Icons help your users identify your app and actions within it. You can access material icon collection and add them directly to your app with Compose. To create custom icons or icons for your app with views, Android Studio provides Image Asset Studio.
Add icons to your app with Compose
Compose allows you to use the Compose Import Material Library or Compose Material 3 Library to access all material symbols. Then use the composable icon to add icons to your app. The material icons are most useful for action bar icons, tab icons or notification icons. See Material Icons for more information.
Reading: How to create an app ic launcher for android
If you need to create custom icons, e.g. B. Your app launcher icon, use Image Asset Studio. For launcher icons, the AndroidManifest.xml file must point to the mipmap/ location. Image Asset Studio automatically adds this code. The following manifest file code references the ic_launcher icon in the mipmap/ directory:
About Image Asset Studio
Android Studio includes a tool called Image Asset Studio that allows you to generate your own app icons from material icons, custom images, and text strings. It generates a set of icons with the appropriate resolution for each pixel density your app supports. Image Asset Studio places the newly generated icons in density-specific folders in the res/ directory in your project. At runtime, Android uses the appropriate resource based on the screen density of the device your app is running on.
Image Asset Studio helps you generate the following icon types:
- Launcher icons
- Action bar and tab icons
- Notification icons
The following sections describe the types of icons you can create, as well as the image and the text inputs you can use.
Adaptive and legacy launcher icons
A launcher icon is a graphic that represents your app to users. It can appear:
- in the list of apps installed on a device and on the home screen.
- Show shortcuts in your app (e.g. a contact shortcut icon that opens details for a contact).
- Used by launcher apps.
- Help users find your app on Google Play.
Adaptive Launcher icons can appear in different shapes on different device models and are available in Android 8.0 (API level 26) and above. Android Studio 3.0 introduces support for creating adaptive icons with Image Asset Studio. Image Asset Studio generates previews of an adaptive icon in circle, circle, rounded square, and square shapes, as well as a full-bleed preview of the icon. Image Asset Studio also generates legacy, circular, and Google Play Store previews of the icon. A legacy launcher icon is a graphic that represents your app on a device’s home screen and launcher window. Legacy launcher icons are intended for use on devices running Android 7.1 (API level 25) or lower that do not support adaptive icons and are not displayed as different shapes depending on the device model.
Image Asset Studio places the symbols in the correct places in the res/mipmap-density/ directories. It also creates a 512×512 pixel image suitable for Google Play Store.
We recommend you to use the Material Theme style for launcher icons, even if you support older versions of Android .
For more information, see Adaptive Launcher Icons and Product Icons – Material Design.
Action Bar and Tab Icons
Action bar icons are graphical elements that appear in the action bar are placed and individuals represent action items. For more information, see Adding and Handling Actions, App Bar – Material Design, and Action Bar Design.
Tab icons are graphical elements used to represent individual tabs in a multi-tab interface. Each tab icon has two states: unselected and selected. For more information, see Creating Tabbed and Tabbed Swipe Views – Material Design.
Image Asset Studio places the icons in the correct locations in the res/drawable-density/ directories.
We recommend that you use the Material Design style for action bar and tab icons. even if you support older Android versions. Use appcompat and other supporting libraries to deploy your Material Design UI for older platform versions.
As an alternative to Image Asset Studio, you can use Vector Asset Studio to create action bar and tab icons. Vector characters are good for simple icons and can reduce the size of your app.
Notification icons
A notification is a message that you can display to the user outside of the normal user interface of your application. Image Asset Studio places notification icons in the correct locations in the res/drawable-density/ directories:
- Icons for Android 2.2 (API level 8) and lower are placed in res/drawable-density/ placed. Directories.
- Icons for Android 2.3 to 2.3.7 (API levels 9 to 10) are placed in res/drawable-density-v9/ directories.
- Icons for Android 3 (API level 11) and higher are placed in the res/drawable-density-v11/ directories.
If your app is Android 2.3 to 2.3 supports .7 (API level 9 to 10), Image Asset Studio generates a gray version of your icon. Later Android versions use the white icon that Image Asset Studio generates.
See Notifications; notifications material design; Notifications, Android 5.0 changes; Notifications, Android 4.4 and below; and Status Bar Icons, Android 3.0 and below for more info.
Clipart
See also: Resume Objective Statements: Examples, How-To, and FAQ
Image Asset Studio makes it easy for you to import Google Material icons in VectorDrawable and PNG formats: just pick an icon from a Dialog. See Material Symbols for more information.
Images
You can import your own images and adapt them to the symbol type. Image Asset Studio supports the following file types: PNG (preferred), JPG (acceptable), and GIF (not recommended).
Text strings
Image Asset Studio allows you to enter a text string in a variety of fonts and places it on an icon. It converts the text-based icon to PNG files for different densities. You can use the fonts installed on your computer.
Run Image Asset Studio
To start Image Asset Studio, do the following:
- In the Project window Select the Android view.
- Right click on the res folder and select New > Image Asset .
- Proceed by following the steps below:
- If your app supports Android 8.0, create adaptive and legacy launcher icons.
- If your app does not support versions higher than Android 7.1, create only a legacy launcher icon.
- Create an action bar or tab icon.
- Create a notification icon.
Create adaptive and legacy launcher icons
Note: If your app versions no higher than Android 7.1 supported, follow the instructions to create one instead just the old launcher icon.
Once you open Image Asset Studio, you can add adaptive and legacy icons by following these steps:
- In the field, select Icon Type from Launcher Icons (adaptive and deprecated).
- On the Foreground Layer tab, select an Asset Type and then pass it to the asset in the box below:
- Select Image to specify the path for an image file.
- Select ClipArt to specify an image from the Material Design icon set.
- Select Text to specify a text string and choose a font.
- In the Background Layer, select an Asset Type and then specify the asset in the field below. You can either choose a color or specify an image to use as the background layer.
- On the Legacy tab, check the default settings and confirm that you are using old, round, and Google Play Store icons.
- Optionally change the name and display settings for each of the Foreground Layer and Background Layer tabs:
- Name – If you don’t want to use the default name, enter a new name. If this resource name already exists in the project, as indicated by an error at the bottom of the wizard, it will be overwritten. The name can only contain lowercase letters, underscores and digits.
- Crop – Select Yes. This process removes transparent space while maintaining the aspect ratio. To leave the source element unchanged, select No.
- Color – To set the color for a clip art or Text, click on the field. In the Choose Color dialog box, specify a color, then click Choose. The new value appears in the field.
- Resize – Use the slider to specify a scaling factor in percent to resize an image, Clips to change type or text icon. This control is disabled for the background layer if you specify an asset type color.
- Click Next . li>
- Optionally change the resource directory: select the resource source set to which you want to add the image element: src/main/res, src/debug/res , src/release/res or a custom source set. The main source set applies to all build variants, including debug and release. The debug and release sources override the main source and apply to one version of a build. The debug source set is for debugging only. To define a new source set, select File > Project Structure > App > Build Types. For example, you can define a beta source set and create a version of a symbol that has the text “BETA” in the lower-right corner. For more information, see Configuring Build Variants.
- Click Finish.Image Asset Studio adds the images to the mipmap folders for the different densities.
Create legacy launcher icon
Note: If your app supports Android 8.0, follow the instructions to create an adaptive and legacy launcher icon instead.
Once you open Image Asset Studio, you can add a launch icon as follows:
- In the Icon type field, select Launcher icons (Legacy only) .
- Choose an asset type, then specify the asset in the field below:
- In the Clip Art box, click the button.
In the Select Icon dialog box, select a material icon, then click OK.
In the Path field, specify the path and filename of the image. Click … to use a dialog. In the Text field, enter a text string and select a font.
The icon appears in the Source Asset pane on the right and in the preview pane at the bottom of the wizard.
Optionally change the name and display settings:
- Name – If you don’t want to use the default name, enter a new name. If this resource name already exists in the project, as indicated by an error at the bottom of the wizard, it will be overwritten. The name can only contain lowercase letters, underscores and digits.
- Crop – Select Yes. This process removes transparent space while maintaining the aspect ratio. To leave the source asset unchanged, select No.
- Padding – If you want to customize the padding of the source asset on all four sides , move the slider . Choose a value between -10% and 50%. If you also choose Crop, it will be trimmed first.
- Foreground – To change the foreground color for a clip art or Text icon, click on the field. In the Select Color dialog box, specify a color, and then click Choose. The new value appears in the field.
- Background – To change the background color, click on the field. In the Select Color dialog box, specify a color, and then click Choose. The new value is displayed in the field.
- Scale – To adjust the icon size, select Crop or Fit to size . The edges of the image can be cut off when cropping, but not when resizing. You can adjust the padding if needed if the source asset still doesn’t fit well.
- Shape – To place a background behind your source asset, choose a shape off, a circle, square, vertical rectangle, or horizontal rectangle. For a transparent background, select None.
- Effect – If you want to add a dog-ear effect to the top right of a square or rectangle shape, select You dog ear. Otherwise, select None.
Image Asset Studio places the icon in a transparent square, filling in the edges a bit. The padding has enough space for the default drop shadow icon effect.
Click Next. Optionally change the resource directory:
- res directory – Select the resource source set to which you want to add the image element: src/main/res, src/debug/res, src/release/res or a custom source set. The main source set applies to all build variants, including debug and release. The debug and release sources override the main source and apply to one version of a build. The debug source set is for debugging only. To define a new source set, select File > Project Structure > App > Build Types. For example, you could define a beta source set and create a version of a symbol that has the text “BETA” in the lower-right corner. For more information, see Configuring Build Variants.
The Output Directories pane displays the images and the folders in which they appear in the ‘s project files view become project window.
Click on Finish.
Image Asset Studio adds the images to the mipmap folders for the different densities.
Create an action bar or tab icon
After If you have Image Asset Studio open, you can add an action bar or tab icon by following these steps:
- In the Icon Type field, select Action Bars – and tab icons.
- Select an asset type, then specify the asset in the field below:
- In the Clipart click the button.
In the Select Symbol dialog box, select a material symbol and then click OK.
In the path In the field, enter the path and filename of the image. Click … to use a dialog. In the Text field, enter a text string and select a font.
The icon appears in the Source Asset pane on the right and in the preview pane at the bottom of the wizard.
Optionally change the name and display options:
- Name – If you don’t want to use the default name, enter a new name. If this resource name already exists in the project, as indicated by an error at the bottom of the wizard, it will be overwritten. The name can only contain lowercase letters, underscores and digits.
- Crop – Select Yes. This process removes transparent space while maintaining the aspect ratio. To leave the source asset unchanged, select No.
- Padding – If you want to customize the padding of the source asset on all four sides , move the slider . Choose a value between -10% and 50%. If you also select Crop, the crop will be done first.
- Design – Choose HOLO_LIGHT or HOLO_DARK off. strong>. Or, to specify a color, select CUSTOM in the Select Color dialog box and then click the Custom Color box.
Image Asset Studio creates the icon in a transparent square so that the edges are filled in a bit. The padding has enough space for the default drop shadow icon effect.
Click Next. Optionally change the resource directory:
- res directory – Select the resource source set to which you want to add the image element: src/main/res, src/debug/res, src/release/res or a custom source set. The main source set applies to all build variants, including debug and release. The debug and release sources override the main source and apply to one version of a build. The debug source set is for debugging only. To define a new source set, select File > Project Structure > App > Build Types. For example, you could define a beta source set and create a version of a symbol that has the text “BETA” in the lower-right corner. For more information, see Configuring Build Variants.
The Output Directories pane displays the images and the folders in which they appear in the ‘s project files view become project window.
Click on Finish.
Image Asset Studio adds the images in the drawable folders for the different densities.
Create a notification icon
See also: The Email Sequence That Earned Us 100,000 in 30 Days
After you open Image Asset Studio , you can add a notification icon by following these steps:
- In the Icon Type field, select Notification Icons.
- Select an asset type and then specify the asset in the field below:
- In the Clipart field , click the button.
In the Select Symbol dialog box, select a material symbol and then click OK.
In the Path field, enter the path and filename of the image. Click … to use a dialog. In the Text field, enter a text string and select a font.
The icon appears in the Source Asset pane on the right and in the preview pane at the bottom of the wizard.
Optionally change the name and display options:
- Name – If you don’t want to use the default name, enter a new name. If this resource name already exists in the project, as indicated by an error at the bottom of the wizard, it will be overwritten. The name can only contain lowercase letters, underscores and digits.
- Crop – Select Yes. This process removes transparent space while maintaining the aspect ratio. To leave the source asset unchanged, select No.
- Padding – If you want to customize the padding of the source asset on all four sides , move the slider . Choose a value between -10% and 50%. Also, if you select Crop, the crop is done first.
Image Asset Studio creates the icon in a transparent square, so the edges are filled in a little. The padding has enough space for the default drop shadow icon effect.
Click Next.Optionally change the resource directory:
- res directory – Select the resource source set to which you want to add the image element: src/main/res, src/debug/res, src/release/res or a custom source set. The main source set applies to all build variants, including debug and release. The debug and release sources override the main source and apply to one version of a build. The debug source set is for debugging only. To define a new source set, select File > Project Structure > App > Build Types. For example, you could define a beta source set and create a version of a symbol that has the text “BETA” in the lower-right corner. For more information, see Configuring Build Variants.
The Output Directories pane displays the images and the folders in which they appear in the ‘s project files view become project window.
Click on Finish.
Image Asset Studio adds the images in the drawable folders for the different densities and versions.
Reference to an image resource in code with views
Note: For information on referencing launcher icons in your code, see the guide to creating launcher icons, which also applies to views.
Typically, you can refer to an image resource generically in your code, and when your app runs, the appropriate image will be displayed automatically depending on the device:
- In most cases, you can refer to image resources as @drawable in XML code or Drawable in Java code.
For example, the following layout XML displays the drawable in an ImageView:
The following Java code gets the image as drawable:
The getResources() method is in the Context class, which is used for UI Objects such as activities, fragments, layouts, views, etc.
If your app uses the support library, you can reference an image resource in XML using an app:srcCompat statement. For example:
Image resources can only be accessed from the main thread.
Once you have an image resource in your project’s res/ directory, you can reference it from your Java code or XML layout using its resource ID. The following Java code sets an ImageView to use the drawable/myimage.png resource:
For more information, see Accessing resources.
An icon from a project delete
To remove an icon from a project:
- In the Project window, select the Android view.
- Expand the res/ mipmap folder for a launcher icon or the res/drawable folder for other types of icons.
- Search delete a subfolder with the name of the icon you want.
This folder contains the icon in varying densities.
Select the folder and press the Del.
Alternatively select Edit > Delete. Or right-click the file and select Delete.
The Secure Delete dialog box appears.
Select optional options to find out where the symbol is used in the project and click OK.
Android Studio will delete the files from the project and disk. However, if you look for places in the project where the files are used and some usages are found, you can view them and decide if you want to delete them. You must delete or replace these references in order to successfully compile your project.
Choose Build > Clean Project.
Android Studio will remove all generated image files corresponding to the deleted image resource. It removes them from the project and disk.
If necessary, fix any remaining errors due to parts of the code referencing the resource.
Android Studio highlights these errors in your code. Once you have removed all references from your code, you can successfully rebuild your project.
See also: How to Create a Photo Editing App: Onix Experts Tips
.
