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Android APIs
public abstract class

Drawable

extends Object
java.lang.Object
   ↳ android.graphics.drawable.Drawable
Known Direct Subclasses
Known Indirect Subclasses

Class Overview

A Drawable is a general abstraction for "something that can be drawn." Most often you will deal with Drawable as the type of resource retrieved for drawing things to the screen; the Drawable class provides a generic API for dealing with an underlying visual resource that may take a variety of forms. Unlike a View , a Drawable does not have any facility to receive events or otherwise interact with the user.

In addition to simple drawing, Drawable provides a number of generic mechanisms for its client to interact with what is being drawn:

  • The setBounds(Rect) method must be called to tell the Drawable where it is drawn and how large it should be. All Drawables should respect the requested size, often simply by scaling their imagery. A client can find the preferred size for some Drawables with the getIntrinsicHeight() and getIntrinsicWidth() methods.
  • The getPadding(Rect) method can return from some Drawables information about how to frame content that is placed inside of them. For example, a Drawable that is intended to be the frame for a button widget would need to return padding that correctly places the label inside of itself.
  • The setState(int[]) method allows the client to tell the Drawable in which state it is to be drawn, such as "focused", "selected", etc. Some drawables may modify their imagery based on the selected state.
  • The setLevel(int) method allows the client to supply a single continuous controller that can modify the Drawable is displayed, such as a battery level or progress level. Some drawables may modify their imagery based on the current level.
  • A Drawable can perform animations by calling back to its client through the Drawable.Callback interface. All clients should support this interface (via setCallback(Drawable.Callback) ) so that animations will work. A simple way to do this is through the system facilities such as setBackgroundDrawable(Drawable) and ImageView .
Though usually not visible to the application, Drawables may take a variety of forms:
  • Bitmap : the simplest Drawable, a PNG or JPEG image.
  • Nine Patch : an extension to the PNG format allows it to specify information about how to stretch it and place things inside of it.
  • Shape : contains simple drawing commands instead of a raw bitmap, allowing it to resize better in some cases.
  • Layers : a compound drawable, which draws multiple underlying drawables on top of each other.
  • States : a compound drawable that selects one of a set of drawables based on its state.
  • Levels : a compound drawable that selects one of a set of drawables based on its level.
  • Scale : a compound drawable with a single child drawable, whose overall size is modified based on the current level.

Developer Guides

For more information about how to use drawables, read the Canvas and Drawables developer guide. For information and examples of creating drawable resources (XML or bitmap files that can be loaded in code), read the Drawable Resources document.

Summary

Nested Classes
interface Drawable.Callback Implement this interface if you want to create an animated drawable that extends Drawable . 
class Drawable.ConstantState This abstract class is used by Drawable s to store shared constant state and data between Drawables. 
Public Constructors
Drawable ()
Public Methods
void clearColorFilter ()
final Rect copyBounds ()
Return a copy of the drawable's bounds in a new Rect.
final void copyBounds ( Rect bounds)
Return a copy of the drawable's bounds in the specified Rect (allocated by the caller).
static Drawable createFromPath ( String pathName)
Create a drawable from file path name.
static Drawable createFromResourceStream ( Resources res, TypedValue value, InputStream is, String srcName, BitmapFactory.Options opts)
Create a drawable from an inputstream, using the given resources and value to determine density information.
static Drawable createFromResourceStream ( Resources res, TypedValue value, InputStream is, String srcName)
Create a drawable from an inputstream, using the given resources and value to determine density information.
static Drawable createFromStream ( InputStream is, String srcName)
Create a drawable from an inputstream
static Drawable createFromXml ( Resources r, XmlPullParser parser)
Create a drawable from an XML document.
static Drawable createFromXmlInner ( Resources r, XmlPullParser parser, AttributeSet attrs)
Create from inside an XML document.
abstract void draw ( Canvas canvas)
Draw in its bounds (set via setBounds) respecting optional effects such as alpha (set via setAlpha) and color filter (set via setColorFilter).
int getAlpha ()
Gets the current alpha value for the drawable.
final Rect getBounds ()
Return the drawable's bounds Rect.
Drawable.Callback getCallback ()
Return the current Drawable.Callback implementation attached to this Drawable.
int getChangingConfigurations ()
Return a mask of the configuration parameters for which this drawable may change, requiring that it be re-created.
Drawable.ConstantState getConstantState ()
Return a Drawable.ConstantState instance that holds the shared state of this Drawable.
Drawable getCurrent ()
int getIntrinsicHeight ()
Return the intrinsic height of the underlying drawable object.
int getIntrinsicWidth ()
Return the intrinsic width of the underlying drawable object.
final int getLevel ()
Retrieve the current level.
int getMinimumHeight ()
Returns the minimum height suggested by this Drawable.
int getMinimumWidth ()
Returns the minimum width suggested by this Drawable.
abstract int getOpacity ()
Return the opacity/transparency of this Drawable.
boolean getPadding ( Rect padding)
Return in padding the insets suggested by this Drawable for placing content inside the drawable's bounds.
int[] getState ()
Describes the current state, as a union of primitve states, such as state_focused , state_selected , etc.
Region getTransparentRegion ()
Returns a Region representing the part of the Drawable that is completely transparent.
void inflate ( Resources r, XmlPullParser parser, AttributeSet attrs)
Inflate this Drawable from an XML resource.
void invalidateSelf ()
Use the current Drawable.Callback implementation to have this Drawable redrawn.
boolean isAutoMirrored ()
Tells if this Drawable will be automatically mirrored when its layout direction is RTL right-to-left.
boolean isStateful ()
Indicates whether this view will change its appearance based on state.
final boolean isVisible ()
void jumpToCurrentState ()
If this Drawable does transition animations between states, ask that it immediately jump to the current state and skip any active animations.
Drawable mutate ()
Make this drawable mutable.
static int resolveOpacity (int op1, int op2)
Return the appropriate opacity value for two source opacities.
void scheduleSelf ( Runnable what, long when)
Use the current Drawable.Callback implementation to have this Drawable scheduled.
abstract void setAlpha (int alpha)
Specify an alpha value for the drawable.
void setAutoMirrored (boolean mirrored)
Set whether this Drawable is automatically mirrored when its layout direction is RTL (right-to left).
void setBounds ( Rect bounds)
Specify a bounding rectangle for the Drawable.
void setBounds (int left, int top, int right, int bottom)
Specify a bounding rectangle for the Drawable.
final void setCallback ( Drawable.Callback cb)
Bind a Drawable.Callback object to this Drawable.
void setChangingConfigurations (int configs)
Set a mask of the configuration parameters for which this drawable may change, requiring that it be re-created.
abstract void setColorFilter ( ColorFilter cf)
Specify an optional colorFilter for the drawable.
void setColorFilter (int color, PorterDuff.Mode mode)
Specify a color and porterduff mode to be the colorfilter for this drawable.
void setDither (boolean dither)
Set to true to have the drawable dither its colors when drawn to a device with fewer than 8-bits per color component.
void setFilterBitmap (boolean filter)
Set to true to have the drawable filter its bitmap when scaled or rotated (for drawables that use bitmaps).
final boolean setLevel (int level)
Specify the level for the drawable.
boolean setState (int[] stateSet)
Specify a set of states for the drawable.
boolean setVisible (boolean visible, boolean restart)
Set whether this Drawable is visible.
void unscheduleSelf ( Runnable what)
Use the current Drawable.Callback implementation to have this Drawable unscheduled.
Protected Methods
void onBoundsChange ( Rect bounds)
Override this in your subclass to change appearance if you vary based on the bounds.
boolean onLevelChange (int level)
Override this in your subclass to change appearance if you vary based on level.
boolean onStateChange (int[] state)
Override this in your subclass to change appearance if you recognize the specified state.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class java.lang.Object

Public Constructors

public Drawable ()

Added in API level 1

Public Methods

public void clearColorFilter ()

Added in API level 1

public final Rect copyBounds ()

Added in API level 1

Return a copy of the drawable's bounds in a new Rect. This returns the same values as getBounds(), but the returned object is guaranteed to not be changed later by the drawable (i.e. it retains no reference to this rect). If the caller already has a Rect allocated, call copyBounds(rect).

Returns
  • A copy of the drawable's bounds

public final void copyBounds ( Rect bounds)

Added in API level 1

Return a copy of the drawable's bounds in the specified Rect (allocated by the caller). The bounds specify where this will draw when its draw() method is called.

Parameters
bounds Rect to receive the drawable's bounds (allocated by the caller).

public static Drawable createFromPath ( String pathName)

Added in API level 1

Create a drawable from file path name.

public static Drawable createFromResourceStream ( Resources res, TypedValue value, InputStream is, String srcName, BitmapFactory.Options opts)

Added in API level 5

Create a drawable from an inputstream, using the given resources and value to determine density information.

public static Drawable createFromResourceStream ( Resources res, TypedValue value, InputStream is, String srcName)

Added in API level 4

Create a drawable from an inputstream, using the given resources and value to determine density information.

public static Drawable createFromStream ( InputStream is, String srcName)

Added in API level 1

Create a drawable from an inputstream

public static Drawable createFromXml ( Resources r, XmlPullParser parser)

Added in API level 1

Create a drawable from an XML document. For more information on how to create resources in XML, see Drawable Resources .

Throws
XmlPullParserException
IOException

public static Drawable createFromXmlInner ( Resources r, XmlPullParser parser, AttributeSet attrs)

Added in API level 1

Create from inside an XML document. Called on a parser positioned at a tag in an XML document, tries to create a Drawable from that tag. Returns null if the tag is not a valid drawable.

Throws
XmlPullParserException
IOException

public abstract void draw ( Canvas canvas)

Added in API level 1

Draw in its bounds (set via setBounds) respecting optional effects such as alpha (set via setAlpha) and color filter (set via setColorFilter).

Parameters
canvas The canvas to draw into

public int getAlpha ()

Gets the current alpha value for the drawable. 0 means fully transparent, 255 means fully opaque. This method is implemented by Drawable subclasses and the value returned is specific to how that class treats alpha. The default return value is 255 if the class does not override this method to return a value specific to its use of alpha.

public final Rect getBounds ()

Added in API level 1

Return the drawable's bounds Rect. Note: for efficiency, the returned object may be the same object stored in the drawable (though this is not guaranteed), so if a persistent copy of the bounds is needed, call copyBounds(rect) instead. You should also not change the object returned by this method as it may be the same object stored in the drawable.

Returns
  • The bounds of the drawable (which may change later, so caller beware). DO NOT ALTER the returned object as it may change the stored bounds of this drawable.
See Also

public Drawable.Callback getCallback ()

Return the current Drawable.Callback implementation attached to this Drawable.

Returns
See Also

public int getChangingConfigurations ()

Added in API level 1

Return a mask of the configuration parameters for which this drawable may change, requiring that it be re-created. The default implementation returns whatever was provided through setChangingConfigurations(int) or 0 by default. Subclasses may extend this to or in the changing configurations of any other drawables they hold.

Returns
  • Returns a mask of the changing configuration parameters, as defined by Configuration .
See Also

public Drawable.ConstantState getConstantState ()

Added in API level 1

Return a Drawable.ConstantState instance that holds the shared state of this Drawable. q

Returns
  • The ConstantState associated to that Drawable.
See Also

public Drawable getCurrent ()

Added in API level 1

Returns
  • The current drawable that will be used by this drawable. For simple drawables, this is just the drawable itself. For drawables that change state like StateListDrawable and LevelListDrawable this will be the child drawable currently in use.

public int getIntrinsicHeight ()

Added in API level 1

Return the intrinsic height of the underlying drawable object. Returns -1 if it has no intrinsic height, such as with a solid color.

public int getIntrinsicWidth ()

Added in API level 1

Return the intrinsic width of the underlying drawable object. Returns -1 if it has no intrinsic width, such as with a solid color.

public final int getLevel ()

Added in API level 1

Retrieve the current level.

Returns
  • int Current level, from 0 (minimum) to 10000 (maximum).

public int getMinimumHeight ()

Added in API level 1

Returns the minimum height suggested by this Drawable. If a View uses this Drawable as a background, it is suggested that the View use at least this value for its height. (There will be some scenarios where this will not be possible.) This value should INCLUDE any padding.

Returns
  • The minimum height suggested by this Drawable. If this Drawable doesn't have a suggested minimum height, 0 is returned.

public int getMinimumWidth ()

Added in API level 1

Returns the minimum width suggested by this Drawable. If a View uses this Drawable as a background, it is suggested that the View use at least this value for its width. (There will be some scenarios where this will not be possible.) This value should INCLUDE any padding.

Returns
  • The minimum width suggested by this Drawable. If this Drawable doesn't have a suggested minimum width, 0 is returned.

public abstract int getOpacity ()

Added in API level 1

Return the opacity/transparency of this Drawable. The returned value is one of the abstract format constants in PixelFormat : UNKNOWN , TRANSLUCENT , TRANSPARENT , or OPAQUE .

Generally a Drawable should be as conservative as possible with the value it returns. For example, if it contains multiple child drawables and only shows one of them at a time, if only one of the children is TRANSLUCENT and the others are OPAQUE then TRANSLUCENT should be returned. You can use the method resolveOpacity(int, int) to perform a standard reduction of two opacities to the appropriate single output.

Note that the returned value does not take into account a custom alpha or color filter that has been applied by the client through the setAlpha(int) or setColorFilter(ColorFilter) methods.

Returns
  • int The opacity class of the Drawable.
See Also

public boolean getPadding ( Rect padding)

Added in API level 1

Return in padding the insets suggested by this Drawable for placing content inside the drawable's bounds. Positive values move toward the center of the Drawable (set Rect.inset). Returns true if this drawable actually has a padding, else false. When false is returned, the padding is always set to 0.

public int[] getState ()

Added in API level 1

Describes the current state, as a union of primitve states, such as state_focused , state_selected , etc. Some drawables may modify their imagery based on the selected state.

Returns
  • An array of resource Ids describing the current state.

public Region getTransparentRegion ()

Added in API level 1

Returns a Region representing the part of the Drawable that is completely transparent. This can be used to perform drawing operations, identifying which parts of the target will not change when rendering the Drawable. The default implementation returns null, indicating no transparent region; subclasses can optionally override this to return an actual Region if they want to supply this optimization information, but it is not required that they do so.

Returns
  • Returns null if the Drawables has no transparent region to report, else a Region holding the parts of the Drawable's bounds that are transparent.

public void inflate ( Resources r, XmlPullParser parser, AttributeSet attrs)

Added in API level 1

Inflate this Drawable from an XML resource.

Throws
XmlPullParserException
IOException

public void invalidateSelf ()

Added in API level 1

Use the current Drawable.Callback implementation to have this Drawable redrawn. Does nothing if there is no Callback attached to the Drawable.

See Also

public boolean isAutoMirrored ()

Tells if this Drawable will be automatically mirrored when its layout direction is RTL right-to-left. See LayoutDirection .

Returns
  • boolean Returns true if this Drawable will be automatically mirrored.

public boolean isStateful ()

Added in API level 1

Indicates whether this view will change its appearance based on state. Clients can use this to determine whether it is necessary to calculate their state and call setState.

Returns
  • True if this view changes its appearance based on state, false otherwise.
See Also

public final boolean isVisible ()

Added in API level 1

public void jumpToCurrentState ()

If this Drawable does transition animations between states, ask that it immediately jump to the current state and skip any active animations.

public Drawable mutate ()

Added in API level 3

Make this drawable mutable. This operation cannot be reversed. A mutable drawable is guaranteed to not share its state with any other drawable. This is especially useful when you need to modify properties of drawables loaded from resources. By default, all drawables instances loaded from the same resource share a common state; if you modify the state of one instance, all the other instances will receive the same modification. Calling this method on a mutable Drawable will have no effect.

Returns
  • This drawable.
See Also

public static int resolveOpacity (int op1, int op2)

Added in API level 1

Return the appropriate opacity value for two source opacities. If either is UNKNOWN, that is returned; else, if either is TRANSLUCENT, that is returned; else, if either is TRANSPARENT, that is returned; else, OPAQUE is returned.

This is to help in implementing getOpacity() .

Parameters
op1 One opacity value.
op2 Another opacity value.
Returns
  • int The combined opacity value.
See Also

public void scheduleSelf ( Runnable what, long when)

Added in API level 1

Use the current Drawable.Callback implementation to have this Drawable scheduled. Does nothing if there is no Callback attached to the Drawable.

Parameters
what The action being scheduled.
when The time (in milliseconds) to run.
See Also

public abstract void setAlpha (int alpha)

Added in API level 1

Specify an alpha value for the drawable. 0 means fully transparent, and 255 means fully opaque.

public void setAutoMirrored (boolean mirrored)

Set whether this Drawable is automatically mirrored when its layout direction is RTL (right-to left). See LayoutDirection .

Parameters
mirrored Set to true if the Drawable should be mirrored, false if not.

public void setBounds ( Rect bounds)

Added in API level 1

Specify a bounding rectangle for the Drawable. This is where the drawable will draw when its draw() method is called.

public void setBounds (int left, int top, int right, int bottom)

Added in API level 1

Specify a bounding rectangle for the Drawable. This is where the drawable will draw when its draw() method is called.

public final void setCallback ( Drawable.Callback cb)

Added in API level 1

Bind a Drawable.Callback object to this Drawable. Required for clients that want to support animated drawables.

Parameters
cb The client's Callback implementation.
See Also

public void setChangingConfigurations (int configs)

Added in API level 1

Set a mask of the configuration parameters for which this drawable may change, requiring that it be re-created.

Parameters
configs A mask of the changing configuration parameters, as defined by Configuration .
See Also

public abstract void setColorFilter ( ColorFilter cf)

Added in API level 1

Specify an optional colorFilter for the drawable. Pass null to remove any filters.

public void setColorFilter (int color, PorterDuff.Mode mode)

Added in API level 1

Specify a color and porterduff mode to be the colorfilter for this drawable.

public void setDither (boolean dither)

Added in API level 1

Set to true to have the drawable dither its colors when drawn to a device with fewer than 8-bits per color component. This can improve the look on those devices, but can also slow down the drawing a little.

public void setFilterBitmap (boolean filter)

Added in API level 1

Set to true to have the drawable filter its bitmap when scaled or rotated (for drawables that use bitmaps). If the drawable does not use bitmaps, this call is ignored. This can improve the look when scaled or rotated, but also slows down the drawing.

public final boolean setLevel (int level)

Added in API level 1

Specify the level for the drawable. This allows a drawable to vary its imagery based on a continuous controller, for example to show progress or volume level.

If the new level you are supplying causes the appearance of the Drawable to change, then it is responsible for calling invalidateSelf() in order to have itself redrawn, and true will be returned from this function.

Parameters
level The new level, from 0 (minimum) to 10000 (maximum).
Returns
  • Returns true if this change in level has caused the appearance of the Drawable to change (hence requiring an invalidate), otherwise returns false.

public boolean setState (int[] stateSet)

Added in API level 1

Specify a set of states for the drawable. These are use-case specific, so see the relevant documentation. As an example, the background for widgets like Button understand the following states: [ state_focused , state_pressed ].

If the new state you are supplying causes the appearance of the Drawable to change, then it is responsible for calling invalidateSelf() in order to have itself redrawn, and true will be returned from this function.

Note: The Drawable holds a reference on to stateSet until a new state array is given to it, so you must not modify this array during that time.

Parameters
stateSet The new set of states to be displayed.
Returns
  • Returns true if this change in state has caused the appearance of the Drawable to change (hence requiring an invalidate), otherwise returns false.

public boolean setVisible (boolean visible, boolean restart)

Added in API level 1

Set whether this Drawable is visible. This generally does not impact the Drawable's behavior, but is a hint that can be used by some Drawables, for example, to decide whether run animations.

Parameters
visible Set to true if visible, false if not.
restart You can supply true here to force the drawable to behave as if it has just become visible, even if it had last been set visible. Used for example to force animations to restart.
Returns
  • boolean Returns true if the new visibility is different than its previous state.

public void unscheduleSelf ( Runnable what)

Added in API level 1

Use the current Drawable.Callback implementation to have this Drawable unscheduled. Does nothing if there is no Callback attached to the Drawable.

Parameters
what The runnable that you no longer want called.
See Also

Protected Methods

protected void onBoundsChange ( Rect bounds)

Added in API level 1

Override this in your subclass to change appearance if you vary based on the bounds.

protected boolean onLevelChange (int level)

Added in API level 1

Override this in your subclass to change appearance if you vary based on level.

Returns
  • Returns true if the level change has caused the appearance of the Drawable to change (that is, it needs to be drawn), else false if it looks the same and there is no need to redraw it since its last level.

protected boolean onStateChange (int[] state)

Added in API level 1

Override this in your subclass to change appearance if you recognize the specified state.

Returns
  • Returns true if the state change has caused the appearance of the Drawable to change (that is, it needs to be drawn), else false if it looks the same and there is no need to redraw it since its last state.