CSS Sprites

CSS Sprites is a Ruby gem that finds all PNG files in the input directory, merges them together into a single PNG file and generates a CSS stylesheet for the output image.

Prerequisites

ImageMagick Version 6.4.9 or later. You can get ImageMagick from www.imagemagick.org.

Or, if you're on Mac OS X and using Homebrew, you can install it by typing:

$ brew install imagemagick

And if you're using Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install libmagickwand-dev

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'css_sprites'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself:

$ gem install css_sprites

Usage

In your Ruby app:

require 'css_sprites'
CSSSprites.generate_sprite(path_to_images, options_hash)

Or from the command line:

$ css_sprites path/to/images

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
stacking	horizontal or vertical	horizontal	How to order images in the sprite
output	string	input directory's parent's path	Where to save the generated files
name	string	input directory's name	A name for the base CSS class (and the generated files)

Examples with options

In your Ruby app:

options = {
    stacking: :vertical,
    name: 'so_awesome',
    output: 'my_awesome_icons_output'
}
CSSSprites.generate_sprite('my_awesome_icons', options)

From the command line:

$ css_sprites --stacking vertical --name so_awesome --output my_awesome_icons_output my_awesome_icons

For more details:

$ css_sprites --help