How to reference Android material icons from app?

Question

I'm trying to use Android's material icons in a View from within my app. I can't seem to find an example anywhere of how to reference them. I can't imagine, for this standard set of icons, that I'm required to copy and paste them into my actual app under the res directory. Surely there must be a simpler way since 90% of Android apps are using the same drawables! What I'm looking for is something like:

<TextView
    ...
    android:drawableLeft="???" />

Is it possible to do this and reference the drawable from some package that I import? Or do I actually have to copy all the icons I want to use into my application resources? That seems completely unnecessary to me.

The developer guide says they're named */drawable-{{density}}/ic_{{name}}_{{color}}_{{size}}dp.png but it's precisely the * which I would like to know (and I hope it's not myapp/res/drawable !).

Answer 1

You can try Android Material Design Icon Generator plugin for Android Studio, If you are using Android Studio. Link to the plugin development Git repo is here

It is Easy and convenient. You can go through the image set and get the name from the google material design official website and then, you search for it and you can add that one to your project without any hassel.

Answer 2

Yes, you have to copy all your icons to your res folder. It's been said by Google somewhere. The "Material Icons" website clearly is oriented towards that and it makes it easier. One important reason to do this is that you'll want the icons to work not only in Lollipop, but also in previous Android versions.