SAVING DESKTOP PICTURES When the picture has loaded completely, right-click on it (PC), or control-click on it (Mac), then choose from the pop-up menu. On a Mac, the picture must be saved to disk first, then displayed as described in the next section; when using Safari, please see details below. On a PC, if you choose to save the picture to disk, it may be displayed as described in the next section; if you choose Set as Background (or Wallpaper), the full-size image will normally appear on your desktop, even when it is shown smaller than actual size, as it is on our download pages. However, in some cases, the full-size image must be opened first to avoid setting the reduced image, or a stretched version of it, as wallpaper. For example, to set as wallpaper with Netscape Navigator 4 on a Windows 98 PC (in our experience, Netscape Navigator has always set the reduced image, while Microsoft Internet Explorer has always set the full-size image), first right-click on the picture and choose View Image (or, on our site, you can just click on the picture), then right-click on the full-size image that appears and choose Set as Wallpaper. (If Stretch is selected in your display control panel, setting the reduced image as wallpaper will fill the screen area, but without the full quality of the full-size image.) Whenever you choose Set as Wallpaper (or Background), also keep in mind that your current wallpaper may be overwritten. If you want to save your current wallpaper, you may need to rename it, or save it in a different location.

To download pictures using Safari (Mac), first wait for the picture to load, then control-click on the picture and choose Open Image in New Window from the menu that appears (or, on our site, you can just click on the picture). When the full-size picture appears, just select Save As... from Safari's File menu (or press Apple-S) to save the picture to disk. If you control-click on the image itself, then choose Download Image to Disk, Safari will typically download the picture all over again, or in some cases, download only a server conflict message.

DISPLAYING DESKTOP PICTURES To display wallpaper on a Windows PC, from the Start menu, select Settings: Control Panel: Display: Background (or in Windows XP, from the Start menu, select Control Panel: Appearance and Themes: Display: Desktop), then choose a picture (right-clicking the desktop, and choosing Properties: Background - or Properties: Desktop in XP - from the pop-up menu, is another way to get to this control panel).

On a Mac (operating systems prior to Mac OS X), from the Apple menu, select Control Panels: Appearance: Desktop, or Control Panels: Desktop Pictures: Picture, then choose a picture (control-clicking the desktop, and choosing Change Desktop Background... from the pop-up menu, is another way to get to the same control panels). You can also drag a folder of desktop pictures onto the virtual desktop in the control panels described above to have your Mac display a different picture, chosen randomly, each time you start up.

For Mac OS X (10.3), go to System Preferences (on the Apple menu) and choose Desktop & Screen Saver (in Personal): Desktop (control-clicking the desktop and choosing Change Desktop Background... from the pop-up menu will also get you there), then click Choose Folder... (in the left panel) and select the folder in which you saved the picture. Click the picture in the right panel to display it as your desktop background. Recent versions of Mac OS X also provide options for displaying different pictures at different times.

For Mac OS X (10.1 and 10.2), from the Apple menu, select System Preferences: Desktop, then choose a picture. For 10.0, from the Finder menu, select Preferences, then choose a picture.

PICTURE QUALITY AND BROWSER DISPLAY The display quality of desktop pictures and wallpaper depends on several factors, including the quality of the original picture, of course, the compression used to publish it, and the hardware and software used to display it. Most browsers, for example (depending also on your system hardware), don't display the picture at full quality, which often results in banding - distinct bands of color where there should be a smooth gradient (in photos, for example, where smooth sky is prominent). Banding that's visible when viewing pictures in the browser will often disappear when the image is placed on the desktop.

Your browser may also be set to display images using a color profile. (As an example, if Use Color Sync is selected in the Web Content preferences panel of Explorer 5.2 for Mac, Explorer seems to add an sRGB profile to all pictures without an embedded profile.) As a result, pictures may look different (usually better) on the desktop than in your browser.

PICTURES SHOWN SMALLER THAN ACTUAL SIZE To minimize banding on our download pages (and dithering, which softens banding, but can create unwanted patterns of its own, especially in large areas of dark colors), we've set our desktop pictures to display smaller than actual size in the browser window. Setting them to display smaller also makes it easier to see the whole picture without scrolling, and makes it easier to tell when the picture has finished loading. When saving pictures displayed smaller than actual size, the display setting is ignored, and the full-size picture, which has already been downloaded to the browser's cache, will be saved to disk. (In some cases, when setting as wallpaper on a PC, the display setting will not be ignored, and when using Safari on a Mac, the image already downloaded to your browser's cache may be ignored, as described in SAVING DESKTOP PICTURES, above.)

CHOOSING PICTURE SIZES For best quality, download desktop pictures and wallpaper in the size that matches your screen resolution. Bigger isn't always better - a 1024 x 768 picture, for example, displayed on a screen set to 800 x 600 will sometimes show signs of distortion (a subtle pattern of lines or jagged edges), due to the software responsible for making the 1024 x 768 image fit into the smaller 800 x 600 screen area. On the other hand, choosing a size smaller than your screen resolution (then stretching it to fit your screen) will not provide as sharp a picture as the size that matches.

SETTING YOUR SCREEN RESOLUTION Your screen resolution, also known as monitor resolution, screen area or display area, is set by your system software. For example, on a Windows PC, from the Start menu, select Settings: Control Panel: Display: Settings (or in Windows XP, from the Start menu, select Control Panel: Appearance and Themes: Display: Settings) to change the screen resolution; on a Mac, from the Apple menu, select Control Panels: Monitors and Sound: Monitor (or Apple menu: System Preferences: Displays: Display in Mac OS X) to set your screen resolution. Higher resolutions are capable of displaying sharper pictures if your system supports enough colors. For best quality, set your screen to display as many colors as your system will support at the resolution you choose.

CHOOSING PICTURE SIZES For best quality, download desktop pictures and wallpaper in the size that matches your screen resolution. Bigger isn't always better - a 1024 x 768 picture, for example, displayed on a screen set to 800 x 600 will sometimes show signs of distortion (a subtle pattern of lines or jagged edges), due to the software responsible for making the 1024 x 768 image fit into the smaller 800 x 600 screen area. On the other hand, choosing a size smaller than your screen resolution (then stretching it to fit your screen) will not provide as sharp a picture as the size that matches.