Hot answers tagged android
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Android icons (and other UI elements, like drag lengths) are measured in dp. A dp is a device/density-independent pixel. 1 dp is equivalent to 1 px on a 160 dpi screen. But to convert to other screen densities, you need to multiply it by a density factor. So it's generally recommended that multiple images are supplied for most icons.
For example, the ...
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The font itself (with its variants) can be bought from Linotype. Font licences change depending on the foundry, and also depending on use. You will for sure need to buy at least one license for commercial use. But as always with font licensing, it's best to ask the foundry directly, as each one is different.
From ...
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32bit refers to 8 bits per channel for red, green, blue and alpha. In Photoshop, that's called 8 bit mode. 32 bit mode in Photoshop refers to 32 bits per channel, meaning 128 bits in total (32each for red, green, blue and alpha).
32×32dp (display points) works out to be 32×32 pixels for mdpi, 48×48 for hdpi, and 64×64 pixels for xhdpi. Those are the ...
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The effect you described is simply achieved by duplicating the shape, changing it to outline, moving it up a bit and putting it in the background.
What the website you linked to describes is a concept of creating a depth perception. The examples you have given are not meant to represent the final design but how this effect is basically executed. The final ...
5
This is answer is purely from a website standpoint.
Media querie, curtesy of CSS3, gives us more control over how a website will look at various resolutions. As you scale down the width of the browser it will swap to the code for that width.
Some info on Media Queries - http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/about/hardboiled_css3_media_queries
This falls ...
4
I'd agree with the others that say you're not going to get a quality graphics tablet experience from an inexpensive tablet. The right software (don't know what) teamed with something like the Thinkpad tablet would work, but only because the Tablet has a digitizer (Wacom branded) built in already.
The others that have taken this line insist Wacom is your ...
4
You'll have to decide if you want that person to really be a UI designer or if you want them to develop the code as well.
In my experience, it's best to have someone focused on the customer side of UI/UX who works closely with a true UI developer to make the magic happen. Two people are definitely stronger than one in this role.
If it's a ...
3
Not a complete solution, but this might help someone who's come here from google.
If you save with the 'Save for Web' dialog [File > Save for Web] you can resize during the saving process, the options are on the right hand side under 'Image Size'.
I do this quite often when I need a couple of different sizes for an image, although as the other responses ...
3
To create an iOS icon, you simply have to provide images for at the various sizes. For iOS, the main sizes are (if you're making an iPhone and iPad app):
29x29, 48x48, 57x57, 58x58, 72x72, 96x96, 114x114, 144x144, 512x512 and 1024x1024
For Android, the image sizes are:
36x36, 48x48, 72x72, 96x96 and 512x512
Icons are delivered as PNG files. Generally ...
3
Before you get into extruding your icon, it's worth considering that a) you only have a very small number of pixels to play with (3 at the most, really), and b) there are very, very few Android app icons that use (or fake) extrusion to create the illusion of depth.
The guidelines call for dimensionality, and there are many effective ways to achieve that ...
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Although not a straightforward solution - not sure it will work, but hoping - there's the LEAP Motion Controller. It looks fantastic!
They say that it doesn't directly support tablets or smartphones; but, with at least some sort of manual calibration, it can easily be set to work on inclined planes/displays (even horizontal ones) with custom sizes, ...
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I still haven't found a useful tablet app for working with Photoshop (or any graphic application, for that matter). With apps that try to use the tablet as a sort of remote desktop device, bandwidth problems will drive you crazy. None of the "remote" apps I've tried, including RemoteDroid, PRemoteDroid, Win-Remote and several others, provides ...
3
First off, are you going to support only phones, or tablets too?
Secondly, you have it pretty much right. My experience comes from games, but I'm sure it applies to other apps just as well. Just create your High-Res assets first, and then scale them accordingly for Med- and Low-Res devices. You shouldn't have to worry about minuscule screen size ...
2
Ok, a lot of these answers are great, but let me give you a few thoughts from a designer.
Right now, you have 3 different densities to design for (mdpi, hdpi, and xhdpi).
Although choosing a density to start with is your preference, I would recommend starting with hdpi, and scaling your design from there. If you look up the stats on how many people are ...
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According to Apple.. yes: Apple's legal stuff You can't use Apple to sell non-Apple products. That includes Apple's "Trade dress" or look-and-feel.
I don't know about Android but I suspect there's a similar document somewhere for Google.
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Legally, yes, you are copying protected IP. In this case, it'd likely be a form of 'trade dress' or, possibly patent infringement.
Would Apple or Google sue? Likely not. Your use could even be argued as fair use (though whether you have the financial ability to argue it in court is another issue).
Context is everything, of course.
All that said, I'd ...
2
I have had the opposite experience from Alan. Every RDP product I tried on my little Android reader did exact positioning of the mouse using the stylus. It would be unusable otherwise; I display the PC screen zoomed out in a lot of applications and require pin point accuracy to check radio buttons and what not. Only big issue that I had is that it is ...
2
From your documentation:
You only need to provide density-specific drawables for bitmap files
(.png, .jpg, or .gif) and Nine-Path files (.9.png). If you use XML
files to define shapes, colors, or other drawable resources, you
should put one copy in the default drawable directory (drawable/).
This implies that other types of non-bitmap ...
2
The best way? Use Photoshop (preferred) or Fireworks.
Draw everything using vector shapes.
Use Layer Styles for additional effects.
Lay all the elements you need out flat, and use Slices to save the PNGs required.
There's quite a few questions on graphicdesign.stackexchange.com on the topic. A search might help you out.
2
I'd say coming up with several designs that follow basic GUI guidelines and testing them on the devices is a good start. I also think trying to keep them in one continuous style helps giving an overall complete look. Keep in mind they have to work in varying resolutions. So either find a good balance between complexity and simplicity or make different ...
2
How many times do you need to export the icon? If it's just the one icon, your best option is probably just to draw everything using vectors and layer styles, resize the document, make any adjustments required and save the PNG (optionally keeping the PSD for future exporting).
If you need to repeat the process many times, I'd recommend setting everything up ...
2
Font foundries typically license their fonts under either a "Desktop" license, or a "Web font" license. The desktop license only allows you to use the font on your own computer (or, a certain number, such as 5, computers your own). You may not embed it in an application or document that you are selling/giving out, even if it has been converted into another ...
2
General workflow
Just to clear up your first point, your workflow is fine but it isn't the only accepted solution. Some people use only Photoshop (hopefully with vector-based shapes); some go with purely Illustrator; and many use a hybrid of the two such as your description.
Most people using a hybrid flow would jump from Illy to Photoshop for additional ...
2
Since, like you said you are not an artist I would base your design only on the given APIs, Android and iOS ones. Like the user plainclothes told you be careful on the direction you are heading. If what you want it so build a game having the same design on both platforms is not an issue at all since it's usually the pattern. But if you are dealing with an ...
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Search around for "mockup template". There are some free ones out there, and some paid. These allow you to easily create a realistic mockup using whatever artwork you desire.
Here's one good resource: http://www.pixeden.com/psd-mock-up-templates
Related question: How can I take an iPad psd file and put an image inside it?.
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There is no available downloadable font called Black Small Caps. This is because the font itself is created with whatever word processor you are using. For example, in Photoshop i can create "Black Small Caps" of "Roboto" by selecting "Roboto" as the font, "Black" as the Font Style, and then going to the Character/Paragraph panel and applying "Small Caps".
...
1
Actually depends on your ability. If you work with Adobe Photoshop or CorelDraw With a general understanding of software, you can be a Icon Designer. Just in about IOS maybe It may be a little hard, because The operating system has limitations. for example XCODE in MAC has some simple Icons and you can use them. In generally I think Adobe Photoshop is a very ...
1
There's no good way to go from 96 down to 36 automatically. Even at 48 you're going to see your design start to fall apart.
The only benefit would be if you have a lot of icons to export in this way and you plan to come back and clean them up. You can record it as an action or use jsx, if you're so inclined.
For your particular design, I would experiment ...
1
The thing is, if all you're going to do to your bitmap to make different versions for different resolutions is to rescale it using an ordinary resampling algorithm, then you may as well only provide it at a single resolution anyway.
The point of including different versions of the bitmap for different resolutions is for when you want to have different ...
1
It all depends on how well you want to support each device.
If your background is a photo, you can get away with a surprising amount of scaling (and compression) before it starts to look bad.
If it's something that needs to be more precisely rendered (like line art) you may need to go with a couple different densities.
In either case you should have a ...
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