[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Best Source for Desktop Backgrounds
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: Best Source for Desktop Backgrounds
Any good recommendations for downloading desktop backgrounds? I'm
looking for pictures or artwork to use for my dual screen monitors.
But I find it difficult to find high res downloads from safe
sources.
Author : hawktheslayer
Score : 58 points
Date : 2021-03-28 18:07 UTC (4 hours ago)
| mak3141 wrote:
| I really like https://nik.bot.nu/
| svacko wrote:
| I love the clean art on desktop backgrounds on
| http://simpledesktops.com - using it for years, besides already
| mentioned unsplash
| hellokittah wrote:
| The best one I found was https://Unsplash.com
|
| It has 1000s of high quality absolutely free images. You can even
| use them for commercial purposes for free legally.
| pimlottc wrote:
| Unsplash is also a great resource for slide deck backgrounds
| and hero images.
| electricant wrote:
| You've been faster than me. Great suggestion. There's tons of
| free and high quality backgrounds on there. There are also apps
| for your favorite smartphone OS avaliable.
|
| https://unsplash.com/apps
| billylo wrote:
| Mac too. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/unsplash-
| wallpapers/id12848638...
| petecooper wrote:
| https://pixabay.com/
|
| https://burst.shopify.com/
|
| https://www.pexels.com/
| jandorn wrote:
| https://unsplash.com
|
| https://burst.shopify.com
|
| https://www.pexels.com
|
| https://stocksnap.io
|
| https://www.reshot.com
| harel wrote:
| Years ago I used DeviantArt quite a bit for that
| (https://www.deviantart.com/). I don't really know how good a
| resource it is these days but it's still a thing.
| ly wrote:
| If you're looking for artwork I can recommend visiting museum
| websites, some of them offer their collections online with high
| quality downloads.
|
| For example, the Rijksmuseum:
| https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio
| john-tells-all wrote:
| * https://www.catsonsynthesizersinspace.com/
|
| * https://www.reddit.com/r/catsinboxes/
|
| * Wikimedia isn't bad
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Background_image...
|
| * Wikipedia has tons of stunning hi-res artwork, as does...
|
| * Wikiart! Example: Max Ernst https://www.wikiart.org/en/max-
| ernst/the-angel-of-the-home-o...
| skunkworker wrote:
| I really used to like https://interfacelift.com, but there hasn't
| been consistent uploads in about 2 years, though there are still
| a lot of great wallpapers on that site.
|
| The best in the past couple years has definitely been
| https://unsplash.com .
| zepearl wrote:
| https://bingwallpaper.anerg.com
| spartanatreyu wrote:
| I'm going to say https://artstation.com
|
| In particular, I enjoy both the environmental concept art &
| design section and the matte painting sections:
|
| - https://www.artstation.com/channels/environmental_concept_de...
|
| - https://www.artstation.com/channels/matte_painting?sort_by=t...
| mikewarot wrote:
| Don't forget Flickr, which is still alive, and still has strong
| support for the Creative Commons.
|
| Here's a picture of clover I use as my background, it's dark
| enough I can still see my icons, yet interesting.
|
| https://www.flickr.com/photos/---mike---/50131172608/in/date...
|
| Disclosure: I took the photo.
| lazyweb wrote:
| Maybe somewhat nostalgic, but I remember cycling through many
| artworks by digitalblasphemy [1] during the early-mid 2000s.
| Honestly surprised to see there's still new content!
|
| [1] https://digitalblasphemy.com/
| blacktriangle wrote:
| I'm still a subscriber there actually. The guy behind it is
| going strong and keeps trying new things. Would highly
| recommend if you like his style.
| ddevault wrote:
| I'll play the weeb card for this one. I like danbooru, which
| mainly categorizes fan art for anime and such, and is the gold
| standard in community image indexing and categorization. Their
| main site is NSFW, but you can access an SFW version via
| safebooru. Here's an example of a search which yields some
| wallpapers:
|
| https://safebooru.donmai.us/posts?tags=ratio%3A16%3A9+scener...
|
| The images are available in their original quality, and they have
| detailed tags. You can search by aspect ratio, width and height,
| and details of the image - "colorful", "scenery", "cityscape",
| and so on, or by the artist, copyright, or featured characters.
| You can search up to two terms for free, or pay a one-time fee of
| $20 for 6 terms, and $40 for twelve.
|
| The search features are documented here:
|
| https://safebooru.donmai.us/wiki_pages/help%3Acheatsheet
| peterbecich wrote:
| Wikimedia Commons panoramas:
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Featured_pictures...
| kylelibra wrote:
| https://wallhaven.cc has a solid selection and some basic
| filters.
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| This is by far the one I use most. Great selection, relatively
| few dupes, decent tagging, and not too many low quality
| upscales.
| Sunspark wrote:
| I've been enjoying the Bing wallpaper app. Every day, it's
| something new that arrives! https://www.microsoft.com/en-
| us/bing/bing-wallpaper
| slenk wrote:
| I just wish it would set a different wallpaper per monitor
| emsign wrote:
| I love to browse the website of the Library of Congress, it has a
| lot of expressive historical photographs and you can download the
| high-res scans of the original plates. Of course, I have to
| process the images in an editor a bit, but I love the process.
| Generally I like "crafting" my desktop backgrounds myself.
|
| I also like to have photos I've taken as my background.
| infoseek12 wrote:
| Ya, the Library of Congress collection is great, it's
| practically the only place I've been able to find images of art
| that is at least 3840 pixels wide that doesn't need to be
| upscaled for 4K monitors. Does anyone know any other sources of
| high resolution images of classic art? All of the photos on
| museum sites like the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum are really low
| quality.
| 153957 wrote:
| I get mine from http://louie.world/wallpapers/
|
| A bunch of wallpapers related to specific movies or Disney, with
| various variations or themes per movie/series.
| HungSu wrote:
| I'm going to go in totally the opposite direction of things
| suggested here.
|
| Personally, my backgrounds are things important to me, I easily
| forget about, and can't easily action.
|
| For example, one background is of my family, including my grandma
| who doesn't have any kind of social media or digital
| communication device at all. I'm in another country, so actions
| available to contact her are small. Reminders of her are
| infrequent - chats with my family are usually not about her. But
| I don't want to forget her, so into my slideshow rotation it
| goes.
|
| Another background is a theme park in Denmark featuring a 65m
| free fall tower into a huge safety net. International travel is
| hard now, and I know no one wants to do this theme park
| attraction with me. Odds are stacked against me to remember this
| thing, so into the slideshow.
|
| All the above pictures are low res and crap. But they're
| important to me. I do love beautiful high res backgrounds, but
| I've now decided they bring me less joy than the above.
| mguerville wrote:
| I like the designer wallpaper monthly series from DesignMilk,
| over the years I've downloaded a bunch and they are my go to
| cush wrote:
| Justin Maller
|
| http://justinmaller.com/
| leokennis wrote:
| I have a folder full of single color PNG files. Basically:
|
| - find a saturation and brightness level that is pleasing to you
|
| - now basically any hue you pick will be a pleasing color
|
| - create a number of 5000x5000 PNG files in those colors
|
| - use an image optimization tool (imgoptim etc.) and crush them
| to 1 KB files
|
| - let your OS cycle through the folder
| fiznool wrote:
| As mentioned by others, the daily wallpapers supplied by bing are
| very nice. They aren't 4k, but the 1080p images still look good
| on my 4k monitors.
|
| There are a number of scripts out there which download the
| 'picture of the day' and store it locally. You can then set your
| computer to scroll through these images every so often. Here's
| the one I use: https://github.com/thejandroman/bing-wallpaper
| yakubin wrote:
| I sometimes browse r/EarthPorn[1]. One in 30-40 photos satisfies
| me enough to be a desktop background candidate.
|
| [1]: <https://old.reddit.com/r/EarthPorn/>
| ayoisaiah wrote:
| I maintain my own Unsplash collection here:
| https://unsplash.com/collections/998309/stellar-photos
| cloudking wrote:
| For multiple monitor setups
| https://www.dualmonitorbackgrounds.com/
| https://www.triplemonitorbackgrounds.com
| fbnlsr wrote:
| If you're on Windows, I quite like Splash![0], it's an app that
| automatically loads pictures from Unsplash depending on keywords
| you choose.
|
| [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/splash-unsplash-
| wallpaper/...
| hawktheslayer wrote:
| Thanks, I didn't know about Splash, and I like it! Too bad my
| system admin disabled the Microsoft store.
| ryankrage77 wrote:
| If you can get hold of the .appx file from another source,
| you may be able to install it via powershell.
| ninetax wrote:
| I rotate pictures from a bike trip I took a few years ago
| skanga wrote:
| On a somewhat related note...
|
| Does anyone have a source for good Terminal backgrounds? Terminal
| backgrounds differ from Desktop backgrounds in that they need to
| allow easy reading of text - so Desktop backgrounds aren't
| suitable for this ...
| sgt wrote:
| Been using the standard macOS Mojave desert background for 3
| years and counting. Not planning on changing.
| toinebeg wrote:
| no kidding, Wallpaper/General from 4chan :
| https://boards.4chan.org/wg/
| cropcirclbureau wrote:
| https://goodfon.com/
| champagnepapi wrote:
| https://unsplash.com/
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-03-28 23:02 UTC)