css-sprite

A css sprite generator.

Generates sprites and proper css files out of a directory of images.

Supports retina sprites.

Can inline base64 encoded sprites.

Requirements

Starting with version 0.9 css-sprite has no external dependencies

Install

Install with npm

npm install css-sprite --save

If you want to use css-sprite on your cli install with:

npm install css-sprite -g

Command Line Interface

Usage: css-sprite <out> <src>... [options]

out     path of directory to write sprite file to
src     glob strings to find source images to put into the sprite

Options:
    -b, --base64           create css with base64 encoded sprite (css file will be written to <out>)
    -c, --css-image-path   http path to images on the web server (relative to css path or absolute path)  [../images]
    -f, --format           output format of the sprite (png or jpg)  [png]
    -n, --name             name of sprite file without file extension   [sprite]
    -p, --processor        output format of the css. one of css, less, sass, scss or stylus  [css]
    -t, --template         output template file, overrides processor option
    -r, --retina           generate both retina and standard sprites. src images have to be in retina resolution
    -s, --style            file to write css to, if omitted no css is written
    -w, --watch            continuously create sprite
    --background           background color of the sprite in hex  [#FFFFFF]
    --margin               margin in px between tiles  [4]
    --interpolation        Interpolation algorithm used when scaling retina images (nearest-neighbor|moving-average|linear|grid|cubic|lanczos)
    --opacity              background opacity of the sprite. defaults to 0 when png or 100 when jpg  [0]
    --orientation          orientation of the sprite image (vertical|horizontal|binary-tree)  [vertical]
    --prefix               prefix for the class name used in css (without .)
    --no-sort              disable sorting of layout

Programatic usage

var sprite = require('css-sprite');
sprite.create(options, cb);

Options

• src: Array or string of globs to find source images to put into the sprite. [required]
• out: path of directory to write sprite file to [process.cwd()]
• base64: when true instead of creating a sprite writes base64 encoded images to css (css file will be written to <out>)
• cssPath: http path to images on the web server (relative to css path or absolute) [../images]
• format format of the generated sprite (png or jpg). By default uses png.
• name: name of the sprite file without file extension [sprite]
• processor: output format of the css. one of css, less, sass, scss or stylus [css]
• template: output template file, overrides processor option (must be a mustache template)
• retina: generate both retina and standard sprites. src images have to be in retina resolution
• background background color of the sprite in hex. Defaults to #FFFFFF
• style: file to write css to, if omitted no css is written
• margin: margin in px between tiles. (Use an even number if generating retina sprites). [4]
• opacity background opacity of the sprite between 0 and 100. Defaults to 0 when png or 100 when jpg
• orientation: orientation of the sprite image (vertical|horizontal|binary-tree) [vertical]
• prefix: prefix for the class name used in css (without .) [icon]
• sort: enable/disable sorting of layout [true]
• interpolation Interpolation algorithm used when scaling retina images to standard definition. Possible values are nearest-neighbor,moving-average,linear,grid,cubic,lanczos. Defaults to grid.

Example

var sprite = require('css-sprite');
sprite.create({
  src: ['./src/img/*.png'],
  out: './dist/img'
  name: 'sprites',
  style: './dist/scss/_sprites.scss',
  cssPath: '../img',
  processor: 'scss'
}, function () {
  console.log('done');
});

Usage with Gulp

var gulp = require('gulp');
var gulpif = require('gulp-if');
var sprite = require('css-sprite').stream;

// generate sprite.png and _sprite.scss
gulp.task('sprites', function () {
  return gulp.src('./src/img/*.png')
    .pipe(sprite({
      name: 'sprite',
      style: '_sprite.scss',
      cssPath: './img',
      processor: 'scss'
    }))
    .pipe(gulpif('*.png', gulp.dest('./dist/img/'), gulp.dest('./dist/scss/')))
});
// generate scss with base64 encoded images
gulp.task('base64', function () {
  return gulp.src('./src/img/*.png')
    .pipe(sprite({
      base64: true,
      style: '_base64.scss',
      processor: 'scss'
    }))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/scss/'));
});

Options to use css-sprite with Gulp are the same as for the sprite.create function with the exception of src and out.

Usage with Grunt

Add css-sprite as a dependency to your grunt project and then use something like this in your gruntfile.js:

module.exports = function(grunt) {

  // Project configuration.
  grunt.initConfig({
    css_sprite: {
      options: {
        'cssPath': '../images',
        'processor': 'css',
        'orientation': 'vertical',
        'margin': 4
      },
      sprite: {
        options: {
          'style': 'dest/css/sprite.css'
        },
        src: ['src/images/*', 'src/images2/*'],
        dest: 'dest/images/sprite.png',
      },
      base64: {
        options: {
          'base64': true
        },
        src: ['src/images/*'],
        dest: 'dest/scss/base64.css',
      }
    }
  });

  // Load the plugin that provides the "css-sprite" task.
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('css-sprite');

  // Default task(s).
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['css_sprite']);
};

Options to use css-sprite with Grunt are the same as for the sprite.create function with the exception of src and out.

Usage with sass / less / stylus

scss example

@import 'sprite'; // the generated style file (sprite.scss)

// camera icon (camera.png in src directory)
.icon-camera {
  @include sprite($camera);
}

// cart icon (cart.png in src directory)
.icon-cart {
  @include sprite($cart);
}

sass example

@import 'sprite' // the generated style file (sprite.sass)

// camera icon (camera.png in src directory)
.icon-camera
  +sprite($camera)

// cart icon (cart.png in src directory)
.icon-cart
  +sprite($cart)

less example

@import 'sprite'; // the generated style file (sprite.less)

// camera icon (camera.png in src directory)
.icon-camera {
  .sprite(@camera);
}

// cart icon (cart.png in src directory)
.icon-cart {
  .sprite(@cart);
}

stylus example

@import 'sprite' // the generated style file (sprite.styl)

// camera icon (camera.png in src directory)
.icon-camera
  sprite($camera)

// cart icon (cart.png in src directory)
.icon-cart
  sprite($cart)

Using your own template

To use your own mustache template for style file creation pass in the -t option followed by the template path. The following variables are available in the mustache template:

• items -- array of objects with the sprite tiles
  • name -- name of the tile
  • x -- x position
  • y -- y position
  • width
  • height
  • offset_x -- x offset within the sprite
  • offset_y -- y offset within the sprite
  • class -- class name of the tile
  • px -- object with pixel values instead of raw data (e.g width: '250px')
    • x, y, offset_x, offset_y, height, width, total_height, total_width
• sprite -- object with information about the sprite itself
  • name -- name of the sprite
  • image -- css path to sprite or base64 encode string
  • escaped_image -- escaped css path to sprite or base64 encode string
  • class -- class name of the sprite
• retina -- object with information about the retina sprite
  • name -- name of the retina sprite
  • image -- css path to retina sprite
  • escaped_image -- escaped css path to retina sprite
  • class -- class name of the retina sprite
  • total_width -- height of the retina sprite (for background-size)
  • total_height -- width of the retina sprite (for background-size)
  • px -- object with pixel values
    • total_width, total_height

Please have a look at the included templates to see how they work.