I am building an application and currently am in the process of add backgrounds in. The way I make the backgrounds are by designing it in Microsoft Word and then pasting it into Paint then saving it as a .png file. This way works but it does not give a clear and crisp picture on phones. I'm wanting to know what do you guys use when putting backgrounds in on your applications. (ie. Photoshop)
Yes Photoshop is better option, but now a days you can make them online if you are not familiar with Photoshop, easily.
Check the following...
wallcreater
bg patterns
x3studios
click this to googled results
Photoshop or GIMP would be my first suggestions
Related
I am on a small mobile application development team and we have decided that we are going to use a 9-Patch Image for android Splash Screens.
For iOS this easy - the designer is going to use this template --http://davidlillo.com/ios-splash-screen-template-psd/
In photoshop, the designer can easily create the iOS splash screen, generate all the sizes and hand it off to me - The Developer.
How can I adopt a workflow similar to this one for creating 9-Patch Splash Screens for android? I would like my designers to use a template like this, but I cannot find one that will do a 9Patch.
I have looked into many online tools that generate 9-Patch, but we don't want to rely on somebody else's web service or upload our proprietary images to who-knows-where in the cloud.
The problem with Draw 9-Patch command line tool, and other tools on GitHub is that these tools are for Developers. I don't want a designer to have install anything on their computer to generate image sizes.
Ideally we would like to create a Splash Screen image one time in Photoshop and generate all of the sizes for iOS (we have this already) along with a 9-Patch image for all of the android sizes.
Does a solution like this exist out there? It would be a nice if there was a Photoshop Template that we could use where we would make the image one time generate all the sizes for both android and iOS. If not, can someone please describe a workflow they use where the designer is responsible for creating the 9-Patch image? Thanks.
There's a very nice tool out there for quick 9 path generation on this link:
Simple Nine-patch Generator
I'm currently creating an app for android that's going to need multiple images. Backgrounds, an image for the icon, and images for the buttons that I'll have. What's the best way to create an image for an android application and how would you implement them into the app so that they work? Any suggestion would be helpful. Thanks!
As a non-artist developer, creating production-quality images can be hard and probably best jobbed out to a graphics person. Partnering with a graphics/sound person can be a good solution.
For early development or other stuff that doesn't need to be production quality, I start with GIMP. Then for icons and buttons that need to be scalable, I use the free site Android Asset Studio to create 9-patch images.
Has anybody experience with using svg for creating custom buttons on android? I recently stumbled upon the svg-android project that was used for androidify and I'm wondering whether it is worth the trouble rewriting the code.
At the moment I'm using nine-patch buttons. The only problem is that I need to create several images for different resolutions. However, if I switch to vector graphics, I'm not sure how to preserve the rounded corner radius when I resize the button, for example.
Has anyone experience and can tell me whether it's worth the trouble ?
It sounds like you should maybe use Shapes instead of 9-patches. They superior in most of the cases (especially with rounded corners, gradients ...) : http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/drawable-resource.html#Shape
You can also use layer-lists to stack shapes.
The last time I used the svg-android project, it wasn't sufficient for my SVG's due to limitations in its rendering. I don't know what its current state (if different) is, but based on my year-old experience with this on Android, I'd say spend some time to experiment with it before you commit to using it -- perhaps its limitations will not affect you.
I want to create professional looking GUI for Android application. Something more than just raw widgets which I'm taught to use in countless tutorials in the web.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any source of information how to customize those widgets and create better looking GUI.
Examples could be: http://android.appstorm.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/calorific-sc.jpg
or http://android.appstorm.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/chomp-sc.jpg
How are such GUIs created? If you could point me out to some tutorials on it, I would be really thankful!
Greetings,
Bart
There's nothing in those examples that looks like it couldn't be made from standard components. For instance the second screen of that calorific application is just a background image for the window with a list and a button with a background image as well. The first image could easily be done with just buttons and background images for views as well.
TLDR: Split the view into rectangles, assume that these are all standard components with images as backgrounds unless they seem to have nonstandard interactions.
Those are called custom components.
You will need to do a fair amount of work to get the look you want. (compared to using system components).
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/custom-components.html
Edit
Bone up on your Google-fu Bart!
http://www.google.com/search?q=custom+components+android+tutorial
I've been using draw9patch on android a bit lately and am getting frustrated about how bad of a program it is. I generally takes me 5 mintues per image to add the patches which seems excessive. Worse is that when I have multiple states for an image I have to do the exact same patches on 3 images or they look wrong, I would rather be able to just copy patches between images. I've tried using gimp to do the same thing but find it more difficult.
Has anyone found a better program to create 9 pngs or created their own?
What exactly are you doing? It shouldn't take more than 4 or 5 clicks to add patches. You're just adding single black pixels or lines of pixels on the outer frame.
Personally, I use Photoshop to do mine, but if you don't already have it, it's an expensive investment. GIMP or Paint.NET can easily do the same (technically, even MS Paint, but I wouldn't wish that program on anyone), and they're free.
EDIT: Somehow overlooked that you've already tried GIMP. Any new software is going to have some learning curve, especially if it contains more functionality. draw9patch is pretty much the bare minimum of functionality, so it's simple to use, but trust me when I say it would be worth your while to just improve your skills in GIMP or Paint.NET instead.
EDIT: Okay, just wanted to say I judged too quickly here. I've really only used the draw9patch tool for minor modifications, and testing my NinePatches I made in Photoshop. The process of drawing a line in d9p is an absolute pain in the ass. I see in your comment you said you've tried Photoshop. What you can actually do to make it easier is add guides (View > New Guide) at the pixel locations you want, then just use the pencil tool at a 1px brush size, click and hold at the start of the line, hold shift and then drag to the end of the line. Photoshop has an annoying bug, however (at least in my installation of CS2) of selecting the wrong pixel when zoomed in very close, so you may have to end up erasing a few stray pixels that end up past the guides. I would do your black border as a separate layer as well, to make things easier.
GIMP does not have a Line Tool, however if you pick the Pencil tool, then you can press Shift to make lines (well done GIMP, everyone should have been able to guess to press Shift, right?).
{complete tutorial}
This is an older post, but there is a tool out now called Better 9 Patch Tool that makes drawing these a breeze. The whole thing is written in Java so it runs on pretty much everything and is Shareware, so you can try it before you buy it. And if you're unhappy with doing this in Photoshop or the draw9patch tool (as I was) this is a pretty good alternative.
Link is here:
http://www.roundrect.kr/desktop/better-9-patch/