What size should a desktop wallpaper be?
The short rule, the numbers for common screens, and what Fill and Fit really do.
The short rule: a wallpaper should have at least as many pixels as your screen, and ideally the same shape. Fewer pixels and the system has to enlarge it; a different shape and it gets cropped or shown with bars.
Common screens
- Full HD laptop or monitor: 1920 × 1080 (16:9)
- QHD monitor: 2560 × 1440 (16:9)
- 4K UHD monitor: 3840 × 2160 (16:9)
- Ultrawide monitor: 3440 × 1440 (21:9)
- MacBook Air 13-inch: 2560 × 1664
- MacBook Pro 14-inch: 3024 × 1964
- MacBook Pro 16-inch: 3456 × 2234
- iMac 24-inch: 4480 × 2520 (16:9)
How to find your own resolution
On Windows: Settings, System, Display, then look at Display resolution. On a Mac: Apple menu, System Settings, Displays.
When the shape differs
A 16:9 picture on a MacBook, whose screen is slightly taller, cannot match exactly. Fill enlarges the picture until the screen is covered and trims about a tenth of its width, split between left and right. Fit keeps the whole picture and adds bars. On an ultrawide monitor, Fill trims the top and bottom instead.
When the wallpaper has fewer pixels than the screen
The system enlarges it, which softens fine detail. Photographs suffer the most. Painted images forgive more, because brush strokes have no razor-sharp edges to lose.
The size of Tela wallpapers
Every Tela wallpaper is a JPEG of 2736 × 1536 pixels, in 16:9. That is more than a Full HD or QHD screen needs. On a 4K monitor or a large Retina display the system enlarges it by about 1.4 times.
Looking for something worth setting as your wallpaper?