What steps can be taken to resolve the problem of CSS sprite causing blurry images on mobile devices when using background-position?

In the world of CSS, working with regular images is usually straightforward - setting the width to 50px will display them perfectly on both desktop and mobile devices without any issues as long as the image quality is good.

However, when it comes to using CSS sprites and manipulating the background positioning with a clever trick, maintaining that same 50px width can result in a blurry image due to scaling factors.

It's a known practice to use a larger spritesheet image to overcome this blurriness issue. But then comes the challenge of deciding what value to set for the width property, as simply keeping it at 50px might lead to unexpected outcomes like a larger than intended image size. This dilemma arises especially because elements with a width of 50px are usually handled well by mobile devices automatically.

.item {
    background: url(/sprites.png) 0px 0px;
    width: 50px;
    ...
}

Have you encountered this problem before, and if so, how did you approach solving it?

htmlcsscss-sprites

Answer №1

Here's a great approach for those interested in using PNG sprites. To ensure smooth rendering on mobile and high DPI screens, it's recommended to have an image that is double the size of the standard sprite sheet. For example, if the normal screen requires a spritesheet width of 500px, you would need another one with a width of at least 1000px.

The key here is that all background-position and background-size values remain consistent across different devices (both mobile and desktop). The only variation lies in the background-image property. Use the smaller spritesheet for desktops and the larger one for mobile devices.

Below are two CSS code snippets for desktops and mobiles:

Common CSS properties:

.item {
   background-position: 0px 0px;
   background-size: 500px 300px;
   background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

For desktops:

.item {
   background-image: url(your_normal_sprites_500.png);
}

For mobiles:

.item {
   background-image: url(your_large_sprites_1000.png);
}

To dynamically switch styles between desktop and mobile, you can utilize window.devicePixelRatio. While not supported on some older browsers, this feature is commonly available on modern browsers.

var isHiResScreen = (window.devicePixelRatio || 1) > 1;
if(isHiResScreen){
   //apply style for mobile
}
else {
   //apply style for desktop
}

Consider using SVG spritesheets as suggested by @Dejan.S in the comments for even better results. It's definitely worth exploring! :)

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