Question

I am experienced at creating advanced CSS sprites by hand, but I now find myself wondering if it’s possible to have one image of vertically repeating background as well as a second image of horizontally repeating (different) background, contained in the same sprite?

It would seem logically impossible, if both images have to truly repeat, I mean think about it, you cannot specify a cropped area for the repeat, so they each would expand the image to where the vertical graphic would appear in the horizontal background and visa-versa.

But I just wanted to make sure I am not missing out on some kind of trick that I am not aware of – thanks for any suggestions or examples to explore.

If you are not certain what I am describing, draw a horizontal line across a paper and now draw a tall vertical line elsewhere on the paper. Now imagine one image repeating across the horizontal and a different image repeating down the vertical. Now try to imagine a sprite that could hold both images and the css rules each would use. It’s not possible based on what I have learned but maybe there is a trick I don’t know.

Answer 1

Short answer: not possible. 🙂

What I always do in your case:

Use two:

1. for vertical repeats
2. for horizontal repeats