Question

My ImageView for some odd reason is always displaying a picture in the middle, left of my screen despite the xml code insisting it to be in the center.

I force portrait orientation in my app and here is my xml code for my layout:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:gravity="center">

    <ImageView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:id="@+id/image_view"
    android:layout_weight="1.0"/>

<TextView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:id="@+id/message"
    android:gravity="center_horizontal"
    android:padding="10dip"/>

    <Button
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:textStyle="bold" android:id="@+id/action_button" android:selectAllOnFocus="false" android:layout_height="100dip" android:text="Click here to preform actions"/>
</LinearLayout>

So, the page should display as Picture in the middle, extending the width of the screen, the text below that and the button below that. But for some reason, the picture is displayed as a small, box thumbnail in the middle left of the screen – any ideas on a workaround?

Answer 1

Assuming you want your picture centered inside a top box here, you don’t want android:gravity="center", you actually just want android:scaleType set on the ImageView itself. “center” is the right value if you don’t want scaling; centerInside is probably appropriate if you do (in which case you’ll need to define some sort of dimensions or weight on your ImageView). For more on scaleType values, see the documentation.

You also don’t want the image height set to fill_parent, or it will do that (which means no text below it, since the image fills the entire parent LinearLayout leaving no room for text). You probably want the ImageView‘s height set to wrap_content or some fixed height (e.g. 100dip).