I've been searching the internet for images to use as wallpaper on my 32-bit
Vista Home Premium gateway laptop. Some images (regardless of file type) look
wonderful - such as the wallpaper images that come with the OS. Other files I
dl (again regardless of file type) are not so good. I was wondering if there
are certain file types that enlarge better than others, or wether there are
settings such as resolution I can tinker with, or maybe a software product
that 'enhances' images so that when they are enlarged the actually quality of
the image is better?

Resolution for wallpaper photos:

Here’s some guidelines:

JP or BMP image.

For widescreen, bit size 240Kb to 400Kb will work fine. Dimensions about
1024 x 768

Home photos work well. 2.53 Mb Dimension about 3008 X 2000. Very Clear.

Photo or image with small dimension such as 512 x 500 on a wide screen will
be stretched and look distorted. Best to display them on widescreen as Center.

Like I said, these are guidelines. It’s best to start out with a photo that
has a big bit size around 2 Mb. I do very little editing with my home photos
for wallpaper or screensaver. I may start out with a home photo at 2 Mb.
After editing the software resizes it to around 400 – 500Kb, depending on the
amount of editing I do. Plenty big enough for wallpaper and screen saver use.
Windows Photo Gallery works just fine for that type of application.

Hope this helps.
--
oscar

....Right click is your best friend...


"Matthew Armshaw" wrote:

I've been searching the internet for images to use as wallpaper on my 32-bit
Vista Home Premium gateway laptop. Some images (regardless of file type) look
wonderful - such as the wallpaper images that come with the OS. Other files I
dl (again regardless of file type) are not so good. I was wondering if there
are certain file types that enlarge better than others, or wether there are
settings such as resolution I can tinker with, or maybe a software product
that 'enhances' images so that when they are enlarged the actually quality of
the image is better?

I forgot to mention. Be wary of downloading and installing "free" wallpaper
from the i-net. Such websites can be a source of malware. You may be thinking
that you're downloading a wallpaper image but some bug could be riding along
with it.
--
oscar

....Right click is your best friend...


"Matthew Armshaw" wrote:

I've been searching the internet for images to use as wallpaper on my 32-bit
Vista Home Premium gateway laptop. Some images (regardless of file type) look
wonderful - such as the wallpaper images that come with the OS. Other files I
dl (again regardless of file type) are not so good. I was wondering if there
are certain file types that enlarge better than others, or wether there are
settings such as resolution I can tinker with, or maybe a software product
that 'enhances' images so that when they are enlarged the actually quality of
the image is better?

It is preferable to create the image at the screen size and then use the
Center option, to avoid resizing by the OS. You can create the image at the
right size using any decent image editing program. Crop, if necessary, to
match the format. A good image manipulation program will provide several
options for maintaining image quality during re-sizing - the best option
will depend in the type of image and the amount of resizing you are doing.
The program will also provide tools for improving the display quality, such
as an unsharp mask, colour adjustment, and contrast and brightness
adjustment.

The original file type of the image doesn't matter as much as the image size
and resolution, and file size is a pretty good indication of the image
quality.

These two examples include the necessary tools: There are many others.
http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/gwspro.html
http://www.irfanview.com/

The best images tend to be at the photography sites, such as:
http://www.termotronic.com/challenge/ (browse through the old challenges)
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Matthew Armshaw" wrote in
message ...
I've been searching the internet for images to use as wallpaper on my
32-bit
Vista Home Premium gateway laptop. Some images (regardless of file type)
look
wonderful - such as the wallpaper images that come with the OS. Other
files I
dl (again regardless of file type) are not so good. I was wondering if
there
are certain file types that enlarge better than others, or wether there
are
settings such as resolution I can tinker with, or maybe a software product
that 'enhances' images so that when they are enlarged the actually quality
of
the image is better?

Well, I must first say Hello to you all on this forum. Just got my
first laptop, and it runs Vista Home Premium 32.

I'm searching close to this topic, so I try here.
First-- it kinda irks me to see that so many of you are willing to
change your own images to fit the needs of the screensaver.
I guess I'm a hard case, but I think the darn computer should adjust to
MY photos!
I have many many photos that have come from many sources over the
years.
I want to see my photos, not download some others, and I HATE it when
the photo is stretched out of shape.
XP had the Center, Tile, etc. settings. I can't find this in the
Vista screensaver tool.
Am I missing something?
I will not be installing some other screensaver software. If Vista
can't do it, I can do without it.
Darn--- I have turned into my grouchy old grandpa! :zip:
/wipes sweat from brow, sits back down


--
RegH

Go to Help and enter Create Screen Saver and you will find how to
do what you want.
"RegH" wrote in message
...

Well, I must first say Hello to you all on this forum. Just got my
first laptop, and it runs Vista Home Premium 32.

I'm searching close to this topic, so I try here.
First-- it kinda irks me to see that so many of you are willing to
change your own images to fit the needs of the screensaver.
I guess I'm a hard case, but I think the darn computer should adjust to
MY photos!
I have many many photos that have come from many sources over the
years.
I want to see my photos, not download some others, and I HATE it when
the photo is stretched out of shape.
XP had the Center, Tile, etc. settings. I can't find this in the
Vista screensaver tool.
Am I missing something?
I will not be installing some other screensaver software. If Vista
can't do it, I can do without it.
Darn--- I have turned into my grouchy old grandpa! :zip:
/wipes sweat from brow, sits back down


--
RegH

Ok Curious (why aint you a member of this forum?) .. I will follow your
advice, and
buddy, if it don't work I'll sick my stuffed dog on ya!! (His name is
peanut)

Curious;794536 Wrote:
Go to Help and enter Create Screen Saver and you will find how
to
do what you want.
"RegH" wrote in message
...

Well, I must first say Hello to you all on this forum. Just got my
first laptop, and it runs Vista Home Premium 32.

I'm searching close to this topic, so I try here.
First-- it kinda irks me to see that so many of you are willing to
change your own images to fit the needs of the screensaver.
I guess I'm a hard case, but I think the darn computer should adjust
to
MY photos!
I have many many photos that have come from many sources over the
years.
I want to see my photos, not download some others, and I HATE it when
the photo is stretched out of shape.
XP had the Center, Tile, etc. settings. I can't find this in the
Vista screensaver tool.
Am I missing something?
I will not be installing some other screensaver software. If Vista
can't do it, I can do without it.
Darn--- I have turned into my grouchy old grandpa! :zip:
/wipes sweat from brow, sits back down


--
RegH


--
RegH

I have been supporting this Newsgroup for the last 3-4 years.
Also after reading you post again I thought that you may trying to change
your desktop background instead of your screen saver.
If so just edit it in paint for aspect ratio and store it in your root
directory such as C:\windows and select it from there.
"RegH" wrote in message
...

Ok Curious (why aint you a member of this forum?) .. I will follow your
advice, and
buddy, if it don't work I'll sick my stuffed dog on ya!! (His name is
peanut)

Curious;794536 Wrote:
Go to Help and enter Create Screen Saver and you will find how
to
do what you want.
"RegH" wrote in message
...

Well, I must first say Hello to you all on this forum. Just got my
first laptop, and it runs Vista Home Premium 32.

I'm searching close to this topic, so I try here.
First-- it kinda irks me to see that so many of you are willing to
change your own images to fit the needs of the screensaver.
I guess I'm a hard case, but I think the darn computer should adjust
to
MY photos!
I have many many photos that have come from many sources over the
years.
I want to see my photos, not download some others, and I HATE it when
the photo is stretched out of shape.
XP had the Center, Tile, etc. settings. I can't find this in the
Vista screensaver tool.
Am I missing something?
I will not be installing some other screensaver software. If Vista
can't do it, I can do without it.
Darn--- I have turned into my grouchy old grandpa! :zip:
/wipes sweat from brow, sits back down


--
RegH


--
RegH

You are referring to a screensaver when the original question related to
wallpaper. For wallpaper there is an option to stretch the image to fill
all the available space, like wallpaper usually would. You don't have to
choose this option if you don't like it, but people generally prefer to see
the whole screen covered with their image. I proposed cropping and
resizing, NOT stretching, to achieve this. Screensavers are completely
different. If you are referring to a screensaver that displays one or more
of your images, then generally the default is not to stretch the image, but
there are usually options so you can select to control how each image
displays.

Your reference to stretch and tile options in XP seems to refer to
wallpaper, not screensavers, so again it is not clear what you are
complaining about. OP was specifically referring to mages that had been
downloaded and which therefore came in a variety of sizes and file types.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"RegH" wrote in message
...

Well, I must first say Hello to you all on this forum. Just got my
first laptop, and it runs Vista Home Premium 32.

I'm searching close to this topic, so I try here.
First-- it kinda irks me to see that so many of you are willing to
change your own images to fit the needs of the screensaver.
I guess I'm a hard case, but I think the darn computer should adjust to
MY photos!
I have many many photos that have come from many sources over the
years.
I want to see my photos, not download some others, and I HATE it when
the photo is stretched out of shape.
XP had the Center, Tile, etc. settings. I can't find this in the
Vista screensaver tool.
Am I missing something?
I will not be installing some other screensaver software. If Vista
can't do it, I can do without it.
Darn--- I have turned into my grouchy old grandpa! :zip:
/wipes sweat from brow, sits back down


--
RegH

I don't have the original post in this thread the first one from the OP is
from 8/3 and in that I have he refers to Screen Saver not wallpaper.
"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
You are referring to a screensaver when the original question related to
wallpaper. For wallpaper there is an option to stretch the image to fill
all the available space, like wallpaper usually would. You don't have to
choose this option if you don't like it, but people generally prefer to
see the whole screen covered with their image. I proposed cropping and
resizing, NOT stretching, to achieve this. Screensavers are completely
different. If you are referring to a screensaver that displays one or more
of your images, then generally the default is not to stretch the image,
but there are usually options so you can select to control how each image
displays.

Your reference to stretch and tile options in XP seems to refer to
wallpaper, not screensavers, so again it is not clear what you are
complaining about. OP was specifically referring to mages that had been
downloaded and which therefore came in a variety of sizes and file types.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"RegH" wrote in message
...

Well, I must first say Hello to you all on this forum. Just got my
first laptop, and it runs Vista Home Premium 32.

I'm searching close to this topic, so I try here.
First-- it kinda irks me to see that so many of you are willing to
change your own images to fit the needs of the screensaver.
I guess I'm a hard case, but I think the darn computer should adjust to
MY photos!
I have many many photos that have come from many sources over the
years.
I want to see my photos, not download some others, and I HATE it when
the photo is stretched out of shape.
XP had the Center, Tile, etc. settings. I can't find this in the
Vista screensaver tool.
Am I missing something?
I will not be installing some other screensaver software. If Vista
can't do it, I can do without it.
Darn--- I have turned into my grouchy old grandpa! :zip:
/wipes sweat from brow, sits back down


--
RegH