A new desktop wallpaper can really enliven the visual experience you have with your PC. I personally change my desktop every few weeks to keep things fresh. Some people prefer functional desktop wallpapers that allow them to easily visualize the folders and documents on the desktop. Others love wallpapers that have a pure visual impact. Myself, I like wallpapers of inspiring scenery and nature from around the world. A good wallpaper can allow us to dream. For instance in the depths of a dark cold winter, I will have something like a tropical island as my desktop wallpaper. It allows me to take my mind to somewhere nice and calming. Hopefully today’s post will find the best desktop wallpaper site for you. I’m hoping to cater to a range of needs here. I’ll also let you know how I get my wallpapers.
Reddit Earthporn
This is where I source beautiful and stunning images for my desktop wallpaper. Although this is not officially a wallpaper website, for me it is the ultimate solution and the best desktop wallpaper site. As I said before, I find pictures of nature to be the most calming and inspiring wallpapers.
Reddit Earthporn is a section of the aggregator website Reddit where users can post incredible pictures of scenery from across the globe. Other “subscribed” members to this corner of Reddit then vote in accordance with whether they think it is a good picture or not. What results is probably one of the greatest compilations of natural photography anywhere on the internet.
Reddit’s voting system really works here. In order for a link to truly rate on Earthporn it has to be of high quality and high resolution. The most up-voted pictures are professional quality pictures of stunning scenery from around the world.
Unlike, say National Geographic or 1x, the photos are easily downloaded in the native resolution with no copyright restriction. Often, the highest rated photos will be professional quality amateur snaps taken by members of the site when they are hiking or on vacation. You’ll see that members of Reddit come from all over the world and holiday in some exotic locations.
Photos without watermarks will tend to do much better as well. So the highest rated photos tend to be watermark free - and better for desktop wallpaper purposes.
To get the best natural photos for your desktop from Earthporn click the “Top” tab. Then choose links from “All time” to see the most stunning photos ever submitted. Once you have been through these, browse top from the past year, past month and past week to keep abreast of more recent top submissions.
Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine creates nice graphic desktops with built in productivity features like calendars. These custom desktop wallpapers are very functional. They are designed to allow your folders and files to be easily visualized.
The more busy graphical elements are on the right side of these desktops in order to allow icons to be easily viewed. You can download the wallpapers in a large range of resolutions to suit your individual desktop needs. A contender for the best desktop website, no doubt.
Daily Wallpapers
As their name promises, daily wallpapers releases new wallpapers daily. You can also browse past posts by categories like abstract, nature, movies and TV, cartoons, people, quotes etc. There should be something for everyone here and that’s why it is potentially the best desktop wallpaper site.
Wallpaperswide
Browse this wallpaper portal and find some of the most aw inspiring imagery on the internet that you can use for your desktop. Is this the best desktop wallpaper site? Well, that is something you will have to decide for yourself. I can tell you that it is up there with the best.
You can browse by various themes and styles of wallpapers including space, scenery, animals, architecture, city, games, cartoons, celebrities, army, artistic etc.
The Desktop Wallpaper Project
I would venture to say that this wallpaper website is for the more artistically inclined. If you find that you are moved by aesthetic, color, tone and texture you will find mesmerizing desktop wallpapers here. This is probably the best desktop wallpaper site for those of you who are a little more left field and creative.
They guy (Bobby) who runs this site takes the imagery of the desktop very seriously. And I suppose, why shouldn’t he? A lot of us spend most of our days at a computer. The desktop image will be one of the most viewed pieces of imagery or art in our daily lives. Picking a certain image could affect you in ways you cannot imagine.
The site functions mostly like a blog. Instead of just uploading the desktop imagery and being done with it, Bobby treats it like the art it often is. He writes a small exposition on the artist and why he likes the particular image.
The problem with this site…
Many of the desktops are visually stunning, and wouldn’t look out of place in a gallery or a coffee table art book. The only downside to a lot of these visually striking images is that they are not entirely functional as desktop wallpaper backgrounds.
Don’t get me wrong - they are arresting images. However, too often they are just too strong. The powerful punch of the imagery detracts from the purpose of the desktop which is to blend seamlessly with the environment of the folders, files and icons that it sits behind. If the desktop image is too strong, it no longer servers as a “background”. Everything is muddled and the screen is hard to view.
Form must follow function. These desktops, although beautiful images, are in my opinion too stark to be useful for day to day purposes.
You may disagree, and that’s exactly why I’ve included this website for you to check out yourself.
Verdict
I hope you guys have found some truly inspiring wallpapers from today’s list. I also hope that I’ve found the best desktop wallpaper site for you. Let us know what you think below.
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