Awallpaper orbackground (also known as adesktop background,desktop picture ordesktop image on computers) is a digital image (photo, drawing etc.) used as a decorative background of agraphical user interface on the screen of acomputer,smartphone or other electronic device. On a computer, wallpapers are generally used on thedesktop, while on amobile phone they serve as the background for thehome screen. Though most devices include a default background image, modern devices usually allow users to manually change the background image.
The term "wallpaper" was used inMicrosoft Windows before Windows XP (In Windows XP and later, it is called the "desktop background"). Meanwhile,macOS refers to it as "desktop picture". On older systems that allowed small repeated patterns to be set as background images, the termdesktop pattern was used.
TheX Window System was one of the earliest systems to include support for an arbitrary image as wallpaper via the xsetroot program, which at least as early as the X10R3 release in 1985 could tile the screen with any solid color or anybinary-imageX BitMap file. In 1989, afree software program called xgifroot was released that allowed an arbitrary colorGIF image to be used as wallpaper, and in the same year the free xloadimage program was released which could display a variety of image formats (including color images inSun Rasterfile format) as the desktop background. Subsequently, a number of programs were released that added wallpaper support for additional image formats and other features, such as the xpmroot program (released in 1993 as part offvwm) and thexv software (released in 1994).
The original Macintosh operating system only allowed a selection of 8×8-pixel binary-image tiled patterns; the ability to use small color patterns was added inSystem 5 in 1987.[1]Mac OS 8 in 1997 was the first Macintosh version to include built-in support for using arbitrary images as desktop pictures, rather than small repeating patterns.[2]
Windows 3.0 in 1990 was the first version of Microsoft Windows to feature support for wallpaper customization, and used the term "wallpaper" for this feature.[3] Although Windows 3.0 only came with 7 small patterns (2 black-and-white and 5 16-color), the user could supply other images in theBMP file format with up to8-bit color (although the system was theoretically capable of handling24-bit color images, it did so bydithering them to an 8-bitpalette)[4] to provide similar wallpaper features otherwise lacking in those systems. A wallpaper feature was added in abeta release of OS/2 2.0 in 1991.[5]
Due to the widespread use ofpersonal computers, some wallpapers have become immensely recognizable and gained iconic cultural status.Bliss, the default wallpaper of Windows XP, has become the most viewedphotograph of the 2000s.[6]
Animated backgrounds (sometimes referred to aslive backgrounds ordynamic backgrounds) refers to wallpapers which feature a moving image or a 2D / 3D scene as an operating system background rather than a static image, it may also refer to wallpapers being cycled in a playlist, often with certain transition effects. Some operating systems, such asAndroid, provide native support for animated wallpapers.
Windows has had several ways of implementing dynamic backgrounds over the years. For example:
Live wallpapers have been introduced inAndroid 2.0 Eclair to provide native support for animated wallpapers. From a technical point of view, live wallpapers are software applications that provide a moving background image and may allow for user interaction or utilize other hardware and software features within the device (accelerometer, GPS, network access, etc.).[7]
macOS has built-in support, via the Desktop & Screen Saver panel in itsSystem Preferences/Settings, for cycling through a folder collection of images on a timed interval or when logging in or waking from sleep. SincemacOS Mojave, the user can also select a "Dynamic Desktop" that automatically updates to visually match the time of the day.[8]
Additionally, macOS has the native ability to run ascreen saver on the desktop; in this configuration, the screen saver appears beneath the desktop icons in place of the system wallpaper. However, macOS does not feature a built-in interface to do this; it must be done throughTerminal commands or various third-party applications.[9]
Dynamically animated backgrounds have also been introduced iniOS 7 and later versions, however they are restricted to the ones provided by Apple.Jailbroken iOS devices can download other dynamic backgrounds.
Linux distributions usually provides their own original backgrounds. For example:
/usr/share/backgrounds directory./usr/share/backgrounds/mate directory.