docs/html/design/material/index.jd

page.title=Material Design
page.tags=Material,design
page.type=design
page.image=design/material/images/MaterialLight.png

@jd:body

<p itemprop="description">Material design is a comprehensive guide for visual, motion, and
interaction design across platforms and devices. Android now includes support for
material design apps. To use material design in your Android apps, follow the guidelines defined
in the <a href="http://www.google.com/design/spec">material design specification</a> and use the
new components and functionality available in Android 5.0 (API level 21) and above.</p>

<p>Android provides the following elements for you to build material design apps:</p>

<ul>
  <li>A new theme</li>
  <li>New widgets for complex views</li>
  <li>New APIs for custom shadows and animations</li>
</ul>

<p>For more information about implementing material design on Android, see
<a href="{@docRoot}training/material/index.html">Creating Apps with Material Design</a>.</p>


<h3>Material Theme</h3>

<p>The material theme provides a new style for your app, system widgets that let you set
their color palette, and default animations for touch feedback and activity transitions.</p>

<!-- two columns -->
<div style="width:700px;margin-top:25px;margin-bottom:20px">
<div style="float:left;width:250px;margin-left:40px;margin-right:60px;">
  <img src="{@docRoot}design/material/images/MaterialDark.png" width="500" height="238"/>
  <div style="width:140px;margin:0 auto">
  <p style="margin-top:8px">Dark material theme</p>
  </div>
</div>
<div style="float:left;width:250px;margin-right:0px;">
  <img src="{@docRoot}design/material/images/MaterialLight.png" width="500" height="238"/>
  <div style="width:140px;margin:0 auto">
  <p style="margin-top:8px">Light material theme</p>
  </div>
</div>
<br style="clear:left"/>
</div>

<p>For more information, see <a href="{@docRoot}training/material/theme.html">Using the Material
Theme</a>.</p>


<h3>Lists and Cards</h3>

<p>Android provides two new widgets for displaying cards and lists with material design styles
and animations:</p>

<!-- two columns -->
<div style="width:700px;margin-top:25px;margin-bottom:20px">
<div style="float:left;width:250px;margin-left:40px;margin-right:60px;">
  <img src="{@docRoot}design/material/images/list_mail.png" width="500" height="426"/>
  <p>The new <code>RecyclerView</code> widget is a more pluggable version of <code>ListView</code>
  that supports different layout types and provides performance improvements.</p>
</div>
<div style="float:left;width:250px;margin-right:0px;">
  <img src="{@docRoot}design/material/images/card_travel.png" width="500" height="426"/>
  <p>The new <code>CardView</code> widget lets you display important pieces of information inside
  cards that have a consistent look and feel.</p>
</div>
<br style="clear:left"/>
</div>

<p>For more information, see <a href="{@docRoot}training/material/lists-cards.html">Creating Lists
and Cards</a>.</p>


<h3>View Shadows</h3>

<p>In addition to the X and Y properties, views in Android now have a Z
property. This new property represents the elevation of a view, which determines:</p>

<ul>
<li>The size of the shadow: views with higher Z values cast bigger shadows.</li>
<li>The drawing order: views with higher Z values appear on top of other views.</li>
</ul>

<div style="width:290px;margin-left:35px;float:right">
  <div class="framed-nexus5-port-span-5">
  <video class="play-on-hover" autoplay>
    <source src="{@docRoot}design/material/videos/ContactsAnim.mp4"/>
    <source src="{@docRoot}design/videos/ContactsAnim.webm"/>
    <source src="{@docRoot}design/videos/ContactsAnim.ogv"/>
  </video>
  </div>
  <div style="font-size:10pt;margin-left:20px;margin-bottom:30px">
    <em>To replay the movie, click on the device screen</em>
  </div>
</div>

<p>For more information, see <a href="{@docRoot}training/material/shadows-clipping.html">Defining
Shadows and Clipping Views</a>.</p>


<h3>Animations</h3>

<p>The new animation APIs let you create custom animations for touch feedback in UI controls,
changes in view state, and activity transitions.</p>

<p>These APIs let you:</p>

<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom:15px">
Respond to touch events in your views with <strong>touch feedback</strong> animations.
</li>
<li style="margin-bottom:15px">
Hide and show views with <strong>circular reveal</strong> animations.
</li>
<li style="margin-bottom:15px">
Switch between activities with custom <strong>activity transition</strong> animations.
</li>
<li style="margin-bottom:15px">
Create more natural animations with <strong>curved motion</strong>.
</li>
<li style="margin-bottom:15px">
Animate changes in one or more view properties with <strong>view state change</strong> animations.
</li>
<li style="margin-bottom:15px">
Show animations in <strong>state list drawables</strong> between view state changes.
</li>
</ul>

<p>Touch feedback animations are built into several standard views, such as buttons. The new APIs
let you customize these animations and add them to your custom views.</p>

<p>For more information, see <a href="{@docRoot}training/material/animations.html">Defining Custom
Animations</a>.</p>


<h3>Drawables</h3>

<p>These new capabilities for drawables help you implement material design apps:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>Vector drawables</strong> are scalable without losing definition and are perfect
for single-color in-app icons.</li>
<li><strong>Drawable tinting</strong> lets you define bitmaps as an alpha mask and tint them with
a color at runtime.</li>
<li><strong>Color extraction</strong> lets you automatically extract prominent colors from a
bitmap image.</li>
</ul>

<p>For more information, see <a href="{@docRoot}training/material/drawables.html">Working with
Drawables</a>.</p>