How to support different screen size in android

Question

I'm developing an app in android and I have to support all different screen sizes and density. So i've created different folder for layout : layout-small layout-large and layout.

Then I've created different folder for image: ldpi, mdpi and hdpi. In all drawable folder the image must be with different size true? I ask this cause of I have a phone with screen size large and density medium, the image shown will be smaller and they will not take the right size?

Answer 1

For Different screen size, The following is a list of resource directories in an application that provides different layout designs for different screen sizes and different bitmap drawables for small, medium, high, and extra high density screens.

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 

The following code in the Manifest supports all dpis.

<supports-screens android:smallScreens="true"            android:normalScreens="true"            android:largeScreens="true"           android:xlargeScreens="true"           android:anyDensity="true" /> 

And also check out my SO answer.

Answer 2

Beginning with Android 3.2 (API level 13), size groups (folders small, normal, large, xlarge) are deprecated in favor of a new technique for managing screen sizes based on the available screen width.

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There are different resource configurations that you can specify based on the space available for your layout:

1) Smallest Width - The fundamental size of a screen, as indicated by the shortest dimension of the available screen area.

Qualifier Value: sw'dp value'dp

Eg. res/sw600dp/layout.xml -> will be used for all screen sizes bigger or equal to 600dp. This does not take the device orientation into account.

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2) Available Screen Width - Specifies a minimum available width in dp units at which the resources should be used.

Qualifier Value: w'dp value'dp

Eg. res/w600dp/layout.xml -> will be used for all screens, which width is greater than or equal to 600dp.

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3) Available Screen Height - Specifies a minimum screen height in dp units at which the resources should be used.

Qualifier Value: h'dp value'dp

Eg. res/h600dp/layout.xml -> will be used for all screens, which height is greater than or equal to 600dp.

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So at the end your folder structure might look like this:

res/layout/layout.xml -> for handsets (smaller than 600dp available width)
res/layout-sw600dp/layout.xml -> for 7” tablets (600dp wide and bigger)
res/layout-sw720dp/layout.xml -> for 10” tablets (720dp wide and bigger)

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For more information please read the official documentation:
https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html#DeclaringTabletLayouts