Introduction

Using image sprites you can divide the portion of one image into other small images. Every single image works standalone. In simple terms, you can say one image is a collection of other small images.
The main benefit of using image sprites is that it reduces the HTTP request and size of an image (see the following figures).
If your web page has many images then it will take more time to load your web page on the server and also generate multiple HTTP requests. But when image sprites are used it take less time to load page as well as take less time to generate HTTP server requests.
image sprites image sprites
image sprites
image sprites
image sprites
image sprites
image sprites image sprites
Code:
HTMLPage.htm
  1. <!DOCTYPE html>
  2. <html>
  3. <head>
  4. <link href="StyleSheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
  5. <title></title>
  6. </head>
  7. <body>
  8. <div class="firstmain">
  9. <ul id="FirstUL">
  10. <li id="first"><a href="white.htm"></a></li>
  11. <li>
  12. <div id="second">
  13. <a href="blue.htm"></a>
  14. </div>
  15. </li>
  17. </ul>
  18. <ul id="SecondUL">
  19. <li id="third"><a href="red.htm"></a></li>
  20. <li id="forth"><a href=yellow.htm></a></li>
  21. </ul>
  22. </div>
  23. <div class="secondmain" >
  24. <a class="fifth" href="green.htm"></a>
  25. </div>
  26. </body>
  27. </html>
StyleSheet.css
  1. #FirstUL
  2. {
  3. margin: 0;
  4. padding: 0;
  5. width: 450px;
  6. float: left;
  7. height: 160px;
  8. }
  9. #FirstUL ul
  10. {
  11. list-style: none;
  12. margin: 0;
  13. padding: 0;
  14. }
  15. #FirstUL li
  16. {
  17. padding: 0;
  18. margin: 0;
  19. float: left;
  20. list-style: none;
  21. top: 0;
  22. list-style: none;
  23. }
  24. #FirstUL a
  25. {
  26. height: 157px;
  27. width: 157;
  28. display: block;
  29. }
  30. #first
  31. {
  32. background-image: url('image/all balls.jpg');
  33. background-position: 0 0;
  34. background-repeat: no-repeat;
  35. width: 157px;
  36. height: 157px;
  37. }
  38. #second
  39. {
  40. margin-left: 29px;
  41. background-image: url('image/all balls.jpg');
  42. background-position: -184px 0;
  43. background-repeat: no-repeat;
  44. width: 157px;
  45. height: 157px;
  46. }
  47. #SecondUL
  48. {
  49. margin: 0;
  50. padding: 0;
  51. width: 850px;
  52. float: left;
  53. margin-top: 154px;
  54. margin-left: -420px;
  55. height: 157px;
  56. }
  57. #SecondUL ul
  58. {
  59. list-style: none;
  60. margin: 0;
  61. padding: 0;
  62. }
  63. #SecondUL li
  64. {
  65. padding: 0;
  66. margin-right: 100PX;
  67. height: 160PX;
  68. float: left;
  69. list-style: none;
  70. top: 0;
  71. list-style: none;
  72. }
  73. #SecondUL a
  74. {
  75. height: 157px;
  76. width: 157px;
  77. display: block;
  78. }
  79. #third
  80. {
  81. margin-left: 29px;
  82. margin-top: 20PX;
  83. background-image: url('image/all%20balls.jpg');
  84. background-position: -9px -174px;
  85. background-repeat: no-repeat;
  86. width: 157px;
  87. height: 157px;
  88. }
  89. #forth
  90. {
  91. background-image: url('image/all balls.jpg');
  92. background-position: -293px -152px;
  93. background-repeat: no-repeat;
  94. width: 157px;
  95. height: 157px;
  96. }
  97. .firstmain
  98. {
  99. margin: 0px;
  100. padding: 0px;
  101. height: 330px;
  102. width: 900px;
  103. }
  104. .fifth
  105. {
  106. background-image: url('image/all%20balls.jpg');
  107. background-position: -164px -290px;
  108. background-repeat: no-repeat;
  109. padding: 0px;
  110. width: 157px;
  111. height: 157px;
  112. }
  113. .secondmain
  114. {
  115. margin-left: 200px;
  116. margin-top: -27px;
  117. width: 157px;
  118. height: 157px;
  119. }
  120. .secondmain a
  121. {
  122. margin: 0px;
  123. padding: 0px;
  124. height: 157px;
  125. width: 157;
  126. display: block;
  127. }
Output
Internet Explorer
image sprites
Chrome
image sprites
Fire Fox
CSS-image.gif
Safari
image sprites
When you click on the red ball you will be navigated to the Red.htm page.
Output
image sprites