tiling, scaling desktop pictures?

treefingers · 02-25-2002, 12:13 AM

does anyone know of any little program that lets you scale or tile pictures in OS X? Coz the setting OS X chooses isnt always good. like sometimes it super enlarges a picture that would be better tiled, or sometimes i'd rather have actual size rather than enlarged, etc. And it would be good if it also changed the picture randomly. (I know theres random changing desktop programs, like Change Desktop, but one that has the other features too). Basically a program like the old DeskPicture for OS 9.

xchanyazy · 02-25-2002, 01:05 AM

TinkerTool allows you to control how the desktop picture is displayed, but I don't think it allows the randomization.

mervTormel · 02-25-2002, 01:20 AM

there's a very good explanation in the ChangeDesktop/Picture Scaling readme that this is all under control of the finder private data wench...

quoteth: "Quite a few users have asked for the ability to specify how pictures should be scaled. Unfortunatly, there is no way a program can control this. In Mac OS X 10.1.x the Finder keeps private data that tells it how to scale the desktop picture. The good news is you can change this data yourself.

In the Finder, navigate to the Library/Preferences folder in your Home folder. Then, using your favorite text editor open the 'com.apple.desktop.plist' file. Look for the Placement key (<key>Placement</key>) and change it's value to one of the following.

Automatic - default.
Center - center the image on the desktop
Crop - tiles the background image
Scale - scales the image..."

and, as xzanychany said, tinkerTool lets you set this switch. i've had real good results with automatic and ChangeDesktop and many images of varying sizes.

what i would like is the ability to say, "tile the image starting at the upper-right coordinates of the desktop, with the upper-right coordinates of the image."

treefingers · 02-25-2002, 10:10 AM

thanks! it looks like Tinker Tool will be the one for me.

02-25-2002, 12:13 AM	#1
treefingers Prospect Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 2	tiling, scaling desktop pictures? does anyone know of any little program that lets you scale or tile pictures in OS X? Coz the setting OS X chooses isnt always good. like sometimes it super enlarges a picture that would be better tiled, or sometimes i'd rather have actual size rather than enlarged, etc. And it would be good if it also changed the picture randomly. (I know theres random changing desktop programs, like Change Desktop, but one that has the other features too). Basically a program like the old DeskPicture for OS 9.

02-25-2002, 01:05 AM	#2
xchanyazy All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Dexter, MI, USA Posts: 704	TinkerTool allows you to control how the desktop picture is displayed, but I don't think it allows the randomization.

02-25-2002, 01:20 AM	#3
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	there's a very good explanation in the ChangeDesktop/Picture Scaling readme that this is all under control of the finder private data wench... quoteth: "Quite a few users have asked for the ability to specify how pictures should be scaled. Unfortunatly, there is no way a program can control this. In Mac OS X 10.1.x the Finder keeps private data that tells it how to scale the desktop picture. The good news is you can change this data yourself. In the Finder, navigate to the Library/Preferences folder in your Home folder. Then, using your favorite text editor open the 'com.apple.desktop.plist' file. Look for the Placement key (<key>Placement</key>) and change it's value to one of the following. Automatic - default. Center - center the image on the desktop Crop - tiles the background image Scale - scales the image..." and, as xzanychany said, tinkerTool lets you set this switch. i've had real good results with automatic and ChangeDesktop and many images of varying sizes. what i would like is the ability to say, "tile the image starting at the upper-right coordinates of the desktop, with the upper-right coordinates of the image."

02-25-2002, 10:10 AM	#4
treefingers Prospect Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 2	thanks! it looks like Tinker Tool will be the one for me.