Develop Reference

Why does an image appear blurry on a hdpi screen[running android] when it has been alloted the max possible pixels?

I want to put a 40 X 40 DP icon somewhere on my app's screen. Now according to the ratio (3:4:6:8:12:16) of 6 different logical buckets, I have provided an icon(.png file) with different sizes in 6 different drawable folders.
In my case, the icon sizes must be "MDPI = 40 X 40 PX, HDPI = 60 X 60 PX, XHDPI = 80 X 80 PX and so on" to maintain the same quality across devices at 40 X 40 DP.
After doing so, I'm testing the app on a device with an HDPI screen, which means it should look into the "drawable-HDPI" folder and render an image that basically fills up all the pixels (60 px in a space that has 60px(based on the screen)). But somehow, the icon appears blurry.
What went wrong here !?
Meanwhile, I tried putting an icon with much higher pixels(512 x 512 PX) in the HDPI folder and it renders with high quality.
The only confusion is - Despite filling out all the pixels contained in 40 DP on an HDPI display, how an image with more pixels(512) has better quality?
<ImageView
android:layout_width="40dp"
android:layout_height="40dp"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:src="#drawable/nameOfImage"/>

Hi you should setup a parameter in Sketchup
check:
on mac /sketchup/preference/opengl/show maximum size of texture
on pc /menu/windows/preference/opengl/show maximum size of texture

I can not deal with non-standard resolution

I have design for my project. It for Nexus 6 with resolution 1440px x 2560px and 493 ppi. My design - 1440px x 2560px.
I know that:
ldpi 120 dpi
mdpi 160 dpi
tvdpi 213 dpi
hdpi 240 dpi
xhdpi 320 dpi
xxhdpi 480 dpi
xxxhdpi 640 dpi
I have - 493 ppi. what's this? I have a button size 100x50 pixels on the design.
how many dpi need button to look as well as in the design?

Hope this helps: Getting Your Apps Ready for Nexus 6 and Nexus 9
Nexus 6
Screen
The Nexus 6 boasts an impressive 5.96” Quad HD screen display at a
resolution of 2560 x 1440 (493 ppi). This translates to ~ 730 x 410 dp
(density independent pixels).
Check your assets
It has a quantized density of 560 dpi, which falls in between the
xxhdpi and xxxhdpi primary density buckets. For the Nexus 6, the
platform will scale down xxxhdpi assets, but if those aren’t
available, then it will scale up xxhdpi assets.
EDIT:
Consider this line
2560 x 1440 (493 ppi). This translates to ~ 730 x 410 dp (density
independent pixels)
It implies the scaling factor is 2560/730 = 1440/410 ~ 3.5
For a screen of width 410 and height 730 in dp, if you want to specify a button of half the screen width in dp, the width should be 410/2 = 205 dp which translates to 717px = 205*3.5 (width in dp * scaling factor)
A button of size 100px x 50px would translate to 28 x14 dp (100/3.5 * 50/3.5) on a 410 x 730 dp screen size.

If you are genuinely concerned about proper display resolution (which it sounds like you are) then you should never rely on the generic folders. The folders are there for generalized purposes - not for customized or high value display.
You should use displayMetrics to measure the screen size and select the appropriate asset, or even do customized image scaling. There are a lot of resources around this set of properties, but essentially it allows you to address the issue you are facing: set appropriate margins, padding, resolution, layout, etc. for a highly customized display.
Here are the docs:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/DisplayMetrics.html
And then some "simple" implementations of getting the metrics:
How to get screen display metrics in application class
getting the screen density programmatically in android?

Screen sizes of android design in pixels?

As I found in android documentation site, the there are 4 general sizes for android devices screens. but I found the measurements unit in dp.
like this :
xlarge screens are at least 960dp x 720dp
large screens are at least 640dp x 480dp
normal screens are at least 470dp x 320dp
small screens are at least 426dp x 320dp
How to do that on photoshop, how to get the sizes in pixels ?
Do I need to have 4 design ldpi, mdpi, hdpi and xhdpi ? do I need to have 16 versions of the design. ?

yes you have 4 designs like :
xhdpi = 100% image
hdpi = 75% image of xhdpi image
mdpi = 50% image of xhdpi image
ldpi = 50% image of hdpi image
i.e :
if you have 96 x 96 image in xhdpi then, you need to put
72 x 72 in hdpi folder - ( 75 % of xhdpi )
48 x 48 in mdpi folder - ( 50 % of xhdpi )
36 x 36 in ldpi folder - ( 50 % of hdpi )

How to do that in Photoshop?
Just create a high res version of your image with width and height as multiple of 16
Then use my Photoshop Output Android Assets script to generate
down-scaled version of images
AND "drawable-XXXX" folders for them
Why 16 pixels? For good down-scaling results:
ldpi mdpi tvdpi hdpi xhdpi xxhdpi xxxhdpi
0,75 1 1,33 1,5 2 3 4
3 4 5,32 6 8 12 16
Check my SO answer here for more information:
What is the best way to create drawables for different dpi

With my app I chose one screen size for it
Hdpi
And only used one image
android:background="#drawable/imagename"
If you want one for all sizes make one image
Resize it for each one
Then edit the XML file so that it can be used by the activity

See there are may ways,
If your background has repeating patterns you can use nine png,you ll get a lot on the internet for the same.
But if there is no repeating pattern u hve to make 4 images
to do you need to target screen fist for example you target xhdpi then its 960px*720 pixel with density per inch as 320px
now in photoshop make your all designs with considering max length as 960px and max width as 720px keep density as 320.
Now to scale change the density of images as 240 for hdpi 160 for mdpi and 120
now your images will increase in size now scale them as mentioned by ajay in above answer

Supporting multiple screens on Android

Have read the doc which is lengthy and still not clear.
Assuming I have an image with size = 120px * 80px, under the default mdpi/160 density, I also need to prepare
ldpi = 90 * 60
hdpi = 180 * 120
xhdpi = 240 * 160
Are the calculation above right? Assume I only have a single layout, so what I need is to prepare the images and place them under the corresponding drawable folders, right?
Thanks

The image sizes you have calculated are correct based on the formula from Google:
pixels = dp * (density / 160)
Knowing the target densities of the various DPIs will allow us to calculate final image sizes:
ldpi = 120 DPI
mdpi = 160 DPI
hdpi = 240 DPI
xhdpi = 320 DPI
Here would be the correct calculation for width, starting with a medium density asset at 120 pixels wide:
ldpi (120 DPI) = 120 * (120 / 160) == 90
mdpi (160 DPI) = 120 * (160 / 160) == 120
hdpi (240 DPI) = 120 * (240 / 160) == 180
xhdpi (320 DPI) = 120 * (320 / 160) == 240
Here would be the correct calculation for height, starting with a medium density asset at 80 pixels tall:
ldpi (120 DPI) = 80 * (120 / 160) == 60
mdpi (160 DPI) = 80 * (160 / 160) == 80
hdpi (240 DPI) = 80 * (240 / 160) == 120
xhdpi (320 DPI) = 80 * (320 / 160) == 160
Making your final images:
ldpi = 90 x 60
mdpi = 120 x 80
hdpi = 180 x 120
xhdpi = 240 x 160
Create the following folders under res/ if they don't already exist and drop the correct assets in:
drawable-ldpi
drawable-mdpi
drawable-hdpi
drawable-xhdpi

Yes, those are the correct sizes.
Yes, just put your various versions in the res/drawable-ldpi, -mdpi, -hdpi, and -xhdpi
folders and you're done.
Depending on your image -- specifically whether it still looks good scaled down automatically -- you could just provide hdpi and xhdpi versions and Android will automatically scale them at run-time for ldpi and mdpi respectively.

Edit: Ok, the calculations are correct. According to the formula px = dp * (dpi / 160) from http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html, where pixels on mdpi = dp.
And here is some additional information:
Dpi tells you how much dots (pixels) are in 1 inch. But it doesn't tell you how much pixels the screen has in total. So, you can have a device, which has, let's say, 400 pixels width and height and the screen has a diagonal of 5 inches. With this you get the dpi value. (Using http://members.ping.de/~sven/dpi.html for example).
Now you have another, device, which has the same dpi value, but has a higher resolution and it's bigger, for example, 1000 x 1000 pixels and also large diagonale.
If you created an image for the first case, of let's say 200 x 200 pixels, it will occupy half of the screen, but in the second case it will be only 1/5 of the screen, although both devices having same dpi, and that's probably not what you want to do.
What I usually do is orientate on the resolution of devices which usually have this dpi (like hdpi -> 480x800, xhdpi -> 720x1280, etc.), and in the layout use dip in combination with scaleType "fitStart", "center", etc. to keep the images proportional. So I put images with different resolutions in ldpi, hdpi and xhdpi folders but I don't use a formula.
There's also the possibility to use screen sizes in combination/instead with dpi, in the case it's necessary:
xlarge screens are at least 960dp x 720dp
large screens are at least 640dp x 480dp
normal screens are at least 470dp x 320dp
small screens are at least 426dp x 320dp
This works with additional folders like dpi.
BTW. Currently it's possible to put different versions of the app in Google Play for different resolutions / screens, so the user doesn't have to download all the files (huge app size, long time downloading, etc.), only the ones necessary for the device.

the scaling ratio of images for the ldpi,mdpi,hdpi,xhdpi is 3:4:6:8 but u think once
1)if there is mobile with ldpi small screen is there then it will be suitable for the screen.
2)if there is mobile with ldpi medium screen is there then the images appear little bit smaller
3)2)if there is mobile with ldpi large screen is there then the images appear smaller.
like this for all the mdpi,hdpi and xhdpi screens.
If there is chance of using nine patch images in your app try those images.

Yes, the calculations on the sizes that you have made are correct.
Now, you need to put them in the respective folders of ldpi , mdpi , hdpi and xhdpi in res/drawable of your project.

Your calculations are correct if your goal is for your image to have (approximately) the same physical size on devices of different pixel densities. The images would go in directories
res/drawable-ldpi
res/drawable-mdpi
res/drawable-hdpi
res/drawable-xhdpi
Android classifies the device into one of these general density classes (which are 120dpi, 160dpi, 240dpi, and 320dpi) and scales images according to those ratios. Since physical devices aren't necessarily exactly one of these densities, the physical size of the image can still vary slightly from device to device. Note that if you don't supply an image for a particular density, Android will generate one by scaling the default/mdpi image. Generally, the result isn't quite to the quality that you would get by providing your own image.
If you run Android Lint, it will tell you about any missing resources (such as forgetting to include a xhdpi image) and it will also tell you if your scaling calculations are substantially off. It's a nice feature to know about.
Note that this entire image scaling approach has nothing to do with screen size, only pixel density. You can also have resource folders for different screen sizes or even for different screen size/density combinations.
However, if you want an image that will display at 120 x 80 pixels regardless of the screen density, the above scheme won't work. Instead, you should put the image in the folder
res/drawable-nodpi
Android won't scale images that it retrieves from there. The result is that your image would be about 3/4" x 1/2" on an mdpi device, 1" x 3/4" on an ldpi device, 3/8" x 1/4" on an xhdpi device, etc.

You can use this to calculate equivalent size in pixels if you know the screen density(dpi) of the device:
equivalentPixels = sizeInDP*(screenDensity/160)
where sizeinDP is the size of widget where you want to display the image. Calculate the sizes in pixels for various screen densities and put them under respective folders.
So if you have an ImageView of size 300dp X 200dp (Width X Height), and the screen density is 320dpi, the image size in pixels should be:
Width = 300*(320/160) = 600px
Height = 200*(320/160) = 400px
Hope this helps!

How do I convert ppi into dpi for Android images?

I have started making graphics for my Android app using Adobe Photoshop. But I am unable to proceed, as the resolution in Photoshop is set in pixels per inch where as the official Google documentation says Android will require images set in dpi. I have searched the web for the conversion between the two but never ended up with any proper formula.
I know that the Android documentation describes the relation as px = dp*dpi/160. But my problem is that if I know dpi where do I get the value of dp to be used in this calculation? Or is there any assumption about the value of dp? I am confused.

Dp are Density independant pixels and are used to generalise the number of pixels a screen has. These are generalised figures taken from http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
xlarge screens are at least 960dp x 720dp
large screens are at least 640dp x 480dp
normal screens are at least 470dp x 320dp
small screens are at least 426dp x 320dp
Generalised Dpi values for screens:
ldpi Resources for low-density (ldpi) screens (~120dpi)
mdpi Resources for medium-density (mdpi) screens (~160dpi). (This is the baseline density.)
hdpi Resources for high-density (hdpi) screens (~240dpi).
xhdpi Resources for extra high-density (xhdpi) screens (~320dpi).
Therefore generalised size of your resources (assuming they are full screen):
ldpi
Vertical = 426 * 120 / 160 = 319.5px
Horizontal = 320 * 120 / 160 = 240px
mdpi
Vertical = 470 * 160 / 160 = 470px
Horizontal = 320 * 160 / 160 = 320px
hdpi
Vertical = 640 * 240 / 160 = 960px
Horizontal = 480 * 240 / 160 = 720px
Edit - adding xhdpi as they are becoming more popular
xhdpi
Vertical = 960 * 320 / 160 = 1920px
Horizontal = 720 * 320 / 160 = 1440px
These values should be suitable for most xhdpi screens such as TVs and the Nexus 4, including the Nexus 10 (assuming they don't create a new category for this as it is 25k x 16k, don't know as I haven't got hands on one yet).
/Edit
If you use these sizes your images will look great on any screen. Be sure to define sizes in code in dp however, Android will handle the conversion described above on its own.

I don't agree with answer by Michael Allen because the resulting resolutions for ldpi, mdpi, hdpi and xdpi doesn't satisfy the 3:4:6:8 scaling ratios for alternative bitmaps mentioned in the google docs here under 'Alternative Drawables'
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html#testing
Therefore I would suggest that you take the baseline example that has a minimum size of
470 x 320 dp now using formula from same documentation we calculate full screen resolution for baseline screen size
px = dp * (dpi/160); for baseline px = dp * (160/160) = dp * 1
so px = dp. This means the full screen size for our baseline config. in pixels would be
470 X 320 px (mdpi)
now to follow the 3:4:6:8 scaling ratios for alternative drawables sizes for ldpi, hdpi and xhdpi we need to derive the unit values from mdpi. i.e.
470/4 = 117.5
320/4 = 80
divide by 4 because scaling ratio for mdpi is 4, scaling ratios for ldpi, hdpi and xhdpi are 3,6 and 8 respectively. now just multiply the unit results 117.5 and 80 with these scaling factors
ldpi
117.5 * 3 = 352.5
80 * 3 = 240
mdpi
117.5 * 4 = 470
80 * 4 = 320
hdpi
117.5 * 6 = 705
80 * 6 = 480
xhdpi
117.5 * 8 = 940
80 * 8 = 640
These sizes are now in perfect 3:4:6:8 scaling ratios.

Yes, Dp (Density independant pixels) is all Photoshop will care about. It should not consider what the density of the pixels will be. That image of a super high number of pixels may be put on a super small high definition UI button for all it cares about. Or you may have few pixels for a retro style A0 poster of Tetris. This is because they can get scaled. Few pixels are scaled up for the large area, and many pixels scaled down for the small area on a screen.
So pick your target link to sizes screen size and use that in photoshop. (also check out who uses what... pie chart of sizes used)
For the intuition this site helped me link to blog page:
At run time, the platform transparently handles any scaling of the dp units needed, based on the actual density of the screen in use.
(the platform does the scaling- the density ratio handling is done by Android; not you) and this is extremely relevant to the UI:
Using dp units to define your application’s UI is highly recommended, as a way of ensuring proper display of your UI on different screens.
Because you want the UI elements to appear the same on all devices so it will do scaling based on the number of pixels it computes in that formula. And if the dp is scaled in a way so that it becomes too spare or dense, well that won't look good.

As the resolution in Photoshop is set in pixels per inch where as the official Google documentation says Android will require images set in dpi.

The same on all devices so it will do scaling based on the number of pixels it computes in that formula.