Spritesheet vs ShoeBox
ShoeBox is a free desktop sprite tool built on Adobe AIR - a runtime that Adobe discontinued. Spritesheet Generator is a modern, browser-based alternative that requires no install.
A modern replacement for a discontinued runtime
ShoeBox was a popular free sprite tool, but it depends on Adobe AIR, a runtime Adobe stopped supporting at the end of 2020. Installing it today means adding a third-party runtime to your machine before you can pack a single sheet. Spritesheet Generator runs in any modern browser, requires no install, and is actively maintained with new features shipping regularly.
The Adobe AIR situation, stated accurately
Adobe ended its own support for Adobe AIR on 31 December 2020 and handed the runtime to HARMAN, which still maintains and distributes it. So AIR is not dead, and ShoeBox is not guaranteed to fail to launch. Comparison pages that claim otherwise are overstating it.
What is true is the friction. Running ShoeBox in 2026 means downloading a runtime from a third party, getting it past whatever your operating system thinks of an unsigned or unfamiliar installer, and doing all of that before you have packed anything. On macOS in particular, the notarisation and architecture story for AIR builds has been rough for years, and reports of it failing to install cleanly are common enough to be the expected outcome rather than bad luck.
ShoeBox itself has been effectively frozen for years. It works or it does not, and if it does not, nobody is going to fix it.
What ShoeBox was actually good at
Worth naming, because the feature list undersells it. ShoeBox was a grab bag of image utilities that happened to include a sprite packer, and some of those utilities were genuinely unusual. Bitmap font generation from a TTF, and font extraction back out of an image, had few free alternatives. Extract Sprites could find and cut individual sprites out of a messy sheet where the frames were not on any grid, using connected-pixel detection rather than a cell size. There were also polygon and collision-outline helpers.
Nothing here replaces the bitmap font tooling, and the splitter works on a grid or a defined cell size rather than hunting irregular blobs. If those specific jobs are what brought you to ShoeBox, this is not a drop-in replacement and it would be dishonest to say it is.
What the browser version does instead
For the core loop, pack frames into a sheet and get usable data out, the browser is simply a better delivery mechanism. Nothing to install, nothing to keep updated, and it works identically on Windows, macOS, Linux, and a Chromebook. Your images never leave the tab, which is a stronger privacy position than a desktop tool with network access.
On top of the packer there is an animation preview with an fps control, a pixel editor for fixing a frame in place, recolour and palette-swap tools, and engine-specific exports: a JSON atlas for Phaser and PixiJS, a SpriteFrames .tres for Godot 4, a .tsj tileset for Tiled, and Sparrow XML. ShoeBox predates most of those formats.
Pick ShoeBox when
You need bitmap font generation, font extraction, or sprite detection on an irregular sheet with no grid. Those are the tools nothing here replicates, and they are worth the AIR install if you need them.
Pick Spritesheet Generator when
You want to pack, split, preview, and export sheets without installing a runtime first, and you want output formats that engines released after 2015 can read.
| Feature | UsUs | ShoeBox |
|---|---|---|
| Free to use | ||
| Works in the browser ShoeBox needs the Adobe AIR runtime installed first | ||
| Actively maintained ShoeBox has not been updated in years | ||
| Drag & drop sprite upload | ||
| Auto grid layout | ||
| PNG export | ||
| JSON atlas export | ||
| GIF export | ||
| Engine-specific formats Unity, Godot, Phaser, Tiled | ||
| Built-in pixel art editor | ||
| Spritesheet splitting | ||
| Animation preview | ||
| Multi-layer support | ||
| Bitmap font creation | ||
| Sprite detection on irregular sheets ShoeBox finds sprites with no grid | ||
| Works on modern macOS / Linux AIR installs are unreliable on recent macOS | ||
| No account required |
No runtime to install
No Adobe AIR download, no unsigned installer to argue with. It runs in the browser you already have open.
Actively maintained
Regular updates, new features, and community-driven development. ShoeBox has not been updated in years.
Cross-platform by default
Works on Windows, macOS, Linux, Chromebook - any device with a browser. ShoeBox struggles on modern macOS and Linux.
Built-in editor & preview
Edit sprites, preview animations, and adjust layouts without leaving the tool. ShoeBox focuses solely on packing.
More questions? See the full FAQ.
Skip the runtime install
Same job, one browser tab, nothing to download first.