node-spritesheet

Node-spritesheet is a utility to create sprite sheets in node.js. Its original intention was to be used as a Grunt task, but I decided it was worth abstracting further.

In the most part, it is an indirect port of Jake Gordon's much more mature Sprite Factory for Ruby.

Pixel ratios (retina displays, etc)

It will also handle auto-resizing of images for specified pixel densities. No more fart-arsing about for retina displays, just supply the largest (highest-density) image. By default, this uses ImageMagick's version of the Lanczos and Mitchell algorithms, depending on the most appropriate, but you can specify any of the 20-odd available.

You're not locked in to auto-resampling though, you can supply multiple density versions of the same image, if you prefer.

Additionally, it will add the relevant cross-browser media queries to the CSS.

Requirements

Requires ImageMagick, available via HomeBrew ($ sudo brew install ImageMagick) or MacPorts: ($ sudo port install ImageMagick).

Installation

npm install node-spritesheet

Usage

var Builder = require( 'node-spritesheet' ).Builder;
var b = new Builder( options );
b.build( callback );

Simple example

Takes in a series of images a generates a spritesheet.

var Builder = require( 'node-spritesheet' ).Builder;

var builder = new Builder({
    outputDirectory: '/path/to/directory',
    outputImage: 'sprite.png',
    outputCss: 'sprite.css',
    selector: '.sprite',
    images: [ 'image1.png', 'image2.png', 'image3.png' ]
});

builder.build( function() {
    console.log( "Built from " + builder.files.length + " images" );
});

More complex example

Add configurations to the builder to output multiple spritesheets based on different pixel densities, using media queries.

var Builder = require( 'node-spritesheet' ).Builder;

var builder = new Builder({
    outputDirectory: '/path/to/directory',
    outputCss: 'sprite.css',
    selector: '.sprite',
    images: [ 'image1.png', 'image2.png', image3.png' ]
});

builder.addConfiguration( "legacy", {
    pixelRatio: 1,
    outputImage: 'sprite.png'
});

builder.addConfiguration( "retina", {
    pixelRatio: 2,
    outputImage: '[email protected]'
});

builder.build( function() {
    console.log( "Built from " + builder.files.length + " images" );
});

Another complex example

Even though ImageMagick uses some pretty decent algorithms for resampling images, you may not want node-spritesheet to automatically resize your retina versions for you, you may want to instead keep two copies of each image.

var Builder = require( 'node-spritesheet' ).Builder;

var builder = new Builder({
    outputDirectory: '/path/to/directory',
    outputCss: 'sprite.css',
    selector: '.sprite'
});

builder.addConfiguration( "legacy", {
    pixelRatio: 1,
    outputImage: 'sprite.png',
    images: [ 'image1.png', 'image2.png', image3.png' ]
});

builder.addConfiguration( "retina", {
    pixelRatio: 2,
    outputImage: '[email protected]',
    images: [ '[email protected]', '[email protected]', [email protected]' ]
});

builder.build( function() {
    console.log( "Built from " + builder.files.length + " images" );
});

Grunt task

This is a multi-task, supporting multiple spritesheets in one gruntfile.

The following grunt.js structure takes all images in src/icons and creates a spritesheet at bin/assets/sprite.png, with an accompanying stylesheet at bin/assets/sprite.css.

Simple example

// Add to your grunt config.
spritesheet: {
	compile: {
		options: {
			// Compiles to bin/assets/images/spritesheets/flags.png
			outputImage: 'images/spritesheets/flags.png',
			// Compiles to bin/assets/stylesheets/flags.css
			outputCss: 'stylesheets/flags.css',
			// Uses this compound selector in the css, e.g. '.flag.my-image {}'
			selector: '.flag'
		},
		files: {
			'bin/assets': 'src/icons/flags/*'
		}
	}
}

// Add to your imports.
loadNpmTasks( 'node-spritesheet' );

Complex example

This adds retina/legacy support, and resamples the images (assuming the highest density has been supplied).

// Add to your grunt config.
spritesheet: {
    compile: {
        options: {
            outputCss: 'sprite.css',
            selector: '.sprite',
            
            // Optional ImageMagick sampling filter.
            downsampling: "LanczosSharp",
            
            // Optional absolute path to output image.
            httpImagePath: "http://static.mysite.com/images/sprite.png",
            
            // Output configurations: in this instance to output two sprite sheets,
            // one for "legacy" (i.e. 72dpi, pixel ratio 1), and "retina" (x2).
            // These keys (legacy, retina) are completely arbitrary.
            output: {
                legacy: {
                    pixelRatio: 1,
                    outputImage: 'sprite.png'
                },
                // As the retina scheme has the highest pixel ratio, it will be
                // assumed that all images passed to the builder are for 'retina',
                // and will be downscaled for 'legacy'.
                retina: {
                    pixelRatio: 2,
                    outputImage: '[email protected]'
                }
            },
            
            // Allows you to augment your selector names for each image, based on
            // the bare image "name", or the full image path.
            resolveImageSelector: function( name, fullpath ) {
                // For example, your files may well already be named with @2x, but
                // you won't want that included in your CSS selectors.
                return name.split( "@2x" ).join( "" );
            }
        },
        files: {
            'bin/assets': 'src/icons/flags/*'
        }
    }
}

// Add to your imports.
loadNpmTasks( 'node-spritesheet' );

Second complex example

Again, this adds retina/legacy support, but uses a filter function to ascertain which images are retina and which aren't, meaning you don't have to rely on the resampling option, if you want finer control.

// Add to your grunt config.
spritesheet: {
    compile: {
        options: {
            outputCss: 'sprite.css',
            selector: '.sprite',
            output: {
                legacy: {
                    pixelRatio: 1,
                    outputImage: 'sprite.png',
                    // Just process the non-retina files
                    filter: function( fullpath ) {
                        return fullpath.indexOf( "@2x" ) === -1;
                    }
                },
                retina: {
                    pixelRatio: 2,
                    outputImage: '[email protected]',
                    // Just process the retina files
                    filter: function( fullpath ) {
                        return fullpath.indexOf( "@2x" ) >= 0;
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        files: {
            'bin/assets': 'src/icons/flags/*'
        }
    }
}

// Add to your imports.
loadNpmTasks( 'node-spritesheet' );

History

0.1.6 Made compatible with grunt-copy-mate 0.1.3. 0.1.2-4 Fixed relative path to grunt-copy-mate module. 0.1.1 Fixed some path issues for Windows. 0.1.0 Initial port (example working on Mac)