Density-specific layouts vs. size-specific layouts in Android

Question

For quite a long time, I have been declaring resource folders for 4 different densities:

• drawable-ldpi
• drawable-mdpi
• drawable-hdpi
• drawable-xhdpi

In the layout's XML, I have been using fixed widths (while still density-independent) such as 128dp for those graphics.

However, when more and more large-screen phones, and especially tablets, were introduced, that approach did not work anymore. Although you provide density-independent resources this way, the layout will not look good on large screens.

This is why I think I need to add Dimension resources that depend on the screen size, for use in the XML layouts, e.g.:

• values
• values-w600dp
• values-w720dp
• values-w1024dp

But does that mean that I should drop supporting those 4 density containers? Or do I need to provide 16 resource folders, i.e. one for every combination of density and size?

I can't find any good help in the Android documentation as to this topic.

Answer 1

drawables and layouts are different. To answer your question, should you stop support those densities. Yes, but you should still support xdpi and hdpi. Romain Guy recently said that modern devices like the Nexus 7 (at a tvpi) can scale the assets properly enough that mdpi isn't really needed. And nobody uses ldpi anymore. Last I looked is was less than 2% of the market.

About layouts. A Nexus 7 (1280x800 tvdpi) would use something from the values-w1024dp but still get assets from the drawable-hdpi folder. Those two aren't mutually exclusive. Something like a S3 would also pull from the values-w1024dp but use drawable-xdpi. You only need to provide an alternative layout if your use-case calls for it.

So do you need 16 different things? No. You do need xdpi & hdpi (if not mdpi). You may want to include alternative layouts for different sizes. You can be as specific as you want or as generic. Unless you're doing a hybrid app for both phone & tablet (7 & 10 in) you probably don't need a lot of xxxx-sizexxx folders.

In the layout's XML, I have been using fixed widths (while still density-independent) such as 128dp for those graphics.

This is probably a source of your issues. Your layouts should be as fluid as possible using wrap_content and match_parent. Fixed sizes should be reserved for padding around the sides and image where you know the size ahead of time. If you do this, your layout should look decent at any size from a small 320 x 200 to a GTV size.