A big part of doing any type of work is finding the correct tool for the job. This is especially true when it comes to handling graphics. When looking for a sprite sheet editor, you can find many programs in the vast sea known as the internet. But what if you are looking for a solution that requires no downloads? In the past few years many web solutions have began to offer online alternatives to their services, and sprite sheet editor solutions are no different. Following is a list of our favorite online sprite sheet editors, and while you can work with many of them offline, you can work with them online as well.
Create a sprite sheet. To pack separate sprites to a sprite sheet we'll use ShoeBox (Windows/OSX). After installing open the program and drag all the sprites you want to pack onto the Sprite Sheet panel. After dropping, ShoeBox will generate the sprite sheet. Aren't satisfied with the result or like to export to a different format? Optimized sprite sheets. The developers of game engines are aware of the wasted memory in the simple sprite sheets and started to optimize the space. The easiest way is to remove the transparency surrounding the sprite and shrink it to the bounding box. The even more efficient way is to use polygon outlines to cut the sprites. Dusty22 wrote: I just found the most amazing tool for cutting up sprite sheets! It's free and it works so awesomely! It's called Spricer, it traces the sprites for you when you open a sprite sheet in some image format, then you can export a whole sheet in seconds! Leshy Sprite Sheet Tool is an Html5 based tool for creating, packing, and modifying sprite sheets and textures. In addition, all output can be created for a wide variety of formats including XML, JSON, CSS, and ImageMagick scripts. The service is well documented with plenty of youtube video tutorials, as well as documentation and can be found.
Piskel
Sprite Sheet Cutter Program
Piskel is a free online sprite editor that is highly regarded by many for the features it touts. Piskel allows for animation previews, exporting and importing of Gif file types, and a gallery that keeps track of all work associated with your account. Piskel also offers an offline version of the program available for download so that you can work whenever and wherever inspiration strikes. You can check out Piskel at it's home page.
Leshy Labs
If Piskel is perfect for making sprites and sprite sheets, then Leshy Lab's Sprite Sheet Tool is amazing for importing and splitting images of all types. Leshy Sprite Sheet Tool is an Html5 based tool for creating, packing, and modifying sprite sheets and textures. In addition, all output can be created for a wide variety of formats including XML, JSON, CSS, and ImageMagick scripts. The service is well documented with plenty of youtube video tutorials, as well as documentation and can be found on the Leshy Labs homepage.
Paper Cutter
Texture Packer
The final entry in our list is Texture Packer. When you need a full array of tools to get the job done, Texture Packer delivers. Not only that, but Texture Packer greatly reduces the time it takes to create and animate sprites. Texture Packer ships as a downloadable and has free and premium versions for you, depending on the needs of your work. In fact some say that this is one of the best on the market for online sprite sheet editor work. You can check out Texture Packer here.
No matter which option you choose from our list, you will find a solution to creating great work with any of these online sprite sheet editors.