GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Sep
22
Written by:
Goran Siric
9/22/2011 1:46 PM
Updated 13.02.2012
Added support for
- action bar icons
- icons with custom size
- xhdpi screen icon
If you are programming for Android then you know how hard is to create and manage all that icons for different screen sizes and resolutions. I am using GIMP for creating all my icons and was trying to find script for creating all that icons at once.
The closest one I found is script for creating many PNG files with different sizes at once. That script helped me a lot in creating a this one.
How to install script for creating android icons
This script require GIMP 2.6 or higher.
Download script: GIMP script for creating android icons
Unpack the file and copy script-fu-save-android-icon.scm file to GIMP scripts folder. Its location depends where is GIMP installed and what version of GIMP you have. On my system this folder is: C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\scripts
How to use script
After you install script, you need to restart GIMP or select Filters->Script-Fu-Refresh Scripts.
Now you can run script using new menu item: Script-Fu -> Android -> Save Android Icons ...
You will get following dialog:
Under Android icons type you can select what type of android icons you want to generate:
Launcher Icons
Menu Icons
Action Bar Icons
Status Bar Icons
Tab Icons
Dialog Icons
List View Icons
Custom Icon
Resolution of saved icons will depend of what icon type you select.
If you select Custom Icon then you must enter desired resolution for your mdpi icon as baseline icon dimension. Other icon will be scaled according to icon design guidelines:
- ldpi icon will be 0.75 x width and height of mdpi icon
- hdpi will be 1.5 x width and height of mdpi icon
- xhdpi icon will be 2.0 x width and height of mdpi icon
With Save mode options you can select whether you want to save icons under same name but in different folders with standard android folder names (drawable-ldpi,drawable-mdpi, drawable-hdpi, drawable-xhdpi) or you want to save all icons in same folder but with added resolution to the end of the file name.
If you select first options you must be sure that drawable-ldpi,drawable-mdpi, drawable-hdpi and drawable-xhdpi folders exists under Root folder you select later.
If you check Use android naming conventions then all icon names will be prefixed with common icon prefix for selected icon type.
Here you can find more about designing icons for Android: Android Icon Design Guidelines
Rest of the options are standard for saving PNG files and I think you will not have problem with them.
I hope you will find this script useful and feel free to leave comments and requests for improvement.
Download
Script can be downloaded here: GIMP script for creating android icons
23 comment(s) so far...
Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
This is a great script. Please include the instructions on this page in the zip file. I have made a pdf file of them. If you are interested, I can email the file to you.
By Mark Lasby on
9/24/2011 8:36 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Sure, you can send me pdf with instructions at goran.siric@izvornikod.com
By Goran Siric on
9/24/2011 9:32 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Your script is very good and was exactly what I look for !
I test it with Gimp 2.2 and it is not working. It's ok in 2.6.
You should remove 2.0 in your blog as it is confusing, or better say that it need 2.6 or upper.
I have another little pb, my android eclipse version creates res directory with drawable-xxxx and not xxxx directly. I think it's a new way to do from google.
Great script anyway.
I talk (in french on my blog): histoires-android.blogspot.com/2011/09/creer-des-icones-android-en-un-seul.html
Bue,
Vicnet
By Vicnet on
9/30/2011 7:01 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Thank you for your feedback. I updated script to save icons in drawable-xxxx folders.
By Goran Siric on
10/3/2011 8:36 AM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
me too ;-)
By Vicnet on
10/3/2011 5:46 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Today I noticed that in some cases sizes of generated icon are not correct. After some research I found the problem. If image have one or more layers with size different then image, then generated icons have size which corespond to layer size and not the image size. To fix that script is updated with command to set size of all layers to image size.
Also I noticed that sizes for generating tab icons are wrong. That is fixed too.
By Goran Siric on
10/12/2011 10:22 AM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Great scrip man. I tried it with menu icons and got a great result in a second.
But when I applied it to status bar icons it didn't add the layer effects recommended by Android status bar icon design guidelines, or was it me using it in a wrong way?
Finally, I see that your script has great potential :)
By Motsha on
10/21/2011 6:17 AM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Script currently use your image only as a template to create android icons with preffered dimensions. It does not add any effect or something like that. You need to create image with transparency and all efects you want and then use this script to save icons with different sizes.
I was thinking about adding some functionality to apply some style and colors to image before creating icons for status bar icons and tab icons, but in most cases you will not get desired result. I think that it is better to create icons on your own, with styles and effects you want.
By Goran Siric on
10/21/2011 8:44 AM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Thank you SO MUCH!!!
I found the script you mentioned first but didn't have the skills to adjust it so it fitted my needs. You did it for me: THANKS!
Don't know if it is too much to ask. But what if you add a custom "Android Icon Type" that just scales the other pictures (mdpi and ldpi) according to the hdpi. So say I have an image that I want to have a size of 100x80px in the hdpi folder -> then it scale it down to 66% (48/72) of that and put it in the mdpi -> then it scales that mdpi image down to 75% (36/48) and put it in the ldpi.
My experience tells me that it is better to scale a this step-wise way than to scale the biggest down to the smallest.
(My next goal is to find an easy plugin in eclipse that allows me to add all the images to each of the drawable folders with much more ease than the drag and dropping- yes I'm lazy programmer)
By Norfeldt on
1/26/2012 12:55 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Hi Norfeldt,
I am little busy this days, but will try to add that functionality for custom icon type next week.
According to android guidelines mdpi icon is baseline, and then ldpi,hdpi and xhdpi icons are scaled based on mdp. I will also add xhdpi icon type. For your next goal – did you know that you can save icons directly in your working project folder, and eclipse will automatically add them to the project ?
By Goran Siric on
1/26/2012 3:35 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Hello.
Nice work.
But, the xhdpi icones are not created.
"96x96 for extra high-density"
developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
Thanks.
By Jean-Paul laville on
2/2/2012 2:30 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Hello all,
script is updated with some new features.
Added support for:
- action bar icons
- icons with custom size
- xhdpi screen icon
I hope that there is no bugs introduced.
Enjoy
By Goran Siric on
2/13/2012 12:23 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Thank you so much! Have donated some money to you so you can buy yourself a good beer.
You deserve it!
By Norfeldt on
2/13/2012 5:10 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Thank you for supporting me :)
By Goran Siric on
2/16/2012 10:44 AM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
sorry for writing in English I am French but I vien to find thanks to google finally information on the subject that I currently work thank you for sharing good information thanks to you I will advance 'll see you soon I'll follow you to the next and I recommend reading your blog friendly
By davidle francais on
2/29/2012 11:47 AM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Great script! I love it.
By Rick on
9/7/2012 9:34 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
I'm running OSX Mountain Lion and Gimp 2.8. I followed your instructions above to install the plugin, but the filter is not showing up. Are there any extra steps I need to perform to enable the filter? I tried restarting GIMP and selecting to refresh scripts, but neither seemed to work. Any help would be appreciated.
By Brian Anderson on
9/13/2012 7:42 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Hi Brian,please try to follow this tutorial for adding GIMP scripts on Mac:
www.gimptalk.com/index.php?/topic/36105-adding-scripts-to-gimp-using-a-mac-easy-10-step-tutorial/
Note that in step four you don't need to download script from the link in article, just use already downloaded script for creating Androind icons.
Or you can try following:
The scripts are kept inside the application resource package:
Go to the Gimp application and control-click on it;
select 'Show Package Contents';
go to Contents>Resources>share>gimp>2.0>scripts;
and insert the wanted script.
If Gimp is running, activate the script by going to Filters in the menu and select Script-Fu>Refresh Scripts.
By Goran Siric on
9/17/2012 11:58 AM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Thanks!!!
By Roy on
12/19/2012 7:43 AM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Just wanted to say that this script was a great help to me! Nice work. :-)
By robpvn on
1/31/2013 12:46 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
Hello,
very nice script, thank you for it!!!
Want to ask if you can add support for xxhdpdi icons with 144x144 pixels and 96 dpi?
Peter
By Peter on
3/8/2013 6:02 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
I suggest to name the menu "Android -> Save icons..." so it saves one click each time.
Peter
By Peter on
3/8/2013 6:14 PM
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Re: GIMP script for creating Android icons at once
It would be worthwhile to use DIR-SEPARATOR instead of "/" so this will work on (cough) Windows.
By Michel on
4/26/2013 7:29 PM
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