The little things are important

If you use your computer all day long, like I do, you know the importance of good desktop wallpaper. The wrong image can nag at you, break your concentration or make it uncomfortable to sit in front of your screen. Most people also use their desktops to personalize an otherwise unfeeling machine. Just look at the screens of the people around you: some have kids, some are nature lovers and some…well, you just wonder about them.

For several years now, photographer Trey Ratcliff has given away thousands of free HD wallpaper images, posting them under a Creative Commons noncommercial license. This means you can use them for personal stuff, like desktop wallpapers or phone backgrounds, your personal blog, etc. These are gorgeous images by one of the world’s top photographers. They are available in a variety of sizes from his personal portfolio site.

Desktop wallpaper hints

• If you need help applying a photo to your desktop, check out this tutorial.
• Use a photo editing program to resize the image to the dimensions of your monitor(s). In Windows, right-click anywhere on the desktop and select “screen resolution” to find your screen size (for other operating systems, you’re on your own).
• If you have dual monitors, you can stretch the image across both of them by doubling the width of your image, then selecting “tile” as the picture position (again, in Windows).
• Experiment with images until you find one that works well when it’s partially covered up, as it will be for much of the time you’re looking at it. I like fairly abstract or geometrical images for this reason.
• Have fun!

My current wallpaper, “The Grand Tour”, was made by my friend Richard Call, from posters published by NASA to promote space travel. These are also freely available to download.

Thanks Richard and Trey for your generosity in making these images available.

Until next week...