Add Icons

This page explains where your icons and the icon pack files go, so launchers and Blueprint can find them.

It doesn’t explain how to design icons or how to write each launcher’s files from scratch. For that, these XDA guides are a good place to start:

• XDA guide 1
• XDA guide 2
• XDA guide 3

The sample already has every file you need, filled with example data. The easiest way to start is to open each one, see how it’s written, and replace the examples with your own.

Step 1: Add your icons

Put your icons, as PNG files, in app/src/main/res/drawable-nodpi. Delete the sample icons (like amber_circle.png or blue_square.png) once yours are in.

File names can only have lowercase letters, numbers and underscores, and Blueprint uses them to show a readable name for each icon. See Naming icons.

Step 2: Fill in the launcher files

Launchers read your icon pack from a set of XML files. Some launchers look for them in app/src/main/assets, others in app/src/main/res/xml, so some files go in both folders.

File	assets	res/xml	Do you need to edit it?
appfilter.xml	Yes	Yes	Yes. It tells launchers which icon goes with which app
drawable.xml	Yes	Yes	Yes. It lists all your icons, by category
appmap.xml		Yes	Yes
theme_resources.xml		Yes	Yes
themecfg.xml	Yes	Yes	Yes
themeinfo.xml	Yes	Yes	Yes
app_func_theme.xml	Yes		No, keep it as it is
desk.xml	Yes		No, keep it as it is
noshader.xml		Yes	No, keep it as it is
themefont.ttf	Yes		No, it’s a font file

When a file is in both folders, it should be exactly the same in both. Edit one, then copy it over the other.

Important

Edit every file marked “Yes”

The sample files have data from a real icon pack. If you leave them as they are, your app will show that pack’s info instead of yours.

Note

Some launchers, like Lawnchair, create an “All” category on their own. Don’t add an “All” category to assets/drawable.xml, or those launchers show it twice.

Step 3: Fill in the resource files

A few more files are in app/src/main/res/values:

File	What it’s for	Do you need to edit it?
icon_pack.xml	The icons and categories shown inside Blueprint	Yes, see below
docks.xml	Dock backgrounds, for launchers that support them	Only if you include docks
wallpapers.xml	Wallpapers some launchers apply with your icon pack	Only if you include them
bools.xml	Launcher settings	No, keep it as it is
skin_colors.xml	Launcher colors	No, keep it as it is

icon_pack.xml

This file decides which icons Blueprint shows, and in which categories:

<!-- Icons shown in the preview on the home screen. Add at least 8 -->
<string-array name="icons_preview">
    <item>google_chrome</item>
    <item>pay__pal</item>
    <!-- ... -->
</string-array>

<!-- The categories. Each name here needs its own string-array below -->
<string-array name="icon_filters">
    <item>all</item>
    <item>google</item>
</string-array>

<!-- One string-array per category, with the icons in it -->
<string-array name="all">
    <item>google_chrome</item>
    <item>pay__pal</item>
</string-array>

<string-array name="google">
    <item>google_chrome</item>
</string-array>

• Each item is an icon’s file name, without .png.
• Every name in icon_filters must have a string-array with that exact name. You can create as many categories as you want.

Tip

Blueprint can read your icons from res/xml/drawable.xml instead of icon_pack.xml, so you only have one list to maintain. Turn on xml_drawable_enabled in Change Blueprint Settings.

docks.xml

List the names of your dock images. The images go in app/src/main/res/drawable-nodpi, next to your icons. If you don’t have docks, leave the list empty. Don’t rename dock_backgroundlist.

<string-array name="dock_backgroundlist">
    <item>dock_a</item>
    <item>dock_b</item>
</string-array>

wallpapers.xml

List the names of the wallpapers that go with your icon pack, and pick a default one. The images go in app/src/main/res/drawable-nodpi. Don’t rename wallpapers or default_wallpaper.

<string-array name="wallpapers">
    <item>my_wallpaper</item>
</string-array>
<string name="default_wallpaper">my_wallpaper</string>

These are different from the wallpapers in the Wallpapers section of your app. Those come from a JSON file: see Add Wallpapers.

Naming icons

Blueprint turns your icon file names into readable names, following these rules:

In the file name	Result
Nothing special	The first letter becomes uppercase
_ (one underscore)	A space, and the next letter becomes uppercase. At the very start, it makes the first letter lowercase instead
__ (two underscores)	No space, and the next letter becomes uppercase
___ (three underscores)	The next word becomes all uppercase

Some examples:

File name	Shown as
betternet.png	Betternet
google_chrome.png	Google Chrome
pay__pal.png	PayPal
_blueprint.png	blueprint
___blueprint.png	BLUEPRINT
___npr_one.png	NPR One
material___os.png	MaterialOS