One logo, seven files: what Android does with each
Android does not scale a single icon to fit the screen. The launcher looks for a file matching the device's pixel density and uses it as-is, which is why a lone 48 px icon looks blurry on modern phones and a lone 512 px icon wastes memory on old ones. The convention is one image per density bucket, in a folder whose name tells the system which devices it serves.
| Pixels | Folder | Density |
|---|---|---|
| 48 × 48 | mipmap-mdpi | 1× baseline |
| 72 × 72 | mipmap-hdpi | 1.5× |
| 96 × 96 | mipmap-xhdpi | 2× |
| 144 × 144 | mipmap-xxhdpi | 3× — most handsets in use |
| 192 × 192 | mipmap-xxxhdpi | 4× — flagship screens |
| 432 × 432 | drawable | Adaptive icon foreground |
| 512 × 512 | Play Console | Store icon — 32-bit PNG, no alpha |
The download uses those folder names, so res/ can be dropped straight into app/src/main/. If you are converting with the HTML to App builder you can skip this entirely — give it the one square image and it generates the same set during the build.
The adaptive layer is padded on purpose
From Android 8 onward the launcher chooses the icon's outline — circle, squircle, rounded square — and masks your artwork to fit. The foreground sits on a 108 dp canvas of which only the central 72 dp is guaranteed to survive. The 432×432 foreground exported here is padded to keep your mark inside that safe area; a logo drawn edge to edge would otherwise lose its corners under a circular mask. Check the result against every mask with the launcher mask previewer.
Using it
- Export the logo as a square PNG, 1024×1024 or larger. Smaller sources are upscaled and the tool warns below 512 px.
- Drop it above. If the artwork has its own background, untick Transparent and match the colour so padding blends in.
- Add 10–15% padding if the mark touches the edges.
- Leave the corner radius at zero unless you specifically want rounded corners baked in — Android masks icons anyway.
- Download the ZIP for a native project, or just the 512×512 for the store listing.
Rules for a mark that reads at 4 mm
- One subject — a glyph, a letter, a shape. Detail turns to noise at 48 px.
- No words — the app's name is printed under the icon already.
- Never a screenshot of the website; it is the tell-tale sign of a rushed conversion.
- Check both wallpapers — a dark mark on a transparent ground disappears on a dark home screen.
- Keep it flat — baked-in shadows fight the launcher's own elevation.
Three things the tool cannot rescue
A tiny source. Interpolation cannot invent detail; a 128 px original produces soft results at every larger size. Transparency on the store icon. Play rejects a 512×512 with an alpha channel, so that file is always composited onto a solid colour here even when the launcher icons stay transparent. A non-square logo. A wide mark is letterboxed with your background colour above and below — crop or redraw it square first.