Background Image Placement

Question

I'm trying to set my root LinearLayout element (which is set to fill_parent in both dimensions) to have a background image which is always located in the lower left corner of the screen no matter the orientation of the device. It would be excellent if there were some way to set the background image position such as that which you can do with css using "background-position: left bottom;" but I'm not seeing a way to achieve this in Android. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks for the help.

score 84 · Accepted Answer · answered May 06 '10 at 14:56

84

You'll have to create a custom bitmap drawable with your bitmap in an XML file (eg "res/drawables/my_drawable.xml"

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<bitmap
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:src="@drawable/my_png_file"
    android:gravity="bottom|left" />

And then set this drawable xml as your view's background ("@drawables/my_drawable"). The drawable XML format is very poorly documented in the Android site, though, so it's definitely not an easy problem to figure out how to solve on your own.

answered May 06 '10 at 14:56

Yoni Samlan

37,905
5
60
62

How can I refer to that XML bitmap in another XML ? – mr5 Apr 28 '14 at 00:44
1

The same way you'd refer to any other drawable - in my example, if you called it `my_drawable.xml` it'd be referenced as `@drawable/my_drawable` in any place you can reference any other type of drawable (like `android:background`, `android:drawableLeft` on a textview, etc.) – Yoni Samlan Apr 28 '14 at 14:12
there is no folder res/drawables. If you attemp to create it an error happens. I created a xml folder and put it there and error was fixed – dev4life Sep 25 '14 at 20:02
Thanks for this code, didnt even think to try a bitmap – Jaison Brooks Oct 12 '14 at 23:37

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 07 '11 at 18:30

If found an advantage doing this programatically: the image fits the layout instead of being bigger then it. No ideia why.

The code:

Bitmap bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(),
                R.drawable.image);
BitmapDrawable bitmapDrawable = new BitmapDrawable(bmp);
bitmapDrawable.setGravity(Gravity.BOTTOM|Gravity.RIGHT);
LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.background_root);
layout.setBackgroundDrawable(bitmapDrawable);

Another advantage to this is that it can be applied to many views changing only the image — Onimusha, Mar 09 '13 at 15:02

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 08 '12 at 10:32

Wrap your LinearLayout into a RelativeLayout and add an ImageView to it. Using android:layout_alignParentBottom and android:layout_alignParentLeft you can put your image to the lower left.

<RelativeLayout
    android:id="@+id/relativeLayout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/imageView"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:src="@drawable/my_image" />

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/linearLayout"
        ... >

Make sure ImageView is the first element of RelativeLayout to draw the image in background.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 31 '17 at 17:47

My answer is just an update of above answers If you are using XML for background, it may occur problem in aspect ratio

so use this code

Bitmap bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(),
                R.drawable.image);
BitmapDrawable bitmapDrawable = new BitmapDrawable(bmp);
  bitmapDrawable.setGravity(Gravity.BOTTOM| Gravity.RIGHT| Gravity.FILL_HORIZONTAL);
LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.background_root);
layout.setBackgroundDrawable(bitmapDrawable);

Gravity.Fill_HORIZONTAL will fit with width of layout on which you are applying background you can also mention this in XML file but as i said it will occur issue of Image Ratio

Background Image Placement

4 Answers4

Linked