Note: this page was archived from the following url: https://github.com/msikma/pokesprite/wiki/FAQ-and-other-notes. It was last edited Dec 11, 2016, and was deleted Mar 27, 2020.
Q: Why put all these icons in one big image? Isn't it more efficient to keep them in separate files and then only use the ones you need?
When loading an HTML page, the main factor that determines how long it takes is the amount of connections that need to be opened. For each file you include (CSS files, Javascript files, image files—anything), a new connection has to be made to request that file. If the file itself is small, it won't take long to download, but the act of opening the connection and getting the green light to begin transmitting the file's data takes time as well.
For that reason, it's recommended to minimize the amount of files included on a webpage. In the case of images, we can do this by putting them together in one single image, and then having multiple elements refer to different parts of that same image. This way, instead of requesting tons and tons of different images, we only need to request one. Minimizing connections is overwhelmingly the largest factor in reducing load times for websites.
Aside from that, it's useful to have one central location for all these icons.
A: Previous generations did have Rock Smash as an HM rather than a TM. But rather than use an old icon, I've custom made an icon in Generation VI style for consistency purposes, as all other icons are in that same style.
A: They were custom made. No Pokémon game has ever had official ones.
A: All icons were, if necessary, padded to the Generation VII icon size of 32x32 (up from 30x30 for Gen VI, and 24x24 before that) for consistency purposes.
A: This has been asked surprisingly many times. These are the "body style" icons used in the Pokédex, e.g. bipedal tailed, head with arms, quadruped, et cetera.
A: Most are, but some aren't. The goal was to make icons that have the same visual quality as the originals, except with shiny colors. Due to the way pixel art works, that meant pure recolors were sometimes impossible. For example, any Pokémon that has its colors changed from something dark to something bright usually needed extra shades of gray.
Occasionally, the design itself also necessitated changes to specific areas rather than simply all pixels with those colors. In short, a good deal of them, particularly in later generations, were more work than just palette swapping.
In any case, I've attempted to maintain the basic visual style.
CSS wasn't efficient enough because of the huge amount of rules. IE9 in particular can't process more than 1024 rules per CSS file, and even in decent browsers it wasn't very efficient either. So now the CSS contains the most basic attributes and the sizes for each icon set. The coordinates of each icon are set through JS. The disadvantage is that this makes the system unusable for people who browse without JS enabled. However, these days that is a very tiny fraction. (And, although it'd be nice to support that fraction too, it just doesn't seem like there's a feasible way to do so.)
ORAS saw a number of icon changes. The following changes were made:
| Dex | Name | Form | Type of change |
|---|---|---|---|
| #015 | Beedrill | Mega | New form |
| #018 | Pidgeot | Mega | New form |
| #025 | Pikachu | Cosplay, Beautiful, Clever, Cool, Cute, Tough | New forms |
| #080 | Slowbro | Mega | New form |
| #208 | Steelix | Modification | |
| #208 | Steelix | Mega | New form |
| #252 | Treecko | Modification | |
| #254 | Sceptile | Mega | New form |
| #256 | Combusken | Modification | |
| #257 | Blaziken | Modification | |
| #260 | Swampert | Mega | New form |
| #272 | Ludicolo | Modification | |
| #274 | Nuzleaf | Modification | |
| #275 | Shiftry | Modification | |
| #302 | Sableye | Modification | |
| #302 | Sableye | Mega | New form |
| #319 | Sharpedo | Mega | New form |
| #323 | Camerupt | Mega | New form |
| #334 | Altaria | Mega | New form |
| #362 | Glalie | Mega | New form |
| #373 | Salamence | Mega | New form |
| #376 | Metagross | Modification | |
| #376 | Metagross | Mega | New form |
| #382 | Kyogre | Primal | New form |
| #383 | Groudon | Primal | New form |
| #384 | Rayquaza | Mega | New form |
| #428 | Lopunny | Mega | New form |
| #475 | Gallade | Modification | |
| #475 | Gallade | Mega | New form |
| #531 | Audino | Mega | New form |
| #719 | Diancie | Modification | |
| #719 | Diancie | Mega | New form |
| #720 | Hoopa | Unbound | New form |
A number of other icons (rare items, medicine, etc) were changed as well.
Frankly, I can't be bothered to write a complete update each time I add support for a new game. Suffice it to say that everything that's supposed to be there, is there. If not, please open an issue!
I've attempted to make the icon package complete and consistent. In the few cases where icons fit multiple categories, I've made duplicates. (Such as King's Rock, which can be found under icons/evo-item and icons/hold-item.)
Icons of unknown origin:
icons/key-item/lost-item-mimejr.png
Unofficial icons (see FAQ):
icons/hm/fighting.png
Debugging switches:
- You can use the
--pkmn-range=<a>-<b>switch to compile an image containing only Pokémon in a certain range. E.g. 1-3 for only 001, 002 and 003.