Widescreen Wallpaper: Are Graphic Designers Sleeping?

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/300-screenshot.jpg

Here's a digital pet peeve of mine: when graphic designers, usually for movies, make wallpaper and only include 4:3 resolutions such as 800 x 600, 1280 x 1024, etc. Sure, 1600 x 1200 is great for a big 20" LCD monitor, but not a wide-angle 16:10 aspect ratio monitor. I saw a TV commercial for the movie "300" (http://300themovie.warnerbros.com/) and it looked awesome. I checked out the size, saw that they were offering wallpaper for download, and eagerly clicked on the link - only to find that they were offering no wide-screen wallpaper options.

Come on graphic designers of the world, get with it! Wide-screen monitors are extremely popular, and in the laptop world especially, it's very difficult to even find consumer models that have 4:3 screens. It's easy for Windows to scale an image down, so designers should release 1600 x 1200 and 1920 x 1200 (or perhaps 2560 x 1600) and be done with it. If you happen to know anyone that does wallpaper for movies, pass this message along please. ;-)

(Here's my edited 16:10 version of one wallpaper (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/300themovie-widescreen.jpg)).

[idawgik]

I have the same issue with my 20" widescreen LCD.

The place I've found to have one of the best selections of widescreen wallpapers is www.interfacelift.com

You can filter your search there to wallpapers that are available in a certain resolution.

DeviantArt also has a widescreen monitor section you could check out.

[Felix Torres]

For some resolutions, centering a comparable 4x3 image will do the trick; it crops them top and bottom but the image doesn't get distorted.
Of course, its worth remembering we're talking freebies, here. ;-)

BTW, 300, looks really promising and topical.
I love the trailer from XBLM; looks amazing.

[Phronetix]

For some resolutions, centering a comparable 4x3 image will do the trick; it crops them top and bottom but the image doesn't get distorted.

If you look at the photos at the 300 site, it looks like they may have purposely left space at the top and bottom of the pictures to allow for how the OS converts it into widescreen format for the monitor. Fits my widescreen fine with centering.

[Jason Dunn]

The place I've found to have one of the best selections of widescreen wallpapers is www.interfacelift.com

Yup, Interfacelift.com is a great resource. My rant wasn't really about not being able to find good wide screen wallpapers, it was more about the fact that the graphic designers making these wallpapers for movies don't seem to grasp that the world is moving to wide screen...

[Jason Dunn]

For some resolutions, centering a comparable 4x3 image will do the trick; it crops them top and bottom but the image doesn't get distorted.

So you mean saving a 1600 x 1200 resolution image onto a wide screen display with 1440 x 900 or something similar? Does XP do a zoom and crop? I haven't tried that in a long time. It sure doesn't zoom and crop applying a 1600 x 1200 wallpaper to a 1920 x 1200 display. ;-)

[Doug Johnson]

I understand your frustration... The site I get most of my wallpaper from these days is digitalblasphemy.com. They has both widescreen and multi (2 or 3) monitor wallpapers. There is an annual subscription fee to access them, but it's only $20... well worth it.

I get the feeling that most people creating movie and actor/actress wallpapers are amateurs, and in a lot of cases don't have (and may not be aware of) widescreen monitors. Just a thought.

[jeffd]

jason..same here. When I visit the wallpaper sections of some popular "chan" image boards, %99 of the images are 4:3. Its like they are stuck in the stoneage or something. Hellooo.. sad thing is most of them you can't crop without losing something very valuable.

[Felix Torres]

For some resolutions, centering a comparable 4x3 image will do the trick; it crops them top and bottom but the image doesn't get distorted.

So you mean saving a 1600 x 1200 resolution image onto a wide screen display with 1440 x 900 or something similar? Does XP do a zoom and crop? I haven't tried that in a long time. It sure doesn't zoom and crop applying a 1600 x 1200 wallpaper to a 1920 x 1200 display. ;-)

Not that sophisticated.
It simply "overscans" what it can't display.
Not useful for full 1920x1200, since a 1600x1200 with be heavily pillar-boxed, but for the 1650x1040 and 1440x900 class displays you'll get a semi-decent undistorted look.

For some wallpapers, the stretch mode will only introduce mild distortions that won't be readily apparent. That's what I'm doing right now on my 1920x1200 laptop; http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html doesn't look bad at all.

I do agree that the wallpaper business is stuck in the 90's; I rarely see any promo images at 1600x1200; most promos just do VGA, SGA, and XGA. A more reasonable approach would be to do two very high-res (say, 3MP) versions; one 4x3, the other 16x9 and let Windows scale then. With JPGs, bandwidth isn't *that* critical.

Maybe things will change if HDTVs start coming with screen savers and menu-system wallpaper. :?

[BulkHedd]

Equally frustrating is when you BUY a widescreen laptop and the included wallpapers are all 4:3.

[alanjrobertson]

I like that interfacelift website - although even it doesn't seem to cater for multi-monitor setups too well. Where are the 3840x1024 wallpapers for those of us with triple monitors? :D - I've got a few from '9X Media' which are great but would love some more to choose from! - please post if you know of any good sites!

Alan

[creedstonegate]

I found the same demand for widescreen stuff in what my site visitors were searching for. So I just started a widescreen wallpaper section on my site. I'm a graphic designer and I make them custom, not just resizing or cropping. I have wide and standard versions of a 300 wallpaper I put together from some promo images, plus many others from Movies and TV. Just thought you might want a heads up! Here's the page:

http://wallpapers.infinitecoolness.com/widescreen/movies/