Last week I open sourced an Android library called ColorArt, which is a port of the popular OS X library written by the guys over at Panic. It allows you to use a source image to create a themed image/text display, very similar to the effect which is done in iTunes 11.

Using the Library

ColorArt is pretty easy to use, and can add a cool effect to any app. In order to add it to your project, add the dependency to your build.gradle file:

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compile 'org.michaelevans.colorart:library:0.0.1'

The next thing you need is to take a Bitmap that you want to use, and pass it to a ColorArt object:

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Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.album);
ColorArt colorArt = new ColorArt(bitmap);

After that, it’s as simple as calling some getter methods in order to get the colors that make up the image:

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colorArt.getBackgroundColor()
colorArt.getPrimaryColor()
colorArt.getSecondaryColor()
colorArt.getDetailColor()

Voilà! Now you can make cool themed image/text display using Bitmaps as part of your application.

Bonus: FadingImageView

I also added a class that extends ImageView, which will allow you to add a subtle gradient from the image, to the background color, similar to what you see in the iTunes display. It’s also extremely easy to use:

1. Replace the ImageView that you are presently using with a FadingImageView.
2. Call

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mFadingImageView.setBackgroundColor(colorArt.getBackgroundColor(), FadingImageView.FadeSide.LEFT);

to set the background color to fade to, and which side gets the gradient.

That’s it!

You can also toggle that gradient with a call to mImageView.setFadeEnabled(true/false);.

Are you using this library in your app? Please let me know so I can add a link to it on the GitHub project page! Also, feel free to send pull requests!