Android Units

Dimension

A dimension value defined in XML. A dimension is specified with a number followed by a unit of measure. For example: 10px, 2in, 5sp. The following units of measure are supported by Android:

dp

Density-independent Pixels - an abstract unit that is based on the physical density of the screen. These units are relative to a 160 dpi screen, so one dp is one pixel on a 160 dpi screen. The ratio of dp-to-pixel will change with the screen density, but not necessarily in direct proportion. The compiler accepts both "dip" and "dp", though "dp" is more consistent with "sp".

sp

Scale-independent Pixels - this is like the dp unit, but it is also scaled by the user's font size preference. It is recommend you use this unit when specifying font sizes, so they will be adjusted for both the screen density and the user's preference.

pt

Points - 1/72 of an inch based on the physical size of the screen.

px

Pixels - corresponds to actual pixels on the screen. This unit of measure is not recommended because the actual representation can vary across devices; each devices may have a different number of pixels per inch and may have more or fewer total pixels available on the screen.

mm

Millimeters - based on the physical size of the screen.

in

Inches - based on the physical size of the screen.