CSS Tutorial

CSS Image Sprites

Last modified on: October 25, 2024

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<h3>CSS Image Sprites: Combining Multiple Images for Optimized Loading</h3>
<p>CSS image sprites are a technique used to combine multiple images into a single image file. By using CSS to display specific portions of the sprite, you can reduce the number of HTTP requests needed to load images, thus improving webpage performance.</p>
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<h3>Why Use Image Sprites?</h3>
<p>When you have multiple small images (like icons or buttons), each individual image requires a separate HTTP request. With an image sprite, you load one combined image and use CSS to show only the necessary parts. This reduces page load time, especially on image-heavy sites.</p>
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<h3>Creating an Image Sprite Example</h3>
<p>For this example, let&rsquo;s say we have a sprite image containing four icons (Home, About, Services, Contact) combined into a single file called <code>sprite.png</code>. Each icon is 64x64 pixels, and they&rsquo;re arranged horizontally.</p>
<h4>1. Sample Image Sprite (sprite.png)</h4>
<p>Here's how the sprite image might look:</p>
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<pre class="language-css"><code>[ Home Icon ][ About Icon ][ Services Icon ][ Contact Icon ]
</code></pre>
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<h4>2. CSS Code for Image Sprites</h4>
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<pre class="language-markup"><code>&lt;!DOCTYPE html&gt;
&lt;html lang="en"&gt;
&lt;head&gt;
    &lt;meta charset="UTF-8"&gt;
    &lt;meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"&gt;
    &lt;title&gt;CSS Image Sprites Example&lt;/title&gt;
    &lt;style&gt;
        /* Sprite container */
        .icon {
            width: 64px;      /* Width of one icon */
            height: 64px;     /* Height of one icon */
            background-image: url('sprite.png');
            background-repeat: no-repeat;
            display: inline-block;
        }

/* Positioning each icon */
        .home { background-position: 0 0; }             /* Shows the first icon */
        .about { background-position: -64px 0; }        /* Shows the second icon */
        .services { background-position: -128px 0; }    /* Shows the third icon */
        .contact { background-position: -192px 0; }     /* Shows the fourth icon */
    &lt;/style&gt;
&lt;/head&gt;
&lt;body&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;CSS Image Sprites Example&lt;/h2&gt;
    &lt;div&gt;
        &lt;div class="icon home" title="Home"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
        &lt;div class="icon about" title="About"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
        &lt;div class="icon services" title="Services"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
        &lt;div class="icon contact" title="Contact"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    &lt;/div&gt;

&lt;/body&gt;
&lt;/html&gt;
</code></pre>
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<h4>Explanation</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong><code>.icon</code></strong>: Sets the background image as <code>sprite.png</code> and ensures each icon displays at 64x64 pixels.</li>
<li><strong><code>.home</code>, <code>.about</code>, <code>.services</code>, <code>.contact</code></strong>: Define the background position to display each individual icon. Negative values in <code>background-position</code> move the visible part of the background image to display only the required icon.</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Benefits of Using Image Sprites</h3>
<ol>
<li><strong>Reduced HTTP Requests</strong>: Loading a single image file instead of multiple small ones decreases server requests, leading to faster load times.</li>
<li><strong>Optimized Performance</strong>: Greatly beneficial for webpages with many icons or small images.</li>
<li><strong>Consistency</strong>: All icons or images are in one file, ensuring a consistent look.</li>
</ol>
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<h3>&nbsp;</h3>
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