Documentation

Everything you need to use SpriteForge effectively. For questions or feedback, contact support@spriteforge.online.

Getting Started

SpriteForge is a browser-based sprite sheet generator. No installation required. Open the Editor, drag your sprite images onto the canvas, and export a packed sprite sheet in your preferred engine format.

Quick Start

1. Open the Editor and drag PNG files onto the workspace
2. The MaxRects packing algorithm automatically arranges your sprites
3. Choose an export format from the Settings panel (right sidebar)
4. Click “Download .zip” to get your sprite sheet + data file

AI Sprite Generation

SpriteForge uses Google Gemini to generate sprites from text descriptions. Two generation modes are available:

Sequence Mode

Generates a series of animation frames for a single character. Ideal for walk cycles, attack animations, idle poses, and other sequential sprite animations. Describe your character and the desired animation, and the AI will produce consistent frames.

Atlas Mode

Generates a collection of distinct items on a single sheet. Perfect for inventory icons, UI elements, environment tiles, or any set of related but unique sprites. Describe the theme and the AI will create varied items in a consistent art style.

AI Transform

You can also transform existing sprites with AI: generate variants (different poses), recolor (new palettes), upscale (higher resolution), or extend-frames (additional animation frames).

Quotas

Free accounts get 1 AI generation per day. Pro accounts get 10 per day. Team accounts get 500 per day.

Smart Packing

SpriteForge uses the MaxRects bin packing algorithm with multiple heuristics (Best Short Side, Bottom Left, Best Area Fit). Packing options include:

• Sheet Size: 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048, or Auto
• Padding: 0px, 1px, 2px, or 4px between sprites
• Power of Two: Force dimensions to be powers of two (GPU-friendly)
• Allow Rotation: Rotate sprites 90 degrees for tighter packing
• Trim Alpha: Remove transparent pixels around each sprite
• Max Pages: Limit the number of sprite sheet pages

Export Formats

SpriteForge supports 15+ export formats with engine-specific data files:

• JSON: Generic Array, JSON Hash
• PixiJS: JSON Hash format
• Phaser 3: Multi-texture atlas format
• Unity: .tpsheet format with pivot points
• Godot: Atlas (.tres), Tileset
• Spine: Atlas text format
• Cocos2d: Property list format
• Starling / XML: XML-based formats
• Unreal: Paper2D format
• CSS: CSS sprite classes
• UIKit: iOS plist format
• Egret2D: JSON format

Free tier includes JSON Array, JSON Hash, and CSS. Pro and Team tiers unlock all formats.

Engine Sync

Pro and Team users can enable real-time WebSocket sync to push atlas updates directly to Godot or Unity. When enabled, SpriteForge starts a WebSocket connection on a configurable port (default: 6789). Your game engine connects to receive sprite sheet updates automatically whenever you re-pack or export.

Note: if you're accessing SpriteForge over HTTPS, mixed-content restrictions may block ws:// connections to localhost. Use HTTP for local sync workflows.

Normal Maps

SpriteForge can generate or pair normal maps for your sprite sheets. Two approaches are supported:

• Manual pairing: Name your normal map files with a _n, _normal, or _nrm suffix and they will be automatically paired with the matching sprite.
• Auto-generation: Enable the Sobel-based normal map generator in the Settings panel. Adjust the strength parameter (0.5 to 5.0) to control the intensity of the generated normals.

Normal maps are a Pro/Team feature.

Compression

Export your sprite sheets in multiple image formats:

• PNG: Lossless, full quality (available on all tiers)
• WebP: Lossy or lossless, typically 25-35% smaller (Pro/Team)
• AVIF: Next-gen lossy, even smaller files (Pro/Team)

Additional options include RGBA4444 color depth reduction with optional dithering, for mobile-optimized assets.

Keyboard Shortcuts

All shortcuts use Cmd on macOS and Ctrl on Windows/Linux.

General

Sprites

Animation

View

Engine Sync

Support

For bug reports, feature requests, account and billing questions, contact support@spriteforge.online.