What are Wallpapers or Desktop Pictures?

27 November 2007 Filed in: Tutorials

desktop-wallpaper-with-pink-orchidA wallpaper or desktop picture is the image that’s used as a background on the desktop of a computer screen as well as on cell phones and other devices.

Desktop pictures or wallpapers are part of the desktop environment, the graphical user interface and is the most high profile item on your computer. Users can customize their desktop pictures quite easily to make their computers personal by changing the image used as the background of their desktop.

In Windows this type of image is referred to as a “wallpaper” and on a Mac it’s called a “desktop picture”. These tutorials guide you through how to change your wallpaper in Windows and how to change your desktop picture on a Mac.

snowy day wallpaper Wallpapers or desktop pictures are available in many different formats to fit different monitor sizes.

Fullscreen and widescreen monitors have different proportions for wallpapers. Although wallpapers can be scaled by the system, picking a size that corresponds with the resolution of your monitor ensures that there is no loss of quality caused by scaling the image.

satsuma sky desktop wallpaperPeople who use multi-monitor set-ups can use dual monitor wallpaper. These images are created especially for multi-monitor set ups. Sometimes the image will appear to continue from one monitor to the next. The image can also be reflected in the second display. There are many ways to create desktop pictures for dual monitor set ups.

In Mac OS X you can set your system to automatically change your desktop picture and pick one of the intervals offered such as every hour, every day or when waking from sleep.

Read more about the desktop environment in this article about computer icons and the desktop metaphor.

Illustrations with Pink Orchid Desktop Wallpaper, Snowy Day Wallpaper and Satsuma Sky Wallpaper.

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