the capability to display more detail. Higher DPI = Higher resolution, however, resolution does not refer to size, it refers to the number of pixels in each dimension.
DPI Awareness = an app takes the DPI setting into account, making it possible for an application to behave as if it knew the real size of the pixels.
Points and Pixels: (There are 72 points per inch.)
At 300 DPI, there are 300 pixels per inch. So 4.16 Pixels = 1 point.
At 96 DPI there are 1.33 pixels in one point.
Is there a nice way to "crisply" describe the relationship between DPI, PPI, Points, and Resolution?
You are correct that DPI refers to the maximum amount of detail per unit of physical length.
Computer screens are devices that have a physical size, so we speak of the number of pixels per inch they have. Traditionally this value has been around 80 PPI, but now it can be up to 400 PPI.
The notion of "High DPI Aware" (e.g. Retina) is based on the fact that physical screen sizes don't change much over time (for example, there have been 10-inch tablets for more than a decade), but the number of pixels we pack into the screens is increasing. Because the size isn't increasing, it means the density - or the PPI - must be increasing.
Now when we want to display an image on a screen has more pixels than an older screen, we can either:
Map the old pixels 1:1 onto the new screen. The physical image is smaller due to the increased density. People start to complain about how small the icons and text are.
Stretch the old image and fill in the extra details. The physical image is the same size, but now there are more pixels to represent the content. For example, this results in font curves being smoother and photographs showing more fine details.
The term DPI (Dots Per Inch) to refer to device or image resolution came into common use well before the invention of printers that could print multiple dots per pixel. I remember using it in the 1970's. The term PPI was invented later to accommodate the difference, but the old usage still lingers in places such as Windows which was developed in the 1980's.
The DPI assigned in Windows rarely corresponds to the actual PPI of the screen. It's merely a way to specify the intended scaling of elements such as fonts.
DPI vs. resolution – What’s the difference?
The acronym dpi stands for dots per inch. Similarly, ppi stands for pixels per inch. So, why have two different acronyms for measuring roughly the same thing? Because there is a key difference between the two and if you don’t understand this difference it can have a negative impact on your digital signage project.
Part of the confusion between the two terms stems from the fact that many people who use them are lazy and tend to use the terms interchangeably. The simplest way of thinking about them is that one is digital (ppi) and represents what you see on the computer screen and the other is physical (dpi) for example, how an image appears when you print it out on a piece of paper.
I suggest you to check this in-depth article talking about the technicality of this topic.
https://blog.viewneo.com/blog/72-dpi-resolution-vs-300-dpi-for-digital-solutions/
I'm trying to set the 9 patch image attached below as my layouts background.It looks good on few device backgrounds and few devices shows consecutive circles in center which makes the UI inconsistent. I want consistent over all the device densities. How can I achieve the UI appearance on all devices being consistent?
It is difficult to understand what you mean.the grammar is a little bit unclear.do you mean the same background for all layouts?
Make sure you create versions of the 9Patch png for each density and put them in the relevant drawable folders (drawable-mdpi, drawable-hdpi, drawable-xhdpi etc).
When you run your app, android determines the screen density of the device you're running it on and then looks in that particular drawable folder for your 9Patch png. If it can't find a 9Patch png in the folder for that density, it will look in the folders for the other densities until it does find one. It will then either stretch or compress the png as needed to try and create a suitable png for the missing density. This stretching and compressing can lead to the sort of artifacts you are seeing.
For best results, don't leave it up to the operating system to try and generate images for missing screen densities. Provide your own images for each density.
Below is an excerpt from Supporting Different Screens on the Android Developers site. Take the time to read and understand this if you want to progress with developing apps for android, because this is fundamental to designing the look of any UI.
"..you should start with your raw resource in vector format and generate the images for each density using the following size scale:
xhdpi: 2.0
hdpi: 1.5
mdpi: 1.0 (baseline)
ldpi: 0.75
This means that if you generate a 200x200 image for xhdpi devices, you should generate the same resource in 150x150 for hdpi, 100x100 for mdpi, and 75x75 for ldpi devices."
Is there any way to force applying a phone UI to the Tablet and opposite? Since android 4.0 there is a possibility (by Android decision) to apply tablet UI's on the phones which is unacceptable.
Is there a way to strictly use only one kind of layout (phone or tablet), for example apply it by user decision (toggle switch or similar control)?
//use only one layout and use different drawables
res/layout/my_layout.xml // layout for normal screen size ("default")
res/layout-small/my_layout.xml // layout for small screen size
res/layout-large/my_layout.xml // layout for large screen size
res/layout-xlarge/my_layout.xml // layout for extra large screen size
res/layout-xlarge-land/my_layout.xml // layout for extra large in landscape orientation
res/drawable-mdpi/my_icon.png // bitmap for medium density
res/drawable-hdpi/my_icon.png // bitmap for high density
res/drawable-xhdpi/my_icon.png // bitmap for extra high density