Looking for desktop wallpapers

[Trido (Justin)]

I am looking for good widescreen astronomy wallpapers. NASA has some nice ones, but they aren't in widescreen so they look stretched and crap. Anyone know of any sites that have them or have some they can upload somewhere?

[Matty P (Matt)]

Have a look at this site:

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

[Trido (Justin)]

Those wallpapers are not widescreen.

[leon]

Use your own astro images, or photos of special events that you may have on your computer, family, new arrivals (baby) your missus, it can go on for ever.

Leon

[Trido (Justin)]

The problem is that these images are not in a widescreen format. They look terrible made to fit when they don't have the same aspect ratio.

[Matty P (Matt)]

Trido, try Google Images and select in the drop down "Extra Large Images".

[acropolite (Phil)]

Try downloading webshots, a free downloadable screensaver/desktop background utility, there are no gotchas associated with Webshots, there are some excellent astro (and non astro) images available for download for free.

[snowyskiesau]

If you're looking for astronomy related wallpapers, try:

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Einstein.html

There are a lot of images that suit a wide screen format (I run some at 1920x1200)

[Trido (Justin)]

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

If you're looking for astronomy related wallpapers, try:

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Einstein.html

There are a lot of images that suit a wide screen format (I run some at 1920x1200)

That is great, thanks.

[leon]

Opp's Trido, yep you did say wide screen, sorry.

Leon

[Kal (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by Trido

The problem is that these images are not in a widescreen format. They look terrible made to fit when they don't have the same aspect ratio.

You can choose to 'centre' images instead of the option 'stretch'. I ususally use centre and with large astrophoto's that can be a couple of thousand pixels by a couple of thousand pixels you can use anything as long as the main target is in the middle of the pic.

[MrB (Simon)]

Just crop a large image to the correct aspect ratio, then you have control of positioning and whats lost.

[Trido (Justin)]

Originally Posted by MrB

Just crop a large image to the correct aspect ratio, then you have control of positioning and whats lost.

heh Nice idea, but my monitors native res is 1440x900. Not many images that are that size.

The pics here are exceptions, although the ones I like scale pretty welll with my native res so there is no need to worry.

[mark3d]

you can make your own wallpaper from any image easily with photoshop, paint.net, gimp etc.

just make a new image the size of your desktop... fill it black or whatever.. also open your desired photo.. select all, copy then going back to your black image, paste. drag it in to place, save it and voila.


this site has some beautiful wallpapers and you can download them at any resolution:

http://interfacelift.com/

i have probably 150 superb wallpapers from there.

use it in conjunction with this tool:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

and every 15 minutes you have a new work of art on display =)

[Phil]

thanks for the site mark3d there are some great wallpaper there.
Phil

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by trido

heh Nice idea, but my monitors native res is 1440x900. Not many images that are that size.

Most Hubble(maybe all?) images are available in sizes greater than that, eg: 3864x3864
Check the 'Picture Album' instead of the wallpaper section at Hubblesite.org.
Then in Photoshop, use the Crop tool set to 1440x900 fixed size(you can select an area of any resolution, photoshop will re-size to 1440x900) or the Marquee tool at 1.6:1 'Constrained Aspect Ratio'