Android : stroke in a shape create a margin of the stroke width

Surround your shape with <item>...</item> tags and set up top, bottom, left and right attributes of <item> with margin values you want. Then wrap whole item with a <layer-list>. See below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">    <item        android:left="{L-Margin}dp"        android:right="{R-Margin}dp"        android:bottom="{B-Margin}dp"        android:top="{T-Margin}dp">        <!-- Insert your shape here: -->        <shape android:shape="...">              ...        </shape>    </item></layer-list>

If you want padding (instead of margin), see Ahmad Aghazadeh answer below.

You can use padding Transparent instead of margin

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"             android:id="@+id/listview_background_shape">    <stroke         android:width="8dp"         android:color="#0000000" />    <padding         android:left="2dp"        android:top="2dp"        android:right="2dp"        android:bottom="2dp" />    <solid         android:color="@color/white" /></shape>

I had same problem and solved it like this:

<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">    <item>        <shape            android:shape="rectangle">            <solid android:color="@color/background" />            <corners android:radius="2dp"/>            <stroke                android:width="4dp"                android:color="@android:color/black" />        </shape>    </item>    <item>        <shape            android:shape="rectangle">            <corners android:radius="2dp"/>            <solid android:color="@android:color/transparent" />            <stroke                android:width="2dp"                android:color="@color/background" />        </shape>    </item></layer-list>

It gives two drawables with two strokes. First drawable have stroke with width (width + margin of desirable stroke). Second drawable have only visible stroke with width of desirable margin.