Just for Beginners, post your questions, ask for help, get opinions...
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I am thinking of creating a couple of desktop wallpapers. :idea: How would you resize the same picture for different desktop sizes and what sizes would be the most popular for computer desktop wallpaper?
I assume it would be important to keep the file size down.
[url]http://www.sheilascorner.com/photography.html[/url]
Do you just want to use the wall paper for your own computer?
Tina B
Hi Sheila,

Well, it depends on how you want your papers to be treated.

If the image used does not match the screen aspect ratio it will appear to be letterboxed (top and bottom) or sidebar (left and right sides) blanked.

I ran a little test using my ATI tool that allows me to change screen resolutions and plunked that into EXCEL to calculate the aspect ratio of each of the ones that my video card is capable of delivering.

Here are the results:

2008-07-26_074142.jpg
2008-07-26_074142.jpg (59.95 KiB) Viewed 1519 times


Other video cards may have more options, but is is apparent that the most popular are 1.3, 1.6 and 1.8.

Any paper that you produce that matches those aspect ratios will fit perfectly on all screens that match that aspect ratio.

What I do when I play with this is ask myself what size screen I want to produce an image for - say the old fashioned 1024x768.

I do a custom crop with 10.24 inches by 7.68 inches at whatever ppi is in the native picture and crop it. That image will work for all aspect ratios that are 1.3, etc.

If you don't match the aspect ratio, PCs will let you stretch out the image to fill the space, but will introduce distortion to do it.

So, if you don't want your paper being distorted, produce 1 per the 3 most popular aspect ratios.
John
Thank you, that is an excellent chart. I have copied it to use.
I have friends and relatives who frequent my photography section on http://www.sheilascorner.com and a couple have mentioned using a picture for desktop wallpaper. So I thought as something new for the site, I could make 2 -3 wallpaper and offer them to people for free. I would not do a lot but change them from time to time.
I have 2 computers of my own. A laptop and a desktop. And they each have a different screen size.

I looked around at the sites that offer wallpaper but they are offering way more than I would. I was just thinking of a couple.
I would be using Photoshop CS3 to create them.
This is just an idea, I have not tried to do it yet. I was not sure how to use the same picture and create 3-4 different sizes.
My camera, Canon 1Ds Mark II, takes a picture that is 4992 x 3328 so without any cropping that is what I would have to work with.
[url]http://www.sheilascorner.com/photography.html[/url]
Sheila,

I looked at your site from another post - the sunflower one - lovely images.

One thing I didn't mention is that if cropping specifically for the screen size, I would probably be inclined to crop at a resolution of 100 ppi. The reason foe this is that if you multiply the 10.24 9nches by 100 you have 1024 pixels which is exactly the resolution of the screen. Throwing more pixels at it leaves it up to the video card/monitor to decide how to show it.

I would crop to native image resolution, add any text or copyright info or any other adjustments, then crop or resize to get to the 100 ppi resolution that will be shown on-screen.
John
I am still trying to create 3 offered sizes of wallpapers. I decided on 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1680x1050. I am trying to use your suggestions. I cannot figure out how to get 1.3, 1.6, 1.8.
I thought I was to put those ratios in the crop using fixed ratio but that does not work. Then I tried resizing and that still did not work.

My original picture is 4992x3328. What steps would you use in Photoshop CS3?

:oops: Oh, I see I was using the wrong tool for cropping this. I was using the retangular marquee tool. I found the crop tool and it allows me to put in the inches you suggested.

Should I save it as a jpg or a png or bmp?
[url]http://www.sheilascorner.com/photography.html[/url]
I always save them as jpeg - but these are for my personal use. I don't ever download desktop images so I am not sure if there is a "standard".
John
Thank you for your help. I finally managed to created a couple.
This has been a learning experience. I appreciate all your suggestions.

http://www.sheilascorner.com/photogifts.html
[url]http://www.sheilascorner.com/photography.html[/url]
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