May 7th, 2011 by Luis Alves

Great tool to convert Android Dp to Px and vice versa

Today I found this nice tool that may help you convert your font sizes from photoshop pixels to Android Dp’s and vice versa.

http://labs.skinkers.com/content/android_dp_px_calculator/

Hope it’s helpful.

May 6th, 2011 by Luis Alves

Exporting your graphics to support multiple screens on the Android

When I’m designing, I usually design my layouts in Photoshop. Whenever possible I try to use shapes so they can scale to any size in the future because I try to keep in mind that new equipments may become available in the market and when that happens I may have to export bigger versions of my graphics to support them.

Let’s say you design you app layout in hdpi, so your layout has 480px x 800px or 480px x 850px. Don’t forget to set the image resolution to 240 dpi’s.

Now, to convert your layout to mdpi, ldpi and xhdpi, do an “Image Size” and  set resolution. Make sure “Scale Style”, “Constrain proportions” and “Resample Image” are all selected.

To convert to mdpi set a resolution of 160 dpi’s

To convert to ldpi set a resolution of 120 dpi’s

To convert to xhdpi set a resolution os 320 dpi’s

Important note: You may have to adjust some graphics after being automatically scaled because anti-aliasing may occur and your graphics may get blurred, for instance let’s say you have a line with one pixel in hdpi, if you scale it to mdpi you may get a very dimmed version of that line, since photoshop wasn’t able to scale something that was already one pixel… so you need to pay attention to that kind of detail and redo that line. When you’re not working with vector graphics and shapes, it’s better to start with a xhdpi version of your app and start scaling down.

Also bare in mind that:

hdpi to mdpi -> divide by 1.5

hdpi to ldpi -> divide by 2

hdpi to xhdpi -> mdpi x 2

May 6th, 2011 by Luis Alves

Difference between px, dip, dp and sp in android

px
Pixels – corresponds to actual pixels on the screen.

in
Inches – based on the physical size of the screen.

mm
Millimeters – based on the physical size of the screen.

pt
Points – 1/72 of an inch based on the physical size of the screen.

dp
Density-independent Pixels – an abstract unit that is based on the physical density of the screen. These units are relative to a 160 dpi screen, so one dp is one pixel on a 160 dpi screen. The ratio of dp-to-pixel will change with the screen density, but not necessarily in direct proportion. Note: The compiler accepts both “dip” and “dp”, though “dp” is more consistent with “sp”.

sp
Scale-independent Pixels – this is like the dp unit, but it is also scaled by the user’s font size preference. It is recommend you use this unit when specifying font sizes, so they will be adjusted for both the screen density and user’s preference.

November 24th, 2010 by Luis Alves

Meo Remote is now the #1 free app

meo_first_placeAfter one day of publication meo remote hit number one on the top free apps of the Portuguese Apple app Store. I’ve contributed for this app with layout design. Also contributed with user experience ideas at the team brainstormings that preceded the Design moment. The final result is a rich application that is pleasing the meo users community.

November 17th, 2010 by Luis Alves

Tethering your iPhone to your iPad

So you have an wifi iPad and you want to navigate the internet when you are out in the opening drinking a beer in a beach bar?

Or you already pay data traffic in your iPhone and you don’t want another data traffic bill to pay even if you have the 3G version of the iPad.

So the solution for you is Mywi!

Mywi is a cydia application, so you have to jailbrake your iPhone to install it.

What Mywi does is to share your iPhone data connection via a wirelless network with your iPad. Check it out at Cydia!