desktop backgrounds and quality degradation

Corpsecrank said:

I see some wrong information in this post and I feel compelled to mention this.

I created a dual monitor wallpaper for my system in photoshop. The image was saved in png format the only format I use anymore. I have zero problems. It looks as sharp on the desktop as it does in photoshop.

There are a lot of deciding factors in how an image will appear on the desktop once applied. The resolution of the image should be the exact resolution as the desktop just as a start. Your display settings and graphics hardware make a big difference also. A crappy video card or no video card will usually result in a poor appearance most noticeable when looking at images with gradients in them.

If you play with settings you will see what I mean.

I disagree, I have a wallpaper I made on Photoshop and it was saved as a PNG at my native resolution at the highest settings and I have the same wallpaper saved as a JPEG, when displayed here are the results.

PNG



JPEG



You be the judge.

My system specs are listed in the bottom left corner.

Lee said:

When working in Photoshop with jpeg's you need to do a couple of things to help clean up your photos/pictures.

1. Go to "Filter" on the menu then click on "Noise" then over to "Reduce Noise" then go to the bottom of the window and click on "Remove JPEG Artifact". That will help to reduce some of the noise you get in a JPEG picture.

2. Go to "File" then choice "Save As" from there click on the "Format" and choice JPEG then click on "Save" this should bring up another window that is called "JPEG Options" then go to the slider and set to the large file (100% JPEG). From there click on the "Baseline Optimized" then finally save.

This should help you a little, but always remember make the picture/photo as large as you can; the reason is because it is easier to go from large to small without loosing picture quality.

Hope this helps, or at least what you are looking for. :)

Sorry Lee I think you have misunderstood, the OP was having issues using PNG's as a wallpaper because of quality degradation, I merely made him aware that I had also had the same problem when using PNG's and I found that saving the picture as a High quality JPEG solved the problem and resulted in no loss of quality when displayed as a wallpaper.

nuxxer said:

no graphics card?¿ are you serious?¿ welcome to 2009

Lol yeah I know I realize most of us have a card these days but if someone is working from an older machine they may not or if the machine came from walmart. Still there are cases were there is either no graphics card or a poor card and it can cause poor results on the desktop.

But I still do not understand why some people are having issues with png on the desktop because I never heard of this until now and I also do not have the same issue myself.