Computer wallpaper has existed for many years, but the reach of our computers has expanded to make digital wallpaper available. Now, instead of merely having a display on your computer desktop, you can have a display on your walls, representing either fabulous works of art or first-rate patterns.
What Is Digital Wallpaper?
Digital wallpaper consists of computer graphical images that can be projected or otherwise displayed outside the computer’s internal environment. It can be used literally as wallpaper with stylish designs covering an entire indoor wall, or as a variety of large images suitable for placement on vertical surfaces in the same manner as prints, posters, photographs and paintings.
How Does Digital Wallpaper Work?
Digital wallpaper begins with a digital image. Often, it arises from a seed image created with either a capture device such as a digital camera or webcam, but the seed image can also be a drawing created in a computerized drawing program such as The GiMP. For those who choose not to draw or generate their own photos, many online stock photo sites offer seed images either free of charge or for a modest licensing fee. One popular stock image site is Fotolia, but there are many others. (There are also sites offering premade digital wallpaper, such as Digital Blasphemy 3D Wallpapers.)
The image is further refined through an image editing suite such as the commercial Photoshop or the free-of-charge GiMP in order to alter the image’s size, resolution level, color scheme, and other properties, as well as add text, duplicate image content, interpolate additional images, and many other editing options. This creates an image suitable to be digital wallpaper.
The last step is placing the digital wallpaper upon a vertical surface external to the computer. This can be done through either projection, where the image is projected onto the surface, or large-format printing, where the image is printed on paper or another hardcopy medium and then pasted onto the vertical surface. There is currently no reliable, affordable technology for printing an image diectly onto a wall using a printer.
The Advantage of Print Versus Projection Digital Wallpaper
The main issue with projected digital wallpaper is distance. The projector must be at some distance from the vertical surface onto which the image is being projected, which compromises use of room space. Anything coming between the projector and the vertical surface can also interpose itself before the beam of light and degrade the projected image. Finally, the quality of projected images is further compromised by resolution issues and any irregularities in the wall being projected upon. This is clearly not a suitable way to place traditional wallpaper-style digital wallpaper over an entire wall.
The preferred method is to use a service such as Document Options To have an image printed onto a durable medium such as heavy paper or plastic sheet, and then paste the medium onto the wall or a specially prepared wall surface. This permits fine control of image resolution and quality.
The Advantages of Digital Wallpaper
Digital wallpaper is the new ehnancement of home and shop decor. Infinitely flexible and permitting great creativity, it can enhance nearly any settting with lovely, stylish images perfectly suited to the establishment.