Tiled Background Designer is just a small, useful tool to create patterns. Experiment with pictures, colors, textures and transparency to get best result.
posted by Dave Faris on Jul 17, 2008 - 37 comments

30 Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of Earth "From 400 miles away, the earth transforms into abstract art. The global landscape is impressionist, cubist and pointillist." Nice NASA images from 2000, downloadable as wallpaper.
posted by CunningLinguist on Jul 9, 2008 - 16 comments

Poolga: iPhone and iPod Touch wallpapers from a selection of designers and illustrators from around the world.
posted by defenestration on Jul 6, 2008 - 26 comments

Designers spend about 90% of their waking life in front of a computer, so the most appealing genre for a wallpaper would be one that has beautiful design mixed with the all important aspect of being outdoors. At their best, desktop wallpapers bring animation to often lifeless computer screens, reflecting the personality of the user and acting as a calling card for creative talent. The Desktopography Project first arrived in 2005 as a place to download nature / topological themed wallpapers with edits from selected designers. They have just released their 2008 library.
posted by netbros on Jun 7, 2008 - 40 comments

Ubuntu 8.04's Hardy Heron has recently perched on millions of desktops worldwide, but what does the future look like for the darling of the open source world? Now entering a new 2-year art developent cycle, Ubuntu's continuing quest for "pure, unadulterated, raw, visceral, lustful, shallow, skin deep beauty" has begun again in earnest. Bleeding edge desktop effects [youtube, music] are already creeping into the official distribution and the community is eagerly awaiting the new graphical look, promised as a ground-up re-imagination in the next release, Intrepid Ibex. Watch this space.
posted by cowbellemoo on Apr 28, 2008 - 86 comments

Social Wallpaper. A community effort to classify, rank, and distribute high resolution images for use as computer wallpaper.
posted by Mitheral on Aug 12, 2007 - 24 comments

Hi-Res Photos for the Masses! How about that bandwidth?
posted by hypersloth on Jul 2, 2007 - 38 comments

Need a new desktop wallpaper? Here's a gorgeous collection from Germany. Bridges, clouds, refineries, spiders, architecture, wildlife ... many of them with truly excellent color. My favorite. (And this one's begging for a drop-shadowed caption.)
posted by jbickers on Jun 29, 2007 - 21 comments

Abnormal Behavior Child's got some interesting things to look at and watch or play with. Site self-describes as "visual poetry". {second link's got flash/sound}
posted by dobbs on Apr 17, 2007 - 6 comments

Where did you want to live when you grew up? If you're like me, you read Clarke's SF classic, Rendezvous with Rama (soon to be a major motion picture?). Donald E. Davis took what we dreamed about and illustrated it, for NASA. His depictions of O'Neill Cylinders, Stanford Tori, and Bernal Spheres are in the public domain (and make excellent desktop wallpaper).
posted by Eideteker on Feb 2, 2007 - 24 comments

From this collection of framed art made only from the wings of African butterflies to Jan Fabre's beetle shell encrusted sculptures, the centuries-long war between artists their tiny insect enemies continues unabated. But never have I seen a more massive salvo for the artist community than "Terrible Beauty", an installation by Jennifer Angus. Featuring over fifteen thousand insects from the artist's personal collection (!), the exhibit features a series of rooms with textile geometric patterns on the wall created entirely by pinned insects of various forms, hues & sizes. All info on the amazing war between artists & insects found via the amazing Museum of Dust
posted by jonson on Aug 27, 2006 - 7 comments

Mandolux - photographic desktop wallpapers. Just keep hittin' previous.
posted by nthdegx on Aug 20, 2006 - 23 comments

The U.S. Naval Observatory Library features high-res scans of images from antique books dealing with astronomy and navigation. Wallpapers, ahoy!
posted by Gator on Jul 13, 2006 - 18 comments

"Desktop Earth 2.0 is a wallpaper generator for Windows. It runs whenever you're logged on and updates your wallpaper with an accurate representation of the Earth as it would be seen from space at that precise moment." The images are fantastic. Oh, and it's free. (See similar - via digg).
posted by purephase on Mar 10, 2006 - 56 comments

Hi-res satellite photos of Earth Four pages worth, desktop wallpaper sized.
posted by jonson on Sep 22, 2005 - 29 comments

David Lanham's online portfolio. Chock full of goodness, and well-designed to boot, check out sketches, artwork, and animation. He's even got wallpaper and icons for you.
posted by monju_bosatsu on Mar 3, 2005 - 19 comments

Lifehacker is a fairly new addition to the Gawker Media family of blogs, publishers of another personal favorite in the Gizmodo gadget blog. Lifehacker posts articles on how to do all sorts of things better/quicker/cooler/cheaper:

• How to make a "life poster" with Photoshop
• how to opt out of credit card junk mail
• free Hubble Space Telescope wallpaper images
• get thumbnail screenshots with your google search results using firefox
• How to cut vegetables (previously posted here)

In its three short weeks of life, Lifehacker has given me good tips at a shockingly high frequency. Of course, the whole thing comes full circle with their frequent Ask Metafilter Roundup posts.
posted by mcstayinskool on Feb 23, 2005 - 65 comments

Make your own The Matrix-style desktop wallpaper Bored? Got Photoshop? Follow the instructions in this tutorial and cross your fingers that the Wachowski brothers don't sue your ass. Whoever can think of the craziest parody wins, I dunno, a gift-wrapped spoon, or something.
posted by tapeguy on Jun 2, 2003 - 9 comments

Calling all techie designers: TiVo is throwing a wallpaper design contest, the winners to get a new second series tivo.
posted by mathowie on Jul 9, 2002 - 15 comments

The Works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft Unabridged texts of most of his short stories, poems, and essays, as well as biographies, photos, and even wallpaper. Cthulhu fhtagn, dude.
posted by Shadowkeeper on Nov 20, 2001 - 15 comments

Drempels Animated desktop wallpaper software. Floaty nebulous. Nuff said.
posted by hmgovt on Apr 30, 2001 - 10 comments

Luminous Wallpaper ...trippy. Cool article about newer efficienct light sources.
posted by ritualdevice on Jan 11, 2001 - 2 comments

If you're using a non-windows computer right now, and you really miss that starfield simulation screensaver, don't fret, because someone has written one in DHTML and put it on the web. I like to imagine I'm a bored cubicle worker and stare at it for hours.
posted by mathowie on Jan 15, 2000 - 3 comments

A new site launched today, called worldwall. It's a site that features downloadable wallpaper from around the world, and visitors can contribute wallpaper. Cool stuff.
posted by mathowie on Oct 3, 1999 - 0 comments