| How do I download a picture? | Simply follow the link to the resolution of the picture you want. The picture will appear in your browser. Then select Save As from the File menu or click and hold on the picture and select Save this Image As... from the popup menu. |
| I can't set a desktop picture since I installed QuickTime 5. | The culprit causing a pinkish/magenta screen in the Appearance control Panel was a QT 5 extension named "QuickTime JPEG Update". Removing it from the QuickTime Extensions folder within the System Folder's Extensions folder (and rebooting) cures the problem.
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| I downloaded the pictures but my Mac says they are AOL Art files instead of jpeg files. What do I do? | The normal AOL browser does some weird stuff to images, including turning them into unusable AOL Art files. One way to work around this problem is to download the Netscape browser (keyword NETSCAPE, I think) and use it for all your surfing needs. |
| Which resolution should I use? | Open up your Monitors or Monitors & Sound control panel and see what the resolution of your monitor is. |
| How do I set a picture as my desktop picture? | See the Instructions at the right side of each page. |
| Why are those annoying tags at the top of each image? | Sorry. Some people who shall remain nameless took pictures from MacDesktops and posted them on their own sites as their own works. The tags are to discourage such unethical behavior. |
| How do I get rid of those annoying tags at the top of each image? | Well, I strategically located them at the top of the images so they disappear underneath the menu bar. I would really prefer it if you left them there. I've made them as unobtrusive as possible. |
| I submitted a picture to MacDesktops and I never received a reply. Are you lame or what? | I am lame. Actually, I'm swamped. I rarely reply to submissions these days. You will be automatically notified if and when your picture is posted. |
| I submitted a picture to MacDesktops. When will it be posted? | I honestly do not know. Each week, I select some pictures to be posted soon. I post them roughly in the order I receive them, about 6 months to a year after I receive them. Occassionally, picture get fast tracked, usually product desktops when the product(s) get announced. |
| How do I get my Mac to pick a random desktop picture each time I start up? | In Mac OS 8/9, instead of dragging a picture into your Appearance or Desktop Pictures control panel, drag a folder containing multiple pictures into the control panel. In Mac OS X, you need to use a utility. There are several listed at VersionTracker. |
| How do I submit a picture to be included in MacDesktops? | Please read the Submissions page. |
| How large does a submission need to be? | Please read the Submissions page. |
| Should I send a submission as a JPEG or GIF file? | I prefer to receive images as layered Photoshop files, compressed into Stuffit archives or Zip archives. If you only have a JPEG or GIF version of the picture, send it in anyway but do not put it into a Stuffit or Zip archive because the file formats are already compressed. |
| I just downloaded an awesome desktop picture from another desktop picture site. Should I send it to MacDesktops? | No, but if the site is not already listed in Links, then you can send the URL using this form. I add new sites to the links as they are brought to my attention. |
| All your pictures suck! Where can I get some good ones? | There are many desktop picture sites on the net. There are links to many of them in Links page. Or search for "Desktop pictures" using your favorite search engine or Sherlock. |
| How do you get such great picture clarity while keeping the image size relatively small? | I save each of the JPEG images as Optimized High quality JPEG files using Adobe Photoshop. I find that High quality gives me the best balance between quality and size, and Optimized reduces the file sizes significantly. I do not use Progressive because some utilities do not recognize them. |
| How do you make all of those different sizes of each image? | I scale, crop, distort, clone, sharpen and/or blur using Adobe Photoshop. |
| Where can I get those really cool pictures that come with Mac OS x.y? | Those pictures belong to Apple Computer. The only legal way to obtain them is to buy a copy of the operating system, or, if the OS is old enough to be free, download it from Apple's ftp sites. Sorry, MacDesktops cannot help obtain those pictures.
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| Why does the picture quality of some of the pictures suck so badly? | Well, I have to scale up some of the pictures to reach the larger screen sizes. I try to make them look as good as possible. If I am unable to make a decent looking 1280x1024 picture out of a submitted picture, I generally do not use that submission. |
