(Really) Stunning Desktop Wallpapers
Desktop wallpapers always come in handy. The more inspirational, beautiful and elegant they are, the better they can challenge our imagination and provide some fresh perspective in a rather tedious and monotonous workflow. However, desktop wallpapers sometimes can go far beyond offering colorful eye-candy; sometimes desktop wallpapers include calendars, funny cartoons and logos of favourite tools, services and companies. The latter is particularly true for Apple-fans and Microsoft-haters as well as for Google, Twitter and Firefox-users.
In this post we present stunning desktop wallpapers related to typography, art, technology, photography and abstract themes. Among other things we review calendar wallpapers, minimalistic wallpapers, wallpapers-illustrations and themes for Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and Google-fans. Each of the links leads to huge wallpapers archives where you can find even more excellent wallpapers. All screenshots are clickable and lead to the pages where they can be downloaded.
You might want to take a look at the posts
- Smashing Magazine’s Quality Design Wallpapers
A growing collection of professional desktop wallpapers in various resolutions, with or without a calendar for the upcoming month. Released in the end of every month. - Selected Wallpapers For Your Desktop which covers wallpapers, devkits, Flickr pools, Widescreen and HD-monsters and even wallpapers-related social communities and wallpapers for gamers,
- 100 (Really) Beautiful iPhone Wallpapers
- Beautiful Dual-Screen Desktop Wallpapers
- 100 Creepy Hand-Picked Horror Wallpapers
Typography Wallpapers
I Love Typography Wallpapers
18 wallpapers dedicated to typography-lovers. Including iPhone Typography Wallpapers.
Veer Wallpapers
A growing collection of (not only) typography-related wallpapers in a variety of resolutions — from 320×480 (iPhone) to 1920×1200. Free registration is required to download the wallpapers.
I Love Typo Wallpaper
1024×768.
Art Wallpapers
Wallcoo Wallpapers
Hundreds of beautiful high-quality wallpapers from China. Stunning!
Ton3 Calendar Wallpapers
Every month Patricia Villanueva releases a new desktop background for the coming calendar month. It’s in Spanish, but beauty speaks all languages.
Design Wallpapers
By ndesign. 9 themes, a variety of resolutions.
JuneWind
30 colorful wallpapers available in numerous resolutions.
Happy Diwali! Wallpaper
Scroll to the end of the page. 800×600, 1024×768, 2000×1500.
Design is… Wallpaper Flickr Pool
A collection of wallpapers dedicated to design: designers explain what design is.
Freelanceswitch Wallpapers
4 wallpapers, 1920×1200, 1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1152×864, 1024×768
Rabbit Wallpaper
1280×960.
David Lanham’s Art Wallpapers
Over 20 art wallpapers in different sizes (widescreen — 1600×1200 and fullscreen — 1680×1050). Unique, and unusual.
Customize.org
A growing collection of wallpapers in the Deviantart’s style. User-generated content on over 900 pages. That’s going to take some time to browse through.
The Elemental Wallpaper
The Elemental: water extinguishes fire, fire entraps air, air encompasses Earth, Earth is the mother of all. 1024×768.
Oh Lolliop! It’s a desktop wallpaper
A wallpaper coming in 6 resolutions: from 1024×768 up to 1900×1200 px.
Bloody Hippy Wallpaper
Bloody Hippy, available in enourmo-scope 1920×1200 resolution.
Lothaleng Robot Wallpaper
1024×768.
Top 10 Gaming Wallpapers
All at 1920×1200 HD resolution, and a stunning image quality. There’s a link the the Flickr page of each wallpaper as well.
Apple, Windows, Google & Co.
Leopard Wallpapers
Wallpapers for designers, developers and bloggers who use Leopard. Wallpapers currently come in the following dimensions: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1600×1200. If none of the above suits you, get your own personalized Leopard wallpaper.
Simpsons OS X Wallpaper
Homer seems to be pretty hungry. Simpsons Mac Os X Wallpaper, Aqua.
Apple Love Wallpaper
Well, that’s pretty stylish. For Apple-lovers. 1024×640, 1920×1200.
Conquer The Universe Wallpaper
A galaxy background with Apple logo to honor the birth of Leopard. 1920×1200. Non-Apple-version is also available (also good for dual display).
Twitter Wallpaper
1280×800.
Google Wallpaper
1024×768. Light-version.
Technology Dekstop Nexus
The Elemental: water extinguishes fire, fire entraps air, air encompasses Earth, Earth is the mother of all. 1024×768.
Leopard Server Aurora Wallpaper
1024 x 640, 2560 x 1600
Firefox Desktop Wallpaper
46 Firefox Desktop Wallpapers in different sizes and colors.
iPhone Wallpapers
7 320×480 iPhone wallpapers.
30 Nice Mac OS X Wallpapers
After searching high and low, here’s some good 30 Apple-related wallpapers (Apple logo, MacOS, iPod) that’s definitely worth a look.
Vista Wallpapers Pack
These wallpapers come in 3 different style — Vista curves, Silky embossed and Corporate clean. 2 high resolution formats – 1600×1400 px and 1920×1200 px.
Photographic Wallpapers
Fantastic Free Wallpaper Images
An impressive selection of free crystal clear wallpapers. 8 different resolutions, up to 2560×1600.
Above the clouds
You’ll need to change the size of the image to place it on your desktop. More beautiful photos in the Flickr: Awesome Pictures Pool, Flickr: Better Than Good Pool and Golden Stars Flickr Pool
Flickr: Wallpapers and Backgrounds Pool
Over 9,000 photos available as wallpapers for your desktop. Every month the “Wallpaper of the Month” is selected.
Flickr: Wallpapers Pool
24,000 various desktop wallpapers. Minimum resolution: 1024×768.
Lightning at the night
You’ll need to change the size of the image to place it on your desktop. More beautiful photos in the Flickr: Awesome Pictures Pool
Beautiful Photographic Wallpapers
A set of 25 excellent photographic wallpapers which can be downloaded as a .zip-archive. Bonus: Second Pack.
Abstract Wallpapers
Flow Wallpaper
“Flow” comes in two variants: a single display one with a resolution of 2560×1600px and a dual screen one with a resolution of 2×1920×1200px. A bunch of iPhone/iPod touch compatible variants is added to the package.
Strukt Wallpaper
1024×640, 2560×1600.
Colorcharge
Three wallpapers. Format: 2000×1440 px.
Outta Space
Four wallpapers in the resolution 2560×1600 px
Disruption
4 wallpapers designed by Till Nowak. 1600×1200, 1280×1024 and 1024×768.
What’s your favourite?
What desktop wallpaper do you prefer? Take part in our poll and comment on this article!
Abdallah
February 12th, 2008 6:30 amAmazing selection!
Musback
December 10th, 2010 4:57 amAbsolutely stunning indeed… I always dislike the apple-themed wallpapers though. I wish mine (wallpaper portfolio) would be posted also, but i can try in the comments pretty please? goo.gl/gr70K
Neeharika
August 16th, 2011 10:51 pmU hve excellent talent. nice to see all these pics….
Shaun
February 12th, 2008 6:41 amAmazing wallpapers, especially loved the Homer Simpson eating the Apple logo wallpaper.
Ira
February 12th, 2008 6:47 amThat’s great! I like art wallpaper most.
Jbcarey
February 12th, 2008 6:51 amGreat list, again
mcrury
February 12th, 2008 7:00 amwoohooo, grab it all!! thanks!
pokedstudio
February 12th, 2008 7:04 amgreat collection!
Don’t forget my wallpapers
A very popular one is ms pacman found at http://www.pokedstudio.com/pacmanwallpaper.htm
cheers
LSimmons
November 25th, 2010 8:56 amWow! Just checked out the site. Great work, man!
Peter Franzén
February 12th, 2008 7:06 amHaha, Homer Simpson were the best one :)
uli
February 12th, 2008 7:12 amas good as some of those are (love the simpson one) I’ll stick with my boring, plain, neutral grey.
Nick Clarke
February 12th, 2008 7:24 amI like these a lot.
hongkiat
February 12th, 2008 7:45 amThanks for featuring my wallpapers, thanks.
add
February 12th, 2008 7:48 ami hardly see the desktop, so i have no pretty pictures on it, it’s just black.
shelby
November 9th, 2011 12:48 pmlike totally i got the sames thing for one background
Deck
February 12th, 2008 8:21 amI have to confirm the recommendation for:
http://www.vladstudio.com
He has an awesome array of artistic and photographic wallpaper available for free. Or a subscription buys an impressive variety of resolutions (including dual monitor sets), and occasionally even the source files for the wallpapers. Enjoy! [/fanboy]
Tristan
February 12th, 2008 8:25 amwow, so many cool wallpapers.
Thank you very much.
Jenrathy
February 12th, 2008 8:33 amReally nice selection I’ll pick some :)
Braintrove.com
February 12th, 2008 9:01 amI enjoyed the abstract and photographic wallpapers, as well as the Elemental and Aurora ones.
There are some very creative people out there.
Thanks for sharing!
Yuriy Drozdov
February 12th, 2008 9:17 amNice post. But
Twitter Wallpaper and Google Wallpaper have the same link (It links to Twitter Wallpaper). Could you please fix this?
Creativepayne
February 12th, 2008 9:27 amHad to snag the Homer / apple one!
Thanks
Vlad Gerasimov
February 12th, 2008 9:37 amIra, victor, Deck: thank you so much for recommending my website (vladstudio) – it may sound strange but I am going to dedicate myself entirely to drawing wallpapers in nearest future (no outsource design jobs any more) and it will be my only job! I hope to release 2-3 new wallpapers weekly. Thanks again!
susan kulakowski
February 12th, 2008 10:11 amNASA, through its Hubble site http://hubblesite.org/gallery/wallpaper/, provides wallpapers of the cosmos.
Naina
February 12th, 2008 10:12 amAnd thank you so much for including the Diwali wallpaper! Pleasantly surprised.
aadi
September 2nd, 2010 10:11 amhi naina
bbx
February 12th, 2008 10:28 amThe “Apple, Windows & Co” wallpapers are quite funny, but in terms of design I prefer the “Abstract” ones. They’re awesome!
Fubiz
February 12th, 2008 10:49 amThis selection is amazing. Thanks guys!
Nova
February 12th, 2008 11:08 amOhhh fantastic works of Patricia Villanueva
HelveticaBlitz
February 12th, 2008 11:30 amClass action law suit on the way.
SmashingMag addictive; cause of creative industry productivity losses.
chris
February 12th, 2008 11:39 amnice, i loved the ton3.net wallpapers and the ones related to Apple. thanks
Justin
February 12th, 2008 1:23 pmNice wallpapers … gr8 job
Jason
February 12th, 2008 1:34 pmI hate to self plug, but I’ve been offering calendar wallpapers for the last 3 years: Kriegsnet. My friend George at EndEffect has had quite the following for his wallpapers over the years as well.
Radoslav Stankov
February 12th, 2008 1:52 pmAs person changes his desktop wallpaper every day this is gold mine 10x ;)
SE7EN
February 12th, 2008 1:55 pmWallcoo is so stunning! it’s what i’m looking for
idoudi
February 12th, 2008 3:10 pmgood selection
ampidro
February 12th, 2008 6:55 pmAmazing selection of wallpapers!!!!
Andrew P
February 12th, 2008 6:57 pmAmazin backgrounds will definitely make my working days.
Kate Mag
February 12th, 2008 7:34 pmThank you for Apple Wallpapers. Those are great wallpapers for my Mac OS X Leopard-like desktop
Mike Swanson
February 12th, 2008 8:28 pmSome macro photos (one of them used in Windows Vista).
Scott Thomas
February 12th, 2008 8:40 pmI like that one wallpaper with that cool stuff on it.
Harry
February 12th, 2008 8:58 pmGreat article, however you have a typo in one of your links: “Technology Dekstopnexus” I think you flipped the letters in “Desktop Nexus”.
Chris Laskey
February 12th, 2008 10:21 pmWow. I LOVE that you included typography posters. Another hit for smashing magazine!
Raj
February 12th, 2008 10:36 pmNice!
But why showcase photos like the one of the Brooklyn Bridge when even viewing the picture in large size is not permitted by the owner?
BX
February 12th, 2008 11:03 pmTheres some more iPhone/touch wallpapers at podpapers.net
Tilbett
February 12th, 2008 11:11 pmThe ‘Elemental’ one is a bit of a ripoff of the classic four panel ‘Change of Seasons’ piece by Silveryn from around 2003. Wallpaper mods exist of that one too.
Harry
February 12th, 2008 11:33 pmGreat list, but I think you have a typo in saying “Technology Dekstopnexus” rather than “Technology Desktop Nexus”.
Desktop Nexus is the best wallpaper site online.
Abdel Olakara
February 13th, 2008 1:04 amReally good wallpapers.. now i am confused which one to keep as mine ;)
hyperipod
November 30th, 2010 4:52 pmUse them all!
In a wallpaper slideshow!
Mithun
February 13th, 2008 1:36 amNice collection!!
David Bradley
February 13th, 2008 1:36 amIt’s not “stunning” (really), but I use a wallpaper that actually improves my productivity by allowing me to organize my desktop
db
Tim
February 13th, 2008 1:42 amHolly smokes! Amazing work!
John Smith
February 13th, 2008 2:05 amYawn.
design-lover
February 13th, 2008 3:19 amhttp://www.digital-artist.de.vu is missing, too! This site got my attention because of high rank on mister-wong (site like delicious)! and this site didn´t dissappoint me! It was worth to invest half n hour on their beautiful wallpapers!
Hay
February 13th, 2008 4:26 amI would also recommend the featured pictures section on Wikimeda Commons. There are some really good (high resolution) pictures over there that are excellent as a background. For example, this one is on my desktop right now.
Sergio
February 13th, 2008 4:32 amNice wallpapers thanks you very much!, but some are kinda simple for me hehe ^^
maryann gw
February 13th, 2008 4:34 amI love your wallpapers.
Simply exquisite
gr8pixel
February 13th, 2008 5:26 amreally amazing stuff! thanks for the post guys..
superxtian
February 13th, 2008 5:49 amW O W
great list.
so hot like hell.
lol ^^
Amarjeet Singh Rai
February 13th, 2008 8:06 amThanks for linking to my flickr photos.
I’m a regular reader on this website.
Peace
ASR
Bobby
February 13th, 2008 10:24 amYou can find more gaming wallpapers at http://www.gamersgallery.com
johno
February 13th, 2008 4:38 pmThanks for the mention SM. I’ll add some papers to the collection. Love some of the others in the list too; some very talented people out there!
Zacky Ma
February 13th, 2008 8:37 pmGREAT!! and surprised… :)
but the Google Wallpaper links are incorrect…
KJ
February 13th, 2008 10:51 pmI am absolutely stunned by the collection! Thanks for sharing
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
February 14th, 2008 3:25 amGoogle Wallpaper link is now fixed.
OverZero.it
February 14th, 2008 6:02 amB E A U T I F U L
————-> Thank you!
Xero
February 14th, 2008 1:49 pmI had to search the page to make sure I didn’t miss it… you really should mention interfacelift.com if you’re going on about all these other wallpaper collections. I’ll say no more – just check it out!
tewoos
February 14th, 2008 2:08 pmsuperb collection, thanks…
Tyler
February 14th, 2008 9:28 pmI was just look for some mac type wallpaper the other day, this will save me some time thanks
mee
February 14th, 2008 11:53 pmWow, this is the fare best collectin I’ve ever seen …
Sav
February 15th, 2008 12:39 amThank you for this list. Some really fantastic sources here.
Have you seen http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/ ?
It has a huge (approx. 145 pages) selection of photographic and designed wallpapers in all resolutions (going up to 2560×1600).
Organized by topic, artist, tags, etc.
Sav
Matty
February 15th, 2008 2:56 amTruly Awesome!
Ryan
February 15th, 2008 3:34 amThe monthly calendars are amazing… I never knew such a thing existed
imaginepaolo
February 15th, 2008 5:31 amI like OsX a lot… thank you!
Omega
February 15th, 2008 6:11 amI like David Lanham’s one, very cute!
Mark
February 15th, 2008 11:56 amI love the photographic wallpapers. There is a site I get a lot of my wallpapers from called http://www.socksoff.co.uk/walls07.html . All of the wallpapers are very crisp and high resolution. One of my favorites is of the big giant sunflower!
Nature Lover
February 15th, 2008 12:55 pmThats cools collection
Great effort
Jahedur Rahman
February 16th, 2008 4:44 amWow,
Nice & amazing wallpapers are here.
Great :)
Jesse James
February 16th, 2008 10:05 amsome are amazing some are just useless
there are great wallpapersite out there
like wallpaperstop.com interfacelift.com pls next time consider these sites
they are much more beatiful
rburch
February 16th, 2008 10:35 amSome of these are great! Thanks for sharing them. My friend and I make wallpaper tiles. The site is http://www.farmidable.com. We really enjoy making them. We enjoy desktop wallpapers that look like traditional wallpaper. Which is often hard to find, but there is some great stuff out there if you look long enough.
George Desute
February 17th, 2008 12:24 amthats why i like smahing magazine not only there are great articles but also i can find great sites within user comments
i learned amazing wallpaper sites from comments just discovered http://www.wallpaperstop.com
it is an amazing iste thank you
Helen
February 18th, 2008 6:51 amPhotography Wallpapers are gorgeous!Especially I like the one with the cherry blossom.
The green Windows wallpaper is pretty cool, too :)
Alex Mos
February 18th, 2008 8:49 amNice collection of wallpapers… I like photography most, because it’s real… abstract is second…
Clow
February 18th, 2008 12:01 pmWaoh so amazing! I love ! I love the phoenix above all! Thanxs so much!
Gotinha
February 19th, 2008 8:12 amAmazing selection.
Dave Nofmeister
February 19th, 2008 1:16 pmI couldn’t help but notice a lot of the abstract wallpaper looks a little like “Sprint” advertisement. Still very cool, though. : )
Zawory
February 20th, 2008 11:37 amWow!! It’s beautifully list. My favourite is abstract category
arden
February 24th, 2008 1:50 pmvery cool! you should check out
mini
February 29th, 2008 8:08 amgr8 collection i loved d abstract ones..
Timothy Andrew
February 29th, 2008 7:45 pmBeautiful!
Joe Hasty
March 3rd, 2008 10:46 amor you could just download http://www.desktoptopia.com and get these without all the searching around.
MovvBuzz
March 4th, 2008 1:34 pmThese are stellar!!
Shilpi Boylla
March 5th, 2008 11:29 pmWhat lovely work! My Fav is the typography ones!~
Shilpi Boylla
March 5th, 2008 11:30 pmWhat lovely work! My Fav are the typography ones!~
mehmet
March 10th, 2008 6:00 amWow,
Nice & amazing wallpapers are here.
Great :)
Muhammad Imran Khan
March 17th, 2008 9:32 pmExcellent imagination, pray to Lord that May Allah give them nice hearts with such nice thoughts and colors.
Kevin
March 19th, 2008 10:45 amawesome…. nice collections ..!!
Monika
March 19th, 2008 11:01 pmI love the Rabbit Wallpaper.
AWESOME….
Vahid
March 25th, 2008 3:58 amAll of them in very beautiful. I love them.
Aaron Spence
April 10th, 2008 3:02 amWe’ve launched a photographic wallpaper site of our work. We produce a new wallpaper every day, and all wallpapers are available in single, dual & triple monitor formats in all sizes from 800×600 to 2560×1600.
Here’s the link to the new site, wallpaper.panedia.com
Samara Zia
April 12th, 2008 6:50 pmdoes anybody know where i can find real cool S shaped wallpapers
but i liked those wallpapers,………………….
but i am looking for S shaped ones
pls reply if anybody knows about any websites
thnx
Sherbear
April 24th, 2008 9:48 amso pretty :) some are pretty funny. i like the humorous ones.
Artmedia
April 28th, 2008 10:14 amjust posting to see if comments are limited to one 100.. obviously they’re not :)
..and yeah.. Nice collection, this site is awesome.
ali immortal
May 6th, 2008 11:19 amvery very good.te best wallpapers.
PI
May 6th, 2008 12:07 pmI really like digitalblasphemy.com. There’s a free section.
Maox
May 9th, 2008 3:29 amEh, “stunning”? Not really. Not one of them, actually. Most of these are mediocre and childish at best.
kishoreblog
May 20th, 2008 8:45 amAwesome.