Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.
More (Really) Stunning Desktop Wallpapers
Desktop wallpapers are always nice to look at and to draw inspiration from. They may provide with some fresh perspective and offer you some eye-candy for tedious coffee breaks. We are regularly hunting for free high-quality icons, fonts and wallpapers and present them to you, so you don’t need to search for them. As long as we find something beautiful, interesting or useful, we let you know in our posts. And now it’s time for some sweet wallpapers designer’s toolbox.
In this post we present more (really) stunning desktop wallpapers related to typography, photography, illustrations, HDR as well as some abstract and fantasy-related wallpapers. Hopefully, everybody will find something interesting for his or her desktop. All wallpapers can be downloaded for free.
You can also scan through the following posts:
Don’t forget: until 21th of May you can participate in Smashing Texture Contest, take a photo, send it to us and win a professional digital camera. We have received over 200 entries so far.
[Offtopic: by the way, did you already get your copy of the brand new Smashing Book?]
Wallpapers
La Femme
An artwork by James White, available in resolutions 1900×1200px, 1680×1050px, 1440×900px and 1280×1024px as well as in an iPhone version.
The Minimalistic Sky
Available in resolutions 1680×1050px, 1440×900px and 1280×800px.
Summer wallpaper
Light, bright and beautiful; available in various resolutions.
Ethereal Bloom
A nebula wallpaper available in resolution 1600×1200px. Designed in Adobe Photoshop by Sam Mulqueen from New Zealand.
Preiades Star Cluster
A set of wallpapers from Crestock: together with 12 further wallpapers, this one is available in 8 resolutions. Both wide screen and full screen versions are available for free download.
Design is retro
Designed by Ankur Patar from Chandigarh, India. Resolution: only 1280×1024px.
Argyle Stylie
Impressive pattern with an Apple sticker on the left. Created by sunb1rd. High-resolution version should be available soon.
Grids Are Good For The Soul
A series of typographic wallpapers by Antonio Carusone from AisleOne. Don’t like the typeface below? Try Helvetica. Resolution: 1920×1200px.
CMYK Lovers
Designed by Guilherme Marconi and available in resolutions 1900×1200px, 1680×1050px, 1440×900px and 1280×1024px as well as an iPhone version.
365wallpapers
Gosquared offerse a variety of creative artistic wallpapers. The ones below are available in 9 desktop resolutions.
Nebulae Wallpaper
When it comes to beauty, nothing can beat nature.
Blue Dock
Available in the resolution 1900×1200px.
Apple & Co.
Retro Apple
Abstract
Smoke
“One flash at 1/2 power from the left, reflector on the right, black background. Rotated image and painted the smoke in Photoshop with brush in overlay mode.”
Angel Strom
Abstract work in Photoshop.
Swimming
“Swimming by *Thelma1 is a beautiful, flowing, delicate reminder that things often conjured from reality are fragile and ready to crumble at the touch. This is delicate work reminiscant of the marine life, that is sure to make a wonderfull backdrop to anyone’s desktop.”
Fiery Decent
To download the wallpaper you need to download the software provided by Desktoptopia. While this is definitely obtrusive, some wallpapers are just beautiful.
Blue Dynamic Background
Offered for free download by Crestock.com. 8 resolutions, both wide screen and full screen.
Solar System
“Space is one of the topics I find very inspiring to illustrate. Here is my vision of solar system. All proportions are very approximate!”
Clean Arrows
A series of abstract wallpapers, designed by Seventh Street Studio.
Photography
SocksOff Wallpapers
A high-quality collection of high-resolution wallpapers which are free for personal use only.
Dramatic Sky
“This shot shows the wonderful early autumn sky here at the French riviera. I shot this picture with a Nikon D80 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens. Put together as HDR in Dynamic Photo HDR.”
Lazy Days
Springtime is the best. Simple scene created in Vue.
A Beautiful Day
Available in resolutions 800×600, 1024×768, 1151×864, 1151×921, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1680×1050 and 1920×1200.
Desert Car Crash
Wide screen resolutions only. 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×800.
Federal Territory Mosque, Malaysia
Eager Beaver
Only 1280×1024.
“Soft” Wallpaper Pack
This pack contains 48 various wallpapers in resolutions 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200 and 1680×1050. Impressive photography.
Four Poles
A 30 second exposure taken just after sunset at Onehunga Harbour, Auckland. The photo is taken by Chris Gin.
Fantasy
The Falls
Illustrations and Artwork
20 Cool Car Wallpapers
A selection of car wallpapers by YouTheDesigner.com. Below is the VW Beetle Sport Concept.
Airplane Art Painting – Art Air Combat
A huge collection of wallpapers related to airplane art painting.
Graphic Design of Hybrid
These ones look tasty. Simple but incredible.
Best of Wallpapers Made in Russia
Abduzeedo wallpaper
Adhemas Batista mixes photos and vectors.
Wide screen wallpapers
This wide screen wallpapers pack contains 20 wallpapers in a variety of resolutions.
Resources
- 18×18 Excellent Wallpapers
A remarkable collection of desktop wallpapers from various sources and in various resolutions. - HDRwalls
HDRWalls offers 349 desktop backgrounds in widescreen and standard format. High Dynamic Range only. - WallCoo
ThisJapaneseChinese site has numerous collection of artistic high-quality desktop wallpapers. In various resolution. Problem: you need to follow the links blindly in order to find wallpapers you are looking for. - Social Wallpapering
A public effort to classify, rank, and distribute high-resolution images for use as desktop wallpaper. A high-quality collection of high-quality wallpapers.
Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com), an online magazine dedicated to designers and developers.
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...- 130 Comments
- 1
- 2
May 15th, 2008 8:43 amCool list.. Can’t wait to change my wallpaper at work!
- 3May 15th, 2008 8:45 am
AWESOME! THE BETTER COLECTION OF WALLPAPERS!
- 4May 15th, 2008 8:51 am
If possible can you put thumbs in your RSS feed, kinda aggravating trying to scroll thru feeds while images are loading and popping feed reader back to your feed.
Just my little whine for today. - 5May 15th, 2008 8:55 am
Wow, along with the other collection of wallpapers now I have a different one for each day of this month…. And maybe even for the next.
- 6May 15th, 2008 8:59 am
wow these are impressive, I especially like the ones in the “abstract” categorie. There’s even a tutorial on the “Travel” wallpaper. The first “fantasy landscape” design is great too. Well they all are. I just don’t understand why you’ve included the “Mac OS Blue” in the list. I’ve seen a lot better Apple orientated wallpaper than that one. It’s too simple to compete with all the others in my opinion.
- 7May 15th, 2008 9:25 am
:O Wow this are amazing. Ty!
- 8May 15th, 2008 9:29 am
I second mark’s request. Is there a way for you to have your RSS auto scale down the thumbs. my feedreader hates this posts as much as I love them :)
- 9May 15th, 2008 9:51 am
Great collection!
But who the hell said, that Apple is green? Apple pollutes the environment with their production methods. Don’t ever say that Apple is green!
- 10May 15th, 2008 10:09 am
the third wp is made by KOL, the originals are here:
http://-kol.deviantart.com/art/Seasons-One-monitor-version-24476482
and are available in different sizes too.
i don’t know if the japanese website credited the creator. - 11May 15th, 2008 10:21 am
nice collection.
what are the “Preiades”?
- 12May 15th, 2008 10:56 am
WOOOOOOOOOOOW
this is the best ever
man
smashing guys
you guys
you……………… you ……………….. you ………… you r ……….. I’m speachless
u r the only reason that makes me log in the net every day
I….. LOOOOVE you guys
thanx - 13May 15th, 2008 11:10 am
i love the lion :) he looks so happy for eating his trainer.
- 14May 15th, 2008 11:16 am
Nice collection, guys. Thanks for piecing it together.
Hope all’s well your side.
- 15May 15th, 2008 11:33 am
Nice collection… would like to see you guys do a post like this for people who have dual monitors.
Here’s the wallpaper I’m using know that I made out of a few other images I found online… Earth From Mars (Yes I know it’s not proportional)
- 16May 15th, 2008 12:28 pm
Fantastic wallpapers…
Sadly I can’t use any of them; I’ve got dual screens at home and at work so 2560×1024… can you showcase anything for those? - 17May 15th, 2008 12:30 pm
@Simon: thanks, we’ll see what we can do. ;-)
- 18May 15th, 2008 12:40 pm
Great new wallpapers for my desktop!
The 3rd wallpaper “Summer wallpaper” needs a little fix. Looking at the kanji that the website uses it seems to be a Chinese website. You could also check by clicking the English button on the top left.
As freewally said in the comment they don’t have the original author credited so it might better to have the link to the original author.
I hope you guys take a little more time to check. Keep up the good work!
- 19May 15th, 2008 1:00 pm
@ne-design: thank you, corrected.
- 20May 15th, 2008 1:13 pm
this is the best collection of wallpapers of smashing mag….very coool…keep it up…
- 21May 15th, 2008 1:32 pm
Holy crap, that is a great list! How am I meant to choose just one!
It just kept going with more and more great images! LOVE IT
- 22May 15th, 2008 2:22 pm
Awesome
Thanks - 23May 15th, 2008 2:45 pm
Finally some ACTUALLY stunning wallpapers!
- 24May 15th, 2008 2:49 pm
WallCoo is not a Japanese site, it’s Chinese one. And very typical. :)
Greate list, by the way.
- 25May 15th, 2008 4:06 pm
Awesome list!! Thanks again!
- 26May 15th, 2008 4:53 pm
More awesome work! Thanks so much!
- 27May 15th, 2008 5:32 pm
WallCoo is Chinese site !
- 28May 15th, 2008 5:57 pm
wooww!!!
its really really awesome!kereeen!
thanks for posting this :D - 29May 15th, 2008 6:17 pm
Great list. By the way, there’s a link at the top of the Wallcoo site for an English version.
- 30May 15th, 2008 6:53 pm
Wallcoo is not japanese, it’s Chinese website.
- 31May 15th, 2008 7:38 pm
Great list!
PS, WallCoo is a Chinese website not Japanese.
- 32May 15th, 2008 7:47 pm
Awesome! Been looking for a new wallpaper for May. Thanks!
- 33May 15th, 2008 7:48 pm
These are incredible. Quite possibly the best compilation yet. Thank you very much!
- 34May 15th, 2008 7:58 pm
Not that I don’t love all these wallpapers (even more so now I’ve upgraded to a 22″ widescreen), but I want to see Smashing Magazine mix up the articles a little more. Give us some more unique articles, not follow ups (note the “really”).
Still,
- 35May 15th, 2008 8:12 pm
Awesome Collections Guy…..
U r smashing in day by day
- 36May 15th, 2008 10:51 pm
Wow! sooo nice! I love the pattern created by sunb1rd! Nice work! Thnks for sharing!
- 37May 15th, 2008 11:16 pm
awesome collection of some great pieces !!
- 38May 15th, 2008 11:21 pm
Very nice!!
- 39May 15th, 2008 11:30 pm
You guys are freaking amazing…Beautiful wallpapers
Wow!
Im Speechless like Michael Jackson!
- 40May 15th, 2008 11:31 pm
Thank you very much for sharing this list ! =)
- 41May 16th, 2008 12:13 am
Amazing wallpapers. How do you keep some wallpapers that Desktoptopia rotates? I want to keep some! They’re beautiful!
- 42May 16th, 2008 3:16 am
smashingwallpapers.com !!
- 43May 16th, 2008 5:43 am
Thanks for this post. I’m always looking for great new wallpapers. May I suggest you consider http://freewidescreenwallpapers.blogspot.com/ in your next round. That guy is updating his site daily and the quality has remained high for months. Happy Friday!
- 44May 16th, 2008 6:26 am
Wow, they just keep getting better, and better, and better… Thanks for another amazing smash-up!
- 45May 16th, 2008 6:52 am
Outstanding!
- 46May 16th, 2008 7:40 am
They’re all amazing! Thanks
- 47May 16th, 2008 8:41 am
Hello. Good collection!
But the article needs a little correction. Adhemas Batista not is the autor of Abduzeedo wallpaper. The true autor is Fabio Sasso, inspired in Adhemas Batista’s work :)
Sorry for my broken English. :( Cya!
- 48May 16th, 2008 12:03 pm
awesome list :D
really so nice !!
- 49May 16th, 2008 12:29 pm
Good wallpapers are something that pops up very rarely. Great collection!
- 50May 17th, 2008 3:21 am
so so so so so so so beautiful.
- 51May 17th, 2008 6:23 am
Very beautifull wallpapers !
Thanks - 52May 17th, 2008 7:31 am
Pleiades is a star cluster, named (if I remember correctly) after seven sisters, possibly daughters of the Greek god Zeus. You can find out more about them on Wikipedia.
- 53May 17th, 2008 8:17 am
I really loved the Nebulae Wallpaper…Its So magical!!!!!
- 54May 17th, 2008 11:02 am
Just beautiful collection again! Thanks! :D
- 55May 17th, 2008 6:11 pm
awesome
- 56May 17th, 2008 7:45 pm
I would say over 90% of those wallpapers are absolutely gorgeous! I’m a wallpaper freak (each week I search and search for the “perfect” wallpaper for that week). Thanks for the list!
- 57May 17th, 2008 11:17 pm
helloooo tank s for your desktop pictures very very beautiful
- 58May 18th, 2008 3:59 pm
The Argyle Wallpaper link doesnt work :(
- 59May 18th, 2008 9:13 pm
Fantastic wallpapers…
Sadly I can’t use any of them; I’ve got dual screens at home and at work so 2560×1024… can you showcase anything for those? - 60May 19th, 2008 3:12 pm
The link for Argyle Style is broken . I found the creator’s page on DevianArt but it doesn’t have that wallpaper anymore. :-( Anyone has a version to send me?
Also, where are those high res versions?!
- 61May 20th, 2008 1:46 am
thanks man ! a stunning collection……
friends sms START TIRUNELVELI to 09845398453 to get cool sms’s……………..
- 62May 20th, 2008 9:41 pm
Nice collection… just thought I should mention that wallcoo.com actually has an option for english language. Upper left corner…
- 63May 21st, 2008 7:20 pm
Those are really awesome.
- 64May 22nd, 2008 2:53 am
Wooow!
I have never ever seen such great collection of wallpapers.
They are really b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l .
Thanks - 65May 22nd, 2008 7:41 pm
OMG, these wallpapers are amazing!!!!
Great, so much thanks. - 66May 23rd, 2008 9:37 pm
Sweet! Thank you. :)
- 67May 24th, 2008 2:36 am
Thank you for the wallpapers, I bookmarked this page and I use the wallpapers here for my office desktop.
- 68May 24th, 2008 8:07 am
Amazing!
- 69May 25th, 2008 10:24 pm
Really nice compilation. :)
I’ve made a personal compilation too on my blog. 49 Wallpapers, hope you find it usefull too.
- 70May 25th, 2008 10:33 pm
Woooooooooooooooooooooooow Men !!
Mindblowing work… - 71May 26th, 2008 6:58 pm
luv these wallpapers
- 72May 27th, 2008 11:01 am
Wow this is amazing art work. Thank you so much for sharing it.
- 73May 27th, 2008 3:08 pm
These are gorgeous…..using the ladybug…..really love it.
- 74May 29th, 2008 6:51 am
awesome, just like usual
- 75May 29th, 2008 11:05 pm
Amazing………something different! good job!!!!
thank u - 76June 2nd, 2008 6:14 am
sweet!!
was really nice collection - 77June 3rd, 2008 10:55 am
RUSSIA!!!!! SUPER!)
- 78June 4th, 2008 4:31 am
Never seen such amazing wallpapers!!!
- 79June 11th, 2008 4:06 pm
hentaiplus.tk rulls baby
- 80June 25th, 2008 9:52 pm
Amazing wallpapers. Good collection.
- 81July 12th, 2008 3:59 am
gr8 collection ! thanks )
- 82July 12th, 2008 9:36 pm
Magnificos, muchas gracias.
Saludos desde México, jeje. - 83July 16th, 2008 2:13 am
It seems Desert Car Crash wallpaper link is dead. Is it possible to fix it, please ?
Thx - 84July 21st, 2008 5:51 am
the photos that you have made are lovely my husband and daughter love them as much as i do.keep up the good work. From Renee
- 85July 31st, 2008 9:41 pm
amazing collections,i am tired of saving these beatiful images now,they are awesome.thanks a lot.
- 86August 25th, 2008 6:19 pm
thank you for the great wallpapers , may abudance go your way .
- 87September 2nd, 2008 6:01 am
…….really good…….!
- 88October 15th, 2008 3:47 am
these pics suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- 89October 22nd, 2008 1:13 pm
Awesome! Thank a lot. :-)
- 90November 8th, 2008 2:40 am
::: Actually this the best web site i have ever seen in ma life. it has all the thing members and viewers want. Thanks for the owner and Admins. A greate work. :::
- 91November 12th, 2008 12:53 am
thanks for sharing
- 92November 14th, 2008 12:10 am
Wonderful. Thanks for sharing
- 93November 15th, 2008 12:15 am
damn!!! it so wonderfull!!!! thanks for sharing again.!!
- 94November 23rd, 2008 6:28 am
Awesum :O very beautiful and artistic photos , amazing. Loved.
- 95December 1st, 2008 5:09 am
I loved those desktop backgrounds. It was really useful. Thank you very VERY MUCH!!!
- 96December 6th, 2008 7:50 am
very beautiful wallpapers.
Thanks. - 97December 12th, 2008 1:42 am
welldone !!!!!i got ashtonished eve have done a great job its just marvellous, fantastic,words cant explain it wow keep it up guys
- 98December 16th, 2008 3:02 am
This is very bad wallpapers….
- 99December 22nd, 2008 2:03 am
Great list, Wonderful wallpapers ;) tranks for sharing
- 100January 19th, 2009 9:47 am
WOW!! There wicked!! How did u get them? i will b using these r 4 my wallpapers !! :) Thanx!!
- 101January 26th, 2009 4:23 pm
these wallpapers are extremely beautiful! great job to the artists behind this piece of work. :)
- 102January 29th, 2009 12:35 pm
Extremely beautiful! This is amazing. congratulations and great job!!!!!
- 103February 5th, 2009 11:37 pm
Wow, they was great pictures
- 104February 9th, 2009 5:55 pm
just omg just like i LOVE them!!!
- 105February 10th, 2009 2:08 pm
Thanks so much, I love every wallpaper on this list!!! I can’t even choose which one I want, they’re all so entertaining and pretty. I am truly grateful for the person who takes the time to put this together.
- 106February 13th, 2009 5:10 am
Man this is fantastic, best wall paper i have ever seen before! This is the fabulous, great, and full of life. Amazing I’m shocked. This is just too fantastic.
- 107February 25th, 2009 8:27 am
whats guyies this is great i love this web site thing lol ttyl peace…
- 108March 4th, 2009 6:39 pm
how can i download them?
- 109March 8th, 2009 5:08 pm
there was a tiger wallpaper that I had as my desktop for the longest time but I ended up resetting it by accident. I got the picture from this website – it was a tiger standing in a wall that had been broken (the wall was separating a forest and an indoor area) with leaves flying all around. does anyone know where I can find it? thanks!
- 110March 16th, 2009 10:10 pm
loves the compilation!
- 111March 30th, 2009 8:52 am
dog these r pimpin!
thx a mil’
keep producin dog!
peace….. - 112April 18th, 2009 4:13 pm
MAN Great Job Solid pics man Ten thumbs up
- 113May 9th, 2009 7:34 pm
Awesome Great………….
Please add more things on.
I am really fancinated in photoshop design…..i can learn alot..
Thanks anyway!…. - 114May 14th, 2009 9:34 pm
i liked “The Minimalistic Sky” but unfortunately when clicked on link it gives 404 error :(
- 115May 19th, 2009 2:27 am
Wallco has got an amazing selection. To avoid clicking blindly on the links try this:
- 116June 20th, 2009 10:54 am
Great list, but could you provide a link for the Argyle one? ‘Cause I love it, but can’t find it :(
- 117July 5th, 2009 5:47 am
thanks for share
- 118July 18th, 2009 3:55 am
haha pictures
- 119July 30th, 2009 9:31 pm
reallyyyyyyyyy Great work mannnnnnnnnn………….u r awsomeeeee…..
- 120August 14th, 2009 7:44 am
they are soooooooooooo wonderful and nice
- 121September 6th, 2009 7:29 am
genial! thanks
- 122October 22nd, 2009 6:32 pm
Nice Selection
- 123November 2nd, 2009 2:51 am
amazing list of wallpapers.. very likes this…
- 124November 8th, 2009 2:09 am
Thnx… this is very amazing.!!
i hope this will happen my inspiration. - 125December 4th, 2009 8:18 am
nice pic. of all tipe subject
- 126December 15th, 2009 5:46 am
thanks man!!!
- 127January 7th, 2010 12:10 am
wel-come
- 128January 25th, 2010 12:47 pm
very nice excellant keep it up…….
- 129February 3rd, 2010 4:26 am
Just too GOOD!!!
- 130February 8th, 2010 3:32 am
not best wallpapers
- 00
There are no trackbacks at this time. If you are interested in leaving a trackback, please use this URL.
Leave a Comment
Make sure you enter the * required information where indicated. Please also rate the article as it will help us decide future content and posts. Comments are moderated – and rel="nofollow" is in use. Please no link dropping, no keywords or domains as names; do not spam, and do not advertise!
Interact
Popular
- 100 Wordpress Themes
- Photoshop Tutorials
- Fantastic Wallpapers
- 40+ Excellent Freefonts
- Dual-Screen Wallpapers
- Wordpress Themes for 2009
- Illustrator Tutorials
- Incredible Free Icon Sets
- High-Quality Free Fonts
- 30 Scripts For Galleries
- Photoshop Text Effects
- Useful Icon Sets
- Web Design Trends
- iPhone Wallpapers
- Before Launching a Website
- CSS Layouts And Templates
- Photoshop Actions
- Stunning Pictures and Photos
- Fantastic HDR Pictures
- Logo Design Tutorials
- Free Design Templates
- 10 Mistakes In Logo Design
- Photoshop Custom Shapes
- 40 Creative Design Layouts
- 8 Layout Solutions
- 53 CSS Techniques
- Photography Techniques
- Black & White Photography
- Styling Design Elements
- CSS-Based Forms
- 50 jQuery Techniques
- 50 Portfolio Websites
- 50 CSS Techniques
- Creative Logo Designs
- Desktop Wallpapers
- 25 Open Source Mac Apps
- 50 Free Icon Sets
- We’re Ready for CSS3, but are we Ready for CSS3? - http://bit.ly/cKN7Bz
- lovely-css: a grid-based CSS framework - http://bit.ly/ayA0wb
- How The CSS Selector nth-child Works - http://bit.ly/cgPMqe
- 33 New High Quality Adobe Illustrator Tutorials - http://bit.ly/bTgFbu
- How to Drastically Improve Your Designs - http://bit.ly/a9L1sb
- A Quick Look at Mobile Web Designs - http://bit.ly/9TCWCG
- How to Test your JavaScript Code with QUnit - http://bit.ly/da853c
Awesome list. Thanks for sharing