Android app icon resource

Icon Design Guidelines

Quickview

• You can use several types of icons in an Android application.
• Your icons should follow the general specification in this document.
• You should create separate icon sets for high-, medium-, and low-density screens.

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New Guides for App Designers!

Check out the new documents for designers at Android Design, including more guidelines for Iconography.

Creating a unified look and feel throughout a user interface adds value to your product. Streamlining the graphic style will also make the UI seem more professional to users.

This document provides information to help you create icons for various parts of your application’s user interface that match the general styles used by the Android 2.x framework. Following these guidelines will help you to create a polished and unified experience for the user.

The following documents discuss detailed guidelines for the common types of icons used throughout Android applications:

Launcher Icons A Launcher icon is a graphic that represents your application on the device’s Home screen and in the Launcher window. Menu Icons Menu icons are graphical elements placed in the options menu shown to users when they press the Menu button. Action Bar Icons new! Action Bar icons are graphical elements representing action items in the Action Bar. Status Bar Icons Status bar icons are used to represent notifications from your application in the status bar. Tab Icons Tab icons are graphical elements used to represent individual tabs in a multi-tab interface. Dialog Icons Dialog icons are shown in pop-up dialog boxes that prompt the user for interaction. List View Icons List view icons are used with ListView to graphically represent list items. An example is the Settings application.

To get started creating your icons more quickly, you can download the Android Icon Templates Pack.

Using the Android Icon Templates Pack

The Android Icon Templates Pack is a collection of template designs, textures, and layer styles that make it easier for you to create icons that conform to the guidelines given in this document. We recommend downloading the template pack archive before you start designing your icons.

The icon templates are provided in the Adobe Photoshop file format (.psd), which preserves the layers and design treatments we used when creating the standard icons for the Android platform. You can load the template files into any compatible image-editing program, although your ability to work directly with the layers and treatments may vary based on the program you are using.

You can obtain the latest Icon Templates Pack archive using the link below:

For previous versions of the Icon Templates Pack, see the Downloads section in the box at the top-right corner of this page.

Providing Density-Specific Icon Sets

Android is designed to run on a variety of devices that offer a range of screen sizes and resolutions. When you design the icons for your application, it’s important keep in mind that your application may be installed on any of those devices. As described in the Supporting Multiple Screens document, the Android platform makes it straightforward for you to provide icons in such a way that they will be displayed properly on any device, regardless of the device’s screen size or resolution.

In general, the recommended approach is to create a separate set of icons for each generalized screen density. Then, store them in density-specific resource directories in your application. When your application runs, the Android platform will check the characteristics of the device screen and load icons from the appropriate density-specific resources. For more information about how to store density-specific resources in your application, see Resource directory qualifiers for screen size and density.

For tips on how to create and manage icon sets for multiple densities, see Tips for Designers.

Tips for Designers

Here are some tips that you might find useful as you develop icons or other drawable assets for your application. The tips assume that you are using Adobe Photoshop or a similar raster and vector image-editing program.

Use common naming conventions for icon assets

Try to name files so that related assets will group together inside a directory when they are sorted alphabetically. In particular, it helps to use a common prefix for each icon type. For example:

Asset Type	Prefix	Example
Icons	ic_	ic_star.png
Launcher icons	ic_launcher	ic_launcher_calendar.png
Menu icons and Action Bar icons	ic_menu	ic_menu_archive.png
Status bar icons	ic_stat_notify	ic_stat_notify_msg.png
Tab icons	ic_tab	ic_tab_recent.png
Dialog icons	ic_dialog	ic_dialog_info.png

Note that you are not required to use a shared prefix of any type — doing so is for your convenience only.

Set up a working space that organizes files for multiple densities

Supporting multiple screen densities means you must create multiple versions of the same icon. To help keep the multiple copies of files safe and easier to find, we recommend creating a directory structure in your working space that organizes asset files per resolution. For example:

This structure parallels the density-specific structure in which you will ultimately store the finished assets in your application’s resources. Because the structure in your working space is similar to that of the application, you can quickly determine which assets should be copied to each application resources directory. Separating assets by density also helps you detect any variances in filenames across densities, which is important because corresponding assets for different densities must share the same filename.

For comparison, here’s the resources directory structure of a typical application:

Use vector shapes where possible

Many image-editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop allow you to use a combination of vector shapes and raster layers and effects. When possible, use vector shapes so that if the need arises, assets can be scaled up without loss of detail and edge crispness.

Using vectors also makes it easy to align edges and corners to pixel boundaries at smaller resolutions.

Start with large artboards

Because you will need to create assets for different screen densities, it is best to start your icon designs on large artboards with dimensions that are multiples of the target icon sizes. For example, launcher icons are 96, 72, 48, or 36 pixels wide, depending on screen density. If you initially draw launcher icons on an 864×864 artboard, it will be easier and cleaner to tweak the icons when you scale the artboard down to the target sizes for final asset creation.

When scaling, redraw bitmap layers as needed

If you scaled an image up from a bitmap layer, rather than from a vector layer, those layers will need to be redrawn manually to appear crisp at higher densities. For example if a 60×60 circle was painted as a bitmap for mdpi it will need to be repainted as a 90×90 circle for hdpi .

When saving image assets, remove unnecessary metadata

Although the Android SDK tools will automatically compress PNGs when packaging application resources into the application binary, a good practice is to remove unnecessary headers and metadata from your PNG assets. Tools such as OptiPNG or Pngcrush can ensure that this metadata is removed and that your image asset file sizes are optimized.

Make sure that corresponding assets for different densities use the same filenames

Corresponding icon asset files for each density must use the same filename, but be stored in density-specific resource directories. This allows the system to look up and load the proper resource according to the screen characteristics of the device. For this reason, make sure that the set of assets in each directory is consistent and that the files do not use density-specific suffixes.

For more information about density-specific resources and how the system uses them to meet the needs of different devices, see Supporting Multiple Screens.

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How to Create Android App Icons using Image Asset Studio

Creating an application interface that the user will like and will be unlikely to forget can be intimidating. But creating an attractive launcher icon for your app, that the user will first come across while looking at your app, anyway needs more brainstorming. For Android, you need to create these graphics that have to be compatible and supporting to all devices running Android, sizes varying from a smartphone to TV. The introduction of Android Image Asset Studio in Android Studio has made it easy. In this article, you will see how you can easily create your application icon in one go.

Image Asset Studio is a tool introduced in Android Studio 3. It can be used to generate app icons for all the screen densities in one go, using custom images, material design icons as well as text strings. Application icon in Android includes the following,

• Launcher Icon: represents your app and the first thing that user sees
• ActionBar Icon & Tab Icon: representing actions in the ActionBar and Tabs of the app
• Notification Icon: represents your app notification when a user is outside your app

Here is a list of icon/image sizes that you need to create for different screen densities, for each image that you use in your application. No matter if you are a good designer, creating each of these is tedious!

Image Asset Studio helps to create all these icons for all screen densities and stores them in respective density folders. It provides a preview of all the icons that will be created, in different shapes, with options to edit them. Let’s see how to create each one of them.

Run Image Asset Studio

1. In the Project Window, select the project hierarchy.
2. Right-click on the res folder and choose New -> Image Asset.

3. Create the icon for your app i.e.

• Launcher icon which may be Adaptive and Legacy Launcher Icon (if your app supports Android 8.0 or above) or just the Legacy Launcher Icon(for Android version less than or equal to 7.1)
• ActionBar Icons and Tab Icons
• notification icon as per your requirement.

4. You can select the following Asset Type. The icon appears on the right side, in the preview panel.

Custom Image

You can use custom images of PNG (recommended), JPG or GIF (avert) format and adjust it to create icons. Set the path of your custom image if you select this.

Clip Art

You can select the icons from the list of Google Material Design Icons provided in the dialog. Click on the clip art icon to get the dialog with icon set.

Text String

You can use the fonts installed on your computer to generate the icons out of the text strings. It will create these text-based icons in PNG format in respective drawable-density folders. Set the string and select the font to use it.

If you are comfortable learning from video, you can refer to this for Launcher Icons and App Bar Icons:

Creating Launcher Icon

Launcher Icons represent our app in the device home screen, on the app list screen, in the Google Play Store and everywhere else. Android 8.0 (Oreo) and above supports Adaptive Icons and can be displayed in different shapes across various platforms. Image Asset Studio provides the option to create these adaptive icons as well as the legacy icons for Android 8.0 below. It also creates web icons(512 x 512 px) that represents our app on the Google Play Store.

The Launcher Icons are stored in the res/mipmap-density folder.

Adaptive and legacy launcher icon

If your app doesn’t support android version 8.0 or above, create legacy icon only for your app.

After opening Image Asset Studio, follow the steps below to create the legacy icons for your android app.

1. For Icon Type field, select Launcher Icons (Adaptive & Legacy).
2. For Foreground Layer tab, select the Asset type to be an image, clip art or text.
3. Then for the Background Layer tab, select a Color or set the Image path for the Asset type to set the background.
4. Then the Legacy tab, check the default settings. You can choose whether you want to generate the legacy icon, round icon and the icon for the web(Google Play Store Icon).
5. Optionally

• Name: Change the name of the foreground and background layer. If the resource with the specified name exists, it will be indicated by an error message. The name can contain lowercase characters, digits and underscore only.
• Trim: Chose yes to adjust the margin between the foreground icon graphic and the background, else select no to keep the source asset as it is.
• Color: Set the color for the clip art or the text asset. Click the field, select the color, click chose and preview your icon.
• Resize: Use the slider to resize your icon. It is disabled for background layer where Color is the asset type.

7. Chose the resource directory for your image asset.

• main/res: For all source set including debug and release
• debug/res: For debugging only
• release/res: For only one version of build, overrides main source set
• custom source set: To define a new source set File -> Project structure -> app -> Build Types. Refer to Configure Build Variants for details
  Output Directories shows the list of folders in which the icons will be created in the Project view in Project Window.

Check the mipmap folders for the Launcher Icons.

Legacy launcher icon only

If your app supports android version 8.0 or above, create adaptive and legacy launcher icon for your app.

After opening Image Asset Studio, follow the steps below to create adaptive and legacy icons for your android app.

1. For Icon Type field, select Launcher Icons (Legacy Only).
2. Select the Asset type to be an image, clip art or text.
3. Optionally

• Name: Change the name of the icon if you don’t want to use the default name. If the resource with the specified name exists, an error message will indicate it. The name can contain lowercase characters, digits and underscore only.
• Trim: Chose yes to adjust the margin between the foreground icon graphic and the background, else select no to keep the source asset as it is.
• Padding: Adjust the source set padding for all four sides. You will have the review on the right side.
• Foreground: Set the color for the clip art or the text asset. Click the field, select the color, click chose and preview your icon.
• Background: Set the color for the background. Click the field, select the color, click chose and preview your icon.
• Scaling: Select crop or S hrink to fit to fit the icon size
• Shape: Select the shape to set a backdrop for the icon. For transparent, select none.
• Effect: Select dogear if you want the dogear effect for your icon, else select none.

5. Chose the resource directory for your image asset.

• main/res: For all source set including debug and release
• debug/res: For debugging only
• release/res: For only one version of the build, overrides main source set
• custom source set: To define a new source set File -> Project structure -> app -> Build Types. Refer to Configure Build Variants for details

Check the mipmap folders for the Launcher Icons.

Creating ActionBar Icons and Tab Icons

ActionBar icons are the ones present on the ActionBar that represents individual action. Whereas, the tab icons are used in the apps having multiple tabs. Using material icons for this category is recommended.

The ActionBar and Tab Icons are stored in the res/drawable-density folder.

You can also use Vector Asset Studio to have XML vectors for these categories of icons. It will reduce the size of your APK considerably.

After opening Image Asset Studio, follow the steps below to create action bar and tab icons for your android app.

1. For Icon Type field, select Action Bar and Tab Icons.
2. Select the Asset type to be an image, clip art or text.
3. Optionally

• Name: Change the name of the icon if you don’t want to use the default name. If the resource with the specified name exists, an error message will indicate it. The name can contain lowercase characters, digits and underscore only.
• Trim: Chose yes to adjust the margin between the foreground icon graphic and the background, else select no to keep the source asset as it is.
• Padding: Adjust the source set padding for all four sides. You will have the review on the right side.
• Theme: Select holo_light or holo_dark as per your app theme. Select custom to set a custom color for the icon.

5. Chose the resource directory for your image asset.

• main/res: For all source set including debug and release
• debug/res: For debugging only
• release/res: For only one version of build, overrides main source set
• custom source set: To define a new source set File -> Project structure -> app -> Build Types. Refer to Configure Build Variants for details

Check the drawable folders for the Icons created.

Creating Notification icons

To learn from the video:

The user sees the notification when he is outside your app. Notification icons come up with these notifications.

The Notification Icons are stored in the res/drawable-density folder. There are a few other folders created too.

• for Android 2.2 (API 8) or lower — icons stored in res/drawable-density
• for Android 2.3 to 2.3.7 (API 9 & 10) — icons stored in res/drawable-density-v9. Gray version of the icon is created
• Android 3 (API 11) or higher — icons stored in res/drawable-density-v11. A white version of the icon is created.

After opening Image Asset Studio, follow the steps below to create notification icons for your android app.

1. For Icon Type field, select Notification Icons.
2. Select the Asset type to be an image, clip art or text.
3. Optionally

• Name: Change the name of the icon if you don’t want to use the default name. If the resource with the specified name exists, an error message will indicate it. The name can contain lowercase characters, digits and underscore only.
• Trim: Chose yes to adjust the margin between the foreground icon graphic and the background, else select no to keep the source asset as it is.
• Padding: Adjust the source set padding for all four side. You will have the review on the right side.

5. Chose the resource directory for your image asset.

• main/res: For all source set including debug and release
• debug/res: For debugging only
• release/res: For only one version of build, overrides main source set
• custom source set: To define a new source set File -> Project structure -> app -> Build Types. Refer to Configure Build Variants for details

Check the drawable folders for the Icons created.

How to Delete an App Icon from a project

To delete the app icon,

1. Select Android View in Project Window
2. Expand the mipmap and drawable folder for the launcher and other icons respectively.
3. Select the sub-folder that matched the name of your icon. It contains the icons of all densities that you created.
4. Right-click on the sub-folder and hit delete.
   Dialog for Safe Delete appears.
5. If you want, select options to find the places where the icon is used and hit OK.
   If you chose to search for usage and the icon has any use in the project, you can view it and then confirm delete. You should delete or replace this reference to successfully compile the project. Android Studio then deletes the file from the project and the drive.
6. Chose Build -> Clean Project.

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