Disable Android resource / image / PNG optimization

Question

How do I prevent the Android \"build process\" from optimizing .png images?

I have an Android project with the following res directories:

- /res/
- /         


        

Answer 1

Google recently introduced a new PNG processor in aapt 0.9.1 in the Android SDK Build Tools that fixes this issue of increased PNG sizes after aapt optimization.

With this update, it is now possible for Android Studio & Gradle to switch between the PNG processors with the following change in your build.gradle configuration file:

android {
    ..
    ..

    aaptOptions.useAaptPngCruncher = false
}

By adding this line, aapt uses the new PNG processor in which it checks to see if the "optimized" PNG files are smaller than the original PNG files. I was able to reduce 4.8 MB in my compiled APK and have not encountered any bugs/issues with the new build configuration.

UPDATE: This has been deprecated in later versions of Android Studio. Please refer to the answer provided by ChrisG.