Android Application Development For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Creating a Launcher Icon for the Application

When your app is installed, its icon helps users identify its presence in the application launcher. When you create the Silent Mode Toggle application, the ADT automatically includes a default launcher icon, as shown on the left in Figure 4-11.

You should change this somewhat bland icon to one of your own. A round phone icon works for the Silent Mode Toggle application, as shown on the right in Figure 4-11. You can create your own (as shown in the following section) or use the one from the downloaded source code from this book’s website.

Figure 4-11: The default icon (left) and a unique icon (right).

Designing a custom launcher icon

Creating your own launcher icons is fairly easy, thanks to the Android project. The article “Icon Design Guidelines” in the Android documentation covers all aspects of icon design — a how-to manual for creating icons for the Android platform, a style guide, a list of do’s and don’ts, materials and colors, size and positioning guidelines, and (best of all) icon templates that you can use. You can find useful resources for designing icons at http://d.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design.html and http://d.android.com/design/style/iconography.html .

Working with templates

After you download the Android SDK, these icon templates and materials are available for you to use immediately on your ...