androidgraphicsdrawableDrawable

Android graphics refers to the set of APIs, libraries, and runtime features used to render visual content on Android devices. It covers 2D user interfaces, 3D scenes, and the rendering pipelines that bridge application code and the device’s GPU. The core 2D graphics stack is built around Skia, the open-source 2D engine used by Android to rasterize shapes, text, and bitmaps. The framework exposes drawing APIs in android.graphics, including Canvas for drawing operations, Paint for styling, Path for vector outlines, and Bitmap for image data. VectorDrawable and its compat variants enable resolution-independent vector graphics suitable for diverse screen densities.

Rendering performance is largely driven by hardware acceleration, in which the system uses the device GPU to compose and render views. Applications can enable or disable hardware acceleration per window or view, and developers use profiling tools to optimize overdraw, textures, and shader usage.

3D graphics in Android are supported through OpenGL ES and Vulkan. For native and hybrid apps, surfaces such as SurfaceView and GLSurfaceView provide rendering targets, while Vulkan offers low-overhead, high-performance graphics and compute for modern engines.

Android also manages resources, fonts, and image formats to support efficient rendering. Common formats include PNG and WebP for raster images and vector drawables for scalable graphics. Developers optimize rendering by choosing appropriate formats, caching, and minimizing layout passes.

In summary, Android graphics combines a mature 2D engine and flexible 3D APIs to support a broad range of devices and applications, balancing visual quality with performance and power considerations.