Change the Desktop Background…

March 14th, 2007 by steveblue

Changing my desktop background is easy to do. Ctrl + Click the desktop and select Change Desktop Background… This will open System Preferences.

Desktop Preference Pane

My current Desktop Picture is displayed in the image well. I can drag any image into the well to set it as my Desktop Picture. I can also browse through all the images on my Mac by selecting a folder on the left of the Preference Pane. I can select an image from one of Apple’s preloaded image folders, a solid color (a neutral color a great background for image editing), my Pictures folder, Photo Booth images, or even my iPhoto Library and albums. Once I select a folder, the images contained in that folder will appear in a gallery on the right of the preference pane. Select an image’s thumbnail to set it as the Desktop Background.

Change picture:

I can tell Desktop Preferences to change the Desktop Background randomly. Select the folder of images, check Change picture:, select the time I want the change to happen, and check whether or not I want the change to be random.




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Written by Steve Blue
steveblue@iuseapple.com

5 Responses to “Change the Desktop Background…”

  1. Gonzalo

    Hi, I recently . how to change the size of a picture to be able to put it as a background in my sidekick 3. now i have another question, I need help! Ineed to be able to get pictures from my iphotoonosx10.4 tiger and put them as backgrounds on the desktop of my laptop. I have tried but some of the pictures show blurry or parts missing. hoe do I get to put a jpg picture into the backgrounds but not have it be blurryor distorded? please help

  2. steveblue

    Gonzalo,

    Your iPhoto Pictures can be accessed directly from the Desktop Preferences Pane, like in the image above. Click on Library and it will take you to all of your photos.

    If the pictures are blurry, the most common reason for this would be the picture might have been taken with a cell phone or low quality device and your computer is upscaling the picture to fit on your monitor. The resolution on your monitor is probably 2x-3x that of a cell phone. Your monitor will then stretch the image, making ti look blurry.

    Are you sure you are selecting the correct image from your iPhoto library? Your photos are stored in the folder User:Pictures:iPhoto Library: Modified. Are you selecting pictures from User:Pictures:iPhoto Library:Data? The thumbnails iPhoto creates for viewing your library are stored there. If you are selecting those images to be displayed as your desktop, it will result in a cut off and blurry image.

    Did this help?
    Steve Blue

  3. tovorinok

    Hello

    Great book. I just want to say what a fantastic thing you are doing! Good luck!

    Bye

  4. Baiju

    thankyou for your healp

  5. Judy

    Help, my 2 year old son was messing with the keyboard and changed my desktop background. it now looks like a photo negative or something similar to that. I have tried changing it back, but I can’t seem to figure it out. Please help.

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