Setup and configuration for multiplatform resources

Edit pageLast modified: 23 January 2025

To properly configure the project to use multiplatform resources:

  1. Add the library dependency.

  2. Create the necessary directories for each kind of resource.

  3. Create additional directories for qualified resources (for example, different images for the dark UI theme or localized strings).

Dependency and directory setup

To access resources in your multiplatform projects, add the library dependency and organize files within your project directory:

  1. In the build.gradle.kts file in the composeApp directory, add a dependency to the commonMain source set:

    kotlin {
    sourceSets {
        commonMain.dependencies {
            implementation(compose.components.resources)
        }
    }
}

    tip

    To refer to the library directly, use the fully qualified name from the artifact page in Maven Central.

  2. Create a new directory composeResources in the source set directory you want to add the resources to (commonMain in this example):

    Compose resources project structure

  3. Organize the composeResources directory structure according to these rules:

    • Images should be in the drawable directory. Compose Multiplatform supports rasterized images (JPEG, PNG, bitmap, and WebP) and vector Android XML images (without references to Android resources).

    • Fonts should be in the font directory.

    • Strings should be in the values directory.

    • Other files should be in the files directory, with any folder hierarchy you may find appropriate.

Custom resource directories

In the compose.resources {} block of the build.gradle.kts file, you can specify custom resource directories for each source set. Each of these custom directories should also contain files in the same way as the default composeResources: with a drawable subdirectory for images, a font subdirectory for fonts, and so on.

A simple example is to point to a specific folder:

compose.resources {
    customDirectory(
        sourceSetName = "desktopMain",
        directoryProvider = provider { layout.projectDirectory.dir("desktopResources") }
    )
}

You can also set up a folder populated by a Gradle task, for example, with downloaded files:

directoryProvider = tasks.register<DownloadRemoteFiles>
 {...}

Qualifiers

Sometimes, the same resource should be presented in different ways depending on the environment, such as locale, screen density, or interface theme. For example, you might need to localize texts for different languages or adjust images for the dark theme. For that, the library provides special qualifiers.

All resource types, except for raw files in the files directory, support qualifiers. Add qualifiers to directory names using a hyphen:

Qualifiers in multiplatform resources

The library supports (in the order of priority) the following qualifiers: language, theme, and density.

  • Different types of qualifiers can be applied together. For example, "drawable-en-rUS-mdpi-dark" is an image for the English language in the United States region, suitable for 160 DPI screens in the dark theme.

  • If a resource with the requested qualifier is not accessible, the default resource (without a qualifier) is used instead.

Language and regional qualifiers

You can combine language and region qualifiers:

  • The language is defined by a two-letter (ISO 639-1) or a three-letter (ISO 639-2) language code.

  • You can add a two-letter ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 regional code to your language code. The regional code must have a lowercase r prefix, for example: drawable-spa-rMX

The language and regional codes are case-sensitive.

Theme qualifier

You can add "light" or "dark" qualifiers. Compose Multiplatform then selects the necessary resource depending on the current system theme.

Density qualifier

You can use the following density qualifiers:

  • "ldpi" – 120 DPI, 0.75x density

  • "mdpi" – 160 DPI, 1x density

  • "hdpi" – 240 DPI, 1.5x density

  • "xhdpi" – 320 DPI, 2x density

  • "xxhdpi" – 480 DPI, 3x density

  • "xxxhdpi" – 640dpi, 4x density

The resource is selected depending on the screen density defined in the system.

Publication

Starting with Compose Multiplatform 1.6.10, all necessary resources are included in the publication maven artifacts.

To enable this functionality, your project needs to use Kotlin 2.0.0 or newer and Gradle 7.6 or newer.

What's next?

  • Learn how to access the resources you set up and how to customize the accessors generated by default on the Using multiplatform resources in your app page.

  • Check out the official demo project that shows how resources can be handled in a Compose Multiplatform project targeting iOS, Android, and desktop.