Sublime Trick in OS X
February 5th, 2007
This isn’t a “trick” so much as a discovery: use a series of similar images with OS X’s ability to change desktop pictures every 5 minutes. Here’s how this works:
First, you pick a series of very similar pictures. In my case, I happened across some mesmerizing photography of smoke created by Graham Jefferey of Sensitive Light in my travels across the InterWebs. He has a number of smoke images available for download as desktop pictures. Download these and save them to a folder.
Note: Any series will work. For best results, try to pick pictures that are variants on a theme and have similar background colors. For instance, I use only the smoke images with black backgrounds.
Next, open your System Preferences, go to Desktop & Screensavers, and select the Desktop tab. Now, in the list of available desktop images, scroll to the bottom of the list and select “Choose Folder…”. Select the folder containing your series of images. Finally, make sure “Change Picture…” is checked, and select a frequency from the pull-down menu. I find that 5 minutes is a good length of time.
When all is said and done, you will have what appears to be a normal desktop picture. However, just as it does with screensaver transitions, OS X gently fades between the images randomly while you’re working. The effect is calming and fascinating.
Enjoy.
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