Sprite

What Does Sprite" Mean?

With the development of modern computer graphics technologies, sprites have evolved into a type of "stand-alone" graphic element. The term sprite refers to a two-dimensional image or animation that plays a specific role within a larger image environment, often independently manipulated.

Techopedia Explains Sprite

Hardware circuitry and software programs form two fundamentally different types of sprite design. Historically, sprites have been manipulated as sets of bitmaps in a greater visual image since the mid-1970s, when primitive sprite images started to be used.

Throughout the decades, sprites evolved from bitmaps or block images to more sophisticated animated GIFs, and then to three-dimensional or fully animated characters. Sprite sheets are an example of modern technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), in which individual graphics can be cut down and used within a software or web application. Sprites can be used to speed up page load times and improve software display tasks in modern web design.