Sprite Kit OS X: SKTexture size property is incorrect
Apparently this issue is caused by incompatible image programs, in my case Inkscape was always the culprit.
The PNG files created by Inkscape appeared to work correctly but cause Sprite Kit to report the size incorrectly. In every instance this happened to me, the fix was simply to open the PNG file in Seashore, then "Save As" under the same filename to force the program to re-save the PNG file.
I assume opening and saving with other image programs might work as well, perhaps even Preview might help to fix this or a command line tool like PNGCrush.
There's also a certain consistency because Inkscape texture size is reported as 20% less, ie 204.8 for a 256 texture, or 0.8 for a 1-pixel texture. The problem seems to be with Inkscape's ppi (pixels per inch) setting, where it does not allow values below 90 ppi. But Photoshop's default is 72 ppi which is exactly 20% less. And I take it that Sprite Kit assumes the PNG to be 72 ppi, gets a 90 ppi image, and thus incorrectly (or correctly?) calculates the PNG's size as 20% less than what it actually is.