Android in Practice

Chapter 4. Getting the pixels perfect

In this chapter

• Rendering views
• Creating layouts
• Working with themes and styles
• Creating interfaces for mobile apps

I don’t know answers, I just do eyes. You Nexus, huh? I design your eyes.

Blade Runner

This chapter is about all things visual. We’ll see how views are laid out in a hierarchy and drawn to screen in several passes. We’ll also explore more about the layout managers Android provides, and how layout parameters are applied. We’ll then learn how to use themes and styles to customize an application, how to draw custom buttons and other window elements, and how to make user interfaces scale to different devices. Finally, most importantly, we’ll see how to deal with common problems arising in ...