# twolfson/gulp.spritesmith

Convert a set of images into a spritesheet and CSS variables via gulp

Repository: https://github.com/twolfson/gulp.spritesmith
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/gulpspritesmith
Language: JavaScript
License: Unlicense
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-07-04T02:34:56+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4588, "days_push": 791, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1067, forks 80 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:27.182387+00:00)

## What it is
A gulp plugin that converts a set of images into a spritesheet image and CSS variables (SASS, Stylus, LESS, JSON, CSS) for use in stylesheets. It is the official gulp port of grunt-spritesmith and supports retina spritesheets.

## Use cases
- generate a css spritesheet from icon images in a gulp build
- create sass variables for sprite image positions
- support retina @2x spritesheets in a gulp pipeline
- combine many small pngs into one image to reduce http requests
- output sprite metadata as  for custom templating

## When to choose
- you use gulp and need css sprites generated as part of your build
- you want spritesheet output in multiple css preprocessor formats
- you need retina sprite support

## When to avoid
- you use webpack or modern bundlers with built-in asset handling
- you no longer use css sprites in your workflow
- you need a grunt-based workflow (use grunt-spritesmith instead)

## Facets
- artifact type: plugin
- maturity: maintenance
- function: image-processing, templating
- domain: web-development, frontend, graphics
- platform: cross-platform
- tags: gulp-plugin, css-sprites, spritesheet, retina-support, css-variables, nodejs

## Member repositories
- twolfson/gulp.spritesmith (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:27.182387+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:55:12.160594+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/twolfson/gulp.spritesmith (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:27.182387+00:00, sha da72c3852e7e)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp.spritesmith (fetched 2026-08-29T12:57:04.444575+00:00, sha 6d8500c1344a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.