Is it better to insert pictures or draw shapes in android studio?

[csacoa]

Just a quick question,

I'm trying to speed up my app and I've seen forum posts where people say reducing the size of pictures speeds up their app.
I was hoping to replace my exit cross in the top corner of my app (which is a png because I drew it in a different software) with a shape that I would draw in android studio using xml (draw shape).

So would it be better to keep the png or use xml to draw the shape. And if the xml would be better, does anyone know where I could find a decent library of xml shapes (to get a cross)?

[rproffitt]

Let's hear more. The fastest to screen images I've seen are bitmapped so they incur zero decompression and decoding. I also drop the number of colors from millions to 8 if the image is simple such as a pushbutton or such.

You can't predict the speed most of the time so you test out each idea.

[csacoa]

Thanks for the answer :)

So how would I go about doing this to my png images?

[rproffitt]

Doing what exactly? Drop the color count? I can do that in many image editors. In order to keep is free and free of toolbars I'm going to stick to image editors I see at Ninite.com.

For my example, I'll use Paint.net.
When you save your image use the save configuration options to reduce the bit depth, or # of colors.
If you save as BMP, you should see options for 24 and 8 bit color. I can't guess if you can use 8 bit color but I could and did.
Result? Smaller file, faster load times.