--- title: Spriting with Compass layout: tutorial crumb: Spriting classnames: - tutorial --- # Spriting with Compass Spriting has never been easier with Compass. You place the sprite images in a folder, import them into your stylesheet, and then you can use the sprite in your selectors in one of several convenient ways. ## Setup For this tutorial, let's imagine that in your project's image folder there are four icons: * `public/images/icon/new.png` * `public/images/icon/edit.png` * `public/images/icon/save.png` * `public/images/icon/delete.png` Each is an icon that is 32px square. ## Basic Usage The simplest way to use these icon sprites is to let compass give you a class for each sprite: @import "icon/*.png"; @include all-icon-sprites; And you'll get the following CSS output: .icon-sprite, .icon-delete, .icon-edit, .icon-new, .icon-save { background: url('/images/icon-s34fe0604ab.png') no-repeat; } .icon-delete { background-position: 0 0; } .icon-edit { background-position: 0 -32px; } .icon-new { background-position: 0 -64px; } .icon-save { background-position: 0 -96px; } You can now apply the `icon-XXX` classes to your markup as needed. Let's go over what happened there. The import statement told compass to [generate a stylesheet that is customized for your sprites](https://gist.github.com/729507). This stylesheet is [magic](#magic-imports), it is not written to disk, and it can be customized by setting configuration variables before you import it. See the section below on [Customization Options](#customization-options). The goal of this stylesheet is to provide a simple naming convention for your sprites so that you they are easy to remember and use. You should never have to care what the is name of the generated sprite map, nor where a sprite is located within it. ## Layout Control Set the `$-layout` variable to the preferred layout method. * vertical - default * horizontal - lays images out side by side * diagonal - lays images out corner to corner none of the spacing of padding options are taken into account * smart - lays the images out using a bin packing algorithm which allows for much smaller surface areas in your sprite files Example: $icon-layout:horizontal; @import "icon/*.png"; $dropcap-layout:diagonal @import "dropcap/*.png"; ## Selector Control If you want control over what selectors are generated, it is easy to do. In this example, this is done by using the magic `icon-sprite` mixin. Note that the mixin's name is dependent on the name of the folder in which you've placed your icons. @import "icon/*.png"; .actions { .new { @include icon-sprite(new); } .edit { @include icon-sprite(edit); } .save { @include icon-sprite(save); } .delete { @include icon-sprite(delete); } } And your stylesheet will compile to: .icon-sprite, .actions .new, .actions .edit, .actions .save, .actions .delete { background: url('/images/icon-s34fe0604ab.png') no-repeat; } .actions .new { background-position: 0 -64px; } .actions .edit { background-position: 0 -32px; } .actions .save { background-position: 0 -96px; } .actions .delete { background-position: 0 0; } ## Magic Imports As noted above, compass will magically create sprite stylesheets for you. Some people like magic, some people are scared by it, and others are curious about how the magic works. If you would like to avoid the magic, you can use compass to generate an import for you. On the command line: compass sprite "public/images/icon/*.png" This will create file using your project's preferred syntax, or you can specify the output filename using the `-f` option and the syntax will be inferred from the extension. If you do this, you'll need to remember to regenerate the import whenever you rename, add, or remove sprites. Using the magic imports is recommended for most situations. But there are times when you might want to avoid it. For instance, if your sprite map has more than about 20 to 30 sprites, you may find that hand crafting the import will speed up compilation times. See the section on [performance considerations](#performance) for more details. ## Magic Selectors If you want to add selectors for your sprites, it's easy todo by adding `_active` `_target` or `_hover` to the file name, In the example below we have a sprite directory that looks like: * `selectors/ten-by-ten.png` * `selectors/ten-by-ten_hover.png` * `selectors/ten-by-ten_active.png` * `selectors/ten-by-ten_target.png` Now in our sass file we add: @import "selectors/*.png"; a { @include selectors-sprite(ten-by-ten) } And your stylesheet will compile to: .selectors-sprite, a { background: url('/selectors-sedfef809e2.png') no-repeat; } a { background-position: 0 0; } a:hover, a.ten-by-ten_hover, a.ten-by-ten-hover { background-position: 0 -20px; } a:target, a.ten-by-ten_target, a.ten-by-ten-target { background-position: 0 -30px; } a:active, a.ten-by-ten_active, a.ten-by-ten-active { background-position: 0 -10px; } Alternatively you can use the `@include all-selectors-sprites;` after the import and get the following output: .selectors-sprite, .selectors-ten-by-ten { background: url('/selectors-sedfef809e2.png') no-repeat; } .selectors-ten-by-ten { background-position: 0 0; } .selectors-ten-by-ten:hover, .selectors-ten-by-ten.ten-by-ten_hover, .selectors-ten-by-ten.ten-by-ten-hover { background-position: 0 -20px; } .selectors-ten-by-ten:target, .selectors-ten-by-ten.ten-by-ten_target, .selectors-ten-by-ten.ten-by-ten-target { background-position: 0 -30px; } .selectors-ten-by-ten:active, .selectors-ten-by-ten.ten-by-ten_active, .selectors-ten-by-ten.ten-by-ten-active { background-position: 0 -10px; } ## Customization Options ### Options per Sprite Map When constructing the sprite map, the entire sprite map and it's associated stylesheet can be configured in the following ways. Each option is specified by setting a [configuration variable](/help/tutorials/configurable-variables/) before importing the sprite. The variables are named according to the name of the folder containing the sprites. In the examples below the sprites were contained within a folder called `icon`. * `$-spacing` -- The amount of transparent space, in pixels, around each sprite. Defaults to `0px`. E.g. `$icon-spacing: 20px`. * `$-repeat` -- Wether or not each sprite should repeat along the x axis. Defaults to `no-repeat`. E.g. `$icon-repeat: repeat-x`. * `$-position` -- The position of the sprite in the sprite map along the x-axis. Can be specified in pixels or percentage of the sprite map's width. `100%` would cause the sprite to be on the right-hand side of the sprite map. Defaults to `0px`. E.g. `$icon-position: 100%`. * `$-sprite-dimensions` -- Whether or not the dimensions of the sprite should be included in each sprite's CSS output. Can be `true` or `false`. Defaults to `false`. * `$-sprite-base-class` -- The base class for these sprites. Defaults to `.-sprite`. E.g. `$icon-sprite-base-class: ".action-icon"` * `$-clean-up` -- Whether or not to removed the old sprite file when a new one is created. Defaults to true ### Options per Sprite When constructing the sprite map, each sprite can be configured in the following ways: * `$--spacing` -- The amount of transparent space, in pixels, around the sprite. Defaults to the sprite map's spacing which defaults to `0px`. E.g. `$icon-new-spacing: 20px`. * `$--repeat` -- Wether or not the sprite should repeat along the x axis. Defaults to the sprite map's repeat which defaults to `no-repeat`. E.g. `$icon-new-repeat: repeat-x`. * `$--position` -- The position of the sprite in the sprite map along the x-axis. Can be specified in pixels or percentage of the sprite map's width. `100%` would cause the sprite to be on the right-hand side of the sprite map. Defaults to the sprite map's position value which defaults to `0px`. E.g. `$icon-new-position: 100%`. ## Performance Considerations Reading PNG files and assembling new images and saving them to disk might have a non-trivial impact to your stylesheet compilation times. Especially for the first compile. Please keep this in mind. ## Large numbers of sprites The magic stylesheet can get very large when there are large numbers of sprites. 50 sprites will cause there to be over 150 variables created and then passed into the `sprite-map` [function](/reference/compass/helpers/sprites/#sprite-map). You may find that customizing the sprite function call to only pass those values that you are overriding will provide a small performance boost. See a [concrete example](https://gist.github.com/747970). ## Oily PNG Compass generates PNG files using a pure-ruby library called [`chunky_png`](https://github.com/wvanbergen/chunky_png). This library can be made faster by installing a simple C extension called [`oily_png`](https://github.com/wvanbergen/oily_png). Add it to your `Gemfile` if you have one in your project: gem 'oily_png' Or install the Rubygem: gem install oily_png Compass will automatically detect its presence.