How To Make A Picture My Desktop Background On A Mac

Since the introduction of macOS Mojave, Mac desktop backgrounds got quite a bit more lively and dynamic, adapting to the verbal hour of the mean solar day. Merely even then, let'due south face it, default Mac backgrounds are pretty boring. When everyone sports the same wallpaper as y'all, it comes across every bit a sign of laziness and conformity. Luckily, we can easily spice things up!

In that location are lots of options for you to choose every bit your background, from a set of default ones to anything customized. Here, we'll explore how to alter background on Mac apace likewise equally touch on on how to alter screen saver, so you never become tired of looking at your Mac.

How To Alter Wallpaper On Mac

If you lot simply desire to switch away from the default Mac desktop wallpaper, y'all should first endeavor 1 of the Apple backgrounds already pre-installed on your Mac.

Changing MacBook backgrounds is like shooting fish in a barrel:

Open System Preferences ➙ Desktop & Screen Saver
Make certain you're in the Desktop tab
In the sidebar, open Apple ➙ Desktop Pictures
Click on whatsoever of the pictures to gear up it as your background

Mac desktop preset

Set custom Mac backgrounds effortlessly

To divert from Apple's preselected style, Macs allow you to set any epitome of your selection as a Mac desktop wallpaper. Simply detect the image anywhere on your Mac, right-click on information technology, and select Set Desktop Picture from the menu. In case your image is in the Photos app, open up information technology upward, click on the share icon, and cull the Gear up Desktop Motion-picture show option from at that place.

set custom background

When choosing a custom background, check that information technology fits the desktop just right. If non, conform the fit by selecting a dropdown and picking from either Fill Screen, Fit to Screen, Heart, etc.

Rotate a drove of Mac desktop wallpapers

There's also another fashion to add your ain group of images, which gives you more than flexibility in terms of setting them to automatically rotate after:

Go to Organization Preferences ➙ Desktop & Screen Saver
Click on the plus sign in the lesser-left corner
Navigate to the picture folder of your choice
Click Choose to add the selection to the Desktop carte du jour

custom photos background on Mac

Now your folder should exist visible in the sidebar of the Desktop & Screen Saver window. You can still just select one of the images out of the folder. Only if you want the images to rotate:

Check the box side by side to "Modify pic"
Ready the frequency from the dropdown

Remove duplicates from your epitome folder

Most of the fourth dimension, the paradigm folder you set to be rotated is the ane from your contempo trip or maybe fifty-fifty a photoshoot. Hence it'due south probable to contain lots of similar photos: the ones taken from the same bending of the same object. How do yous get rid of them? Going through the whole folder yourself and deleting all near duplicates one by one is boring and fourth dimension consuming. Instead, y'all should use an automatic solution.

Gemini is a lightweight simply mighty duplicate finder utility for your Mac. Its AI-based algorithm not just finds the exact duplicates in any folder on your Mac, it likewise compares all the similar pictures and preselects the redundant options for a 1-click removal. Don't worry, Gemini makes it easy to restore whatever files that were wrongly deleted.

Before selecting your folder for Mac desktop wallpaper rotation:

Open up Gemini
Drop the folder correct onto the app
Click "Scan for Duplicates"
Remove whatever similar photos that Gemini has found

Gemini duplicate finder

Retouch all the images at one time

Once yous're sure no duplicates or like-looking images are left in your picture folder, y'all might want to adapt them in one style or some other for a better await.

It could be that your images are of a different size than the MacBook Pro backgrounds, or yous've been shooting in RAW format and need to convert images to .jpg, for instance. Again, y'all probably already take a one-by-one workflow that does this, but is there a faster way?

PhotoBulk is a powerful image processing app that was designed to piece of work specifically with batches of photos, editing dozens or hundreds at a time. It's perfect for resizing, changing formats, renaming, compressing, and watermarking.

Using PhotoBulk is as straightforward every bit an editing app can be:

In the app, add your picture folder using the plus icon in the lesser left
Choose the modifications you'd like to do in the sidebar
Adjust those edits and click Start

Photobulk batch retouching

At present when you got rid of all the duplicates and made the necessary edits to your photos, you tin can add your photograph folder to Desktop & Screen Saver and exist sure it'll look skillful in that location.

Rotate beautiful backgrounds automatically

Having your photos rotate every bit your MacBook backgrounds is great. Just what if you don't accept any high-quality pictures around? Or just don't desire to spend any time setting something upward?

Wallpaper Wizard was created to rescue your Mac desktop wallpaper and bring beauty and inspiration to it. The automated rotation office is already built in and you tin cull from more 35,000 loftier-quality royalty-free images to go on your collection ever-fresh.

Starting with Wallpaper Wizard is quite straightforward:

Browse the app for the broad category you like, whether People or Vehicles
Cull a specific set of images
Click on the plus icon to add them to your Roll

Wallpaper Wizard set roll background

You tin can also create your own Rolls by clicking on the plus icon of specific images. And if y'all just desire one of the cute Mac desktop backgrounds from Wallpaper Sorcerer to be static, merely open it up and choose Set Desktop Picture show.

Choose and install the best screensavers for Mac

In one case you've decided what your MacBook backgrounds should exist, yous tin can similarly adjust your Mac screensaver too. You know that you lot have a screensaver on your Mac past default, right?

To see your electric current Mac screensaver, just become to System Preferences ➙ Desktop & Screen Saver and navigate to the Screen Saver tab. Your default screensaver would announced on the right. If you want to modify information technology, you can merely explore all the options on the left and click on the one you similar. Additionally, many screensavers would present customization options for further adjustments.

You might exist wondering how to modify screen saver to something custom. First, y'all need to find a suitable screen saver online and download it. The screen saver should take a .saver file extension. And then to install it, either double-click on the file or move the file to your Library ➙ Screen Savers folder. Now you should see the new screensaver in the Desktop & Screen Saver list.

screen saver options

Ameliorate security with Hot Corners

Since you now have a perfect Mac screensaver in place, at that place'due south one more than thing you tin alter to make your computer more secure overall.

Hot Corners is a great niggling characteristic that triggers a certain action when your cursor reaches ane of the corners of your screen. What you want to exercise here is set a Hot Corner to lock your Mac and commencement a screensaver.

To set up Hot Corners:

Go to Arrangement Preferences ➙ Desktop & Screen Saver
In the Screen Saver tab, click Hot Corners in the lesser correct
Using a dropdown, ready one of the corners to Start Screen Saver
Navigate to System Preferences ➙ Security & Privacy
Check the box to "Require password immediately afterwards slumber or screen saver begins"

From now on, when you move your cursor to a given corner, your beautiful new screensaver will offset and your Mac will lock. Information technology's strongly suggested to exercise this every time your step away from your figurer to keep your information rubber.

set hot corners

Then ready a rotating Mac desktop wallpaper, whether it's your personal annal, quickly processed with Gemini for duplicates and PhotoBulk for retouching, or Wallpaper Wizard with its gorgeous HD rolls of images. Then install one of many custom screensavers for Mac and configure Hot Corners to improve your laptop'south security.

Best of all, you could use all the apps mentioned in a higher place free for a limited time through Setapp, a platform of more than than 150 Mac apps that improve your daily workflow and ensure a beautiful user experience. Enjoy the view!