Mobile Computing: Android Unit of Measurement

Android supports several units of measurement for designing interfaces, including pixels (px), inches (in), millimeters (mm), points (pt), density-independent pixels (dp), and scale-independent pixels (sp). Dp units are based on a 160 dpi screen density and scale with screen density, while sp units also factor in the user's font size preferences. For example, a 0.5x0.5 inch icon at the highest supported density of 480 dpi would be 240x240 pixels. Resources can be placed in density-specific folders and referenced using a naming system to support different screen densities.

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Mobile Computing: Android Unit of Measurement

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Tabish Ashraf

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Mobile Computing

Android Unit Of Measurement

Android supports the following measurements
• px (Pixels) - Actual pixels or dots on the screen.
• in (Inches) - Physical size of the screen in inches.
• mm (Millimeters) - Physical size of the screen in millimeters.
• pt (Points) - 1/72 of an inch.
• dp (Density-independent Pixels) - An abstract unit that is based on
the physical density of the screen. These units are relative to a 160
dpi screen, so one dp is one pixel on a 160 dpi screen. The ratio of dp-
to-pixel will change with the screen density, but not necessarily in
direct proportion. "dip" and "dp" are same.
• sp (Scale-independent Pixels) - Similar to dp unit, but also scaled by
the user's font size preference.
Density Bucket
More Dpi Dense Pixels
Scaling With Screen Density
Example
For example, say an icon is intended to be 0.5x0.5 in when rendered on
a screen. Next, the image must be created at the largest density
supported, or as a scalable vector graphic. Best practice is to support
the maximum density, which currently is xxhdpi at 480 dpi. At 480 dpi,
a 0.5x0.5 in image converts to 240x240 px
Once all versions have been created, they can be added to "drawable"
folders, using resource identifiers to tell Android what density bucket
they are intended for. Last, simply reference the graphic resource in xml
layouts and code using its name generated in the "R" file, which holds
references to all resources in the app. Android will then load the
resources at runtime, doing its best to match the actual device's
configuration to the resource identifiers applied.
Example-Pixel Size
Dp Magic
Dp Magic
• The reason "dp" tends to vary in physical size is due to the same
scaling factor being applied for the entire density bucket. The scaling
factor is computed with the density bucket's dpi, and not the device's
actual dpi. When the device's dpi is not exactly the same as its density
bucket's dpi, the same amount of "dp" converts to the same amount
"px". This leads to the same amount of "px" being displayed on
different density screens, which render at different sizes.