What do you guys think about these?

Cannon Beach (United States) by Justin Luebke (unsplash)

Half Dome (Yosemite, US) by Casey Horner (unsplash)

By Jean-Pierre Brungs, location unknown (unsplash)

In T10220#170931, @ngraham wrote:

It's often hard to judge the aesthetics of an image in isolation, especially when the proposal is to replace some with better ones. Please feel free to go find some! Then we can compare them to our current offerings and see what makes the cut and what we can remove.

Good point, we'll come up with some sort of a draft proposal for the categories in the following days. We also thought it might be good to include a Floral category, what do you think?

Here are a few wallpapers we've shortlisted at this time:

• bridge: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-bridge-and-trees-814499/
• lake Bled: https://unsplash.com/photos/uy1-fYSh4HY
• puppies: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-yellow-labrador-retriever-puppies-1108099/
• NYC cityscape: https://unsplash.com/photos/7Vvv3llBmCI
• (a nod to) NASA: https://unsplash.com/photos/Q1p7bh3SHj8

• (a nod to) NASA: https://unsplash.com/photos/Q1p7bh3SHj8

apt :D

In T10220#170943, @rooty wrote:

What do you guys think about these?

Those are nice! All three are very de-saturated and not very colorful though. We should be sure we have a good mix of those.

In T10220#170947, @filipf wrote:

Here are a few wallpapers we've shortlisted at this time:

• bridge: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-bridge-and-trees-814499/
• lake Bled: https://unsplash.com/photos/uy1-fYSh4HY
• puppies: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-yellow-labrador-retriever-puppies-1108099/
• NYC cityscape: https://unsplash.com/photos/7Vvv3llBmCI
• (a nod to) NASA: https://unsplash.com/photos/Q1p7bh3SHj8

I love all of those! Really fantastic.

I like the idea and if we select wallpapers we must provide quality wallpapers that fit every screen well.

Those are nice! All three are very de-saturated and not very colorful though. We should be sure we have a good mix of those.

sure thing! i like the idea of having a mix of colorful + bland + nice icon label readability

I like the idea and if we select wallpapers we must provide quality wallpapers that fit every screen well.

that's why we've chosen unsplash.com and pexels.com, they're all free (speech and beer) and of very high resolution, so we can resize them any way we please

p.s. sorry i haven't been replying, my email's been on the blink lately haha

Our first draft, any and all input is welcome:

Abstract/Other

• pastels: https://unsplash.com/photos/B6MsgQx57Lk

• blurry rainy day: https://unsplash.com/photos/XgeZu2jBaVI

Animals

• puppies: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-yellow-labrador-retriever-puppies-1108099/

• kitty: https://unsplash.com/photos/w12NAMymqnk

• stormy seas: https://unsplash.com/photos/7j2D2o9NcYc

• secret beach: https://unsplash.com/photos/SuT2MhkdyBQ

Cityscape

• a megalopolis sunset: https://unsplash.com/photos/7Vvv3llBmCI

• a megalopolis at night: https://unsplash.com/photos/Ys-DBJeX0nE

Flowers

• cherry blossom: https://unsplash.com/photos/dQsQl-A-Srw

• peach blossom: https://unsplash.com/photos/5EVCk6E6EEk

Meadow

• golden grassland: https://unsplash.com/photos/qxCqkbF7tUc

• a lavander field in the evening: https://unsplash.com/photos/KR0Dvou4qdw (doubles for: Flowers)

Mountains

• a volcano: https://unsplash.com/photos/HYBOqyse6EU

• a mountain in the evening: https://unsplash.com/photos/3ecYnQot4Bc

Space/Sky

• Earth from space: https://unsplash.com/photos/Q1p7bh3SHj8

• stars in the desert: https://unsplash.com/photos/BDxozptodpU

Water

• a bridge in the forest: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-bridge-and-trees-814499/ [doubles for: Forest]

• a lake in the evening: https://unsplash.com/photos/uy1-fYSh4HY

Proposed substitutions for Abstract/Other:

• (1) pastels --> (1) elarun (bringing it back)

• (2) blurry rainy day --> (2) Space Story Photo by Joel Filipe (rotated): https://unsplash.com/photos/QwoNAhbmLLo

Proposed addition to Space/Sky: Dancing Northern Lights Photo by Lightspace: https://unsplash.com/photos/LtnPejWDSAY

I love those choices! Looks great to me.

Thanks! Hey what do you think about including these Lance Asper Palm Coast wallpapers:

https://unsplash.com/photos/O79h8KzusIc

Maybe just the first one. They're really pretty imo, but we already have that secret beach wallpaper so we didn't include them in the original proposal (we thought it might be a little too much).

Yeah, I think Secret Beach looks nicer than both of those.

In T10220#171351, @ngraham wrote:

Yeah, I think Secret Beach looks nicer than both of those.

I like Secret Beach more as well, although the ones @rooty Iinked are a bit cleaner. I think Secret Beach is more memorable; one of our ideas in selecting the wallpapers is to not have them just look nice, but also have a quality to them that people will remember them for years later.

Some of my criticism for our choices:

• a megalopolis at night: https://unsplash.com/photos/Ys-DBJeX0nE
  

The left side looks great, but the right side looks way too artificial.

• cherry blossom: https://unsplash.com/photos/dQsQl-A-Srw
  
• peach blossom: https://unsplash.com/photos/5EVCk6E6EEk
  

Having both seems redundant?

• stars in the desert: https://unsplash.com/photos/BDxozptodpU
  

If we zoom in on this one, we can see... it's fabricated, the rocks look slapped on!

Proposed addition to Space/Sky: Dancing Northern Lights Photo by Lightspace: https://unsplash.com/photos/LtnPejWDSAY

This one is nice, but also pretty grainy, making it look low quality.

In T10220#171355, @filipf wrote:

• cherry blossom: https://unsplash.com/photos/dQsQl-A-Srw
  
• peach blossom: https://unsplash.com/photos/5EVCk6E6EEk
  

Having both seems redundant?

Yeah, that was actually my first thought too. Perhaps we could have two, but ther could be different flowers/trees?

Yeah I agree, it's basically a duplicate - I've (we've) been thinking: the lavender field doubles for Flowers, but also maybe something darker, redder, more purple/violet

Something along the lines of
https://www.pexels.com/photo/purple-chrysanthemum-flowers-in-close-up-photo-1416724/ - beautiful, but might be considered by some Europeans as slightly funerial

Or something brighter like
https://unsplash.com/photos/koy6FlCCy5s

In T10220#171382, @rooty wrote:

Or something brighter like
https://unsplash.com/photos/koy6FlCCy5s

+1 for this one!

In T10220#171400, @ngraham wrote:

In T10220#171382, @rooty wrote:

Or something brighter like
https://unsplash.com/photos/koy6FlCCy5s

+1 for this one!

perfect :D it's so... bright, i love it

By the way, how do you feel about subbing the cherry blossom photo for an almond blossom photo:

replaced with

My rationale is that if a user should decide to use it as an sddm background image it would work a lot better without the blur than the cherry blossom photo where the branch in the middle messes with the action buttons:

In T10220#171416, @rooty wrote:

Pros: less blurry
Cons: right-heavy

Cons: right-heavy

Yeah... Hey, I'd love to include both but I don't want the stack to be too big and it'd be a little redundant :D

In T10220#171420, @rooty wrote:

Cons: right-heavy

Yeah... Hey, I'd love to include both but I don't want the stack to be too big and it'd be a little redundant :D

Current package (plasma-wallpapers) size is 41.6 MiB. IMO double that would be the maximum we could go, it's not good to make the package too big.

Also if we can just ship the biggest size and let Plasma do the cropping, that's a big advantage.

So, to sum up, the current selection is as follows:

Animals

• Two Yellow Labrador Retriever Puppies by Chevanon Photography, source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-yellow-labrador-retriever-puppies-1108099/

• Noticed by Borna Bevanda, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/w12NAMymqnk

Seashores

• Rock, Ocean, Wave and Sea by Sushil Nash, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/7j2D2o9NcYc

• Secret Beach in Seychelles by Ian Badenhorst, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/SuT2MhkdyBQ

Cityscapes

• NYC from Above by Bryan Minaer, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/7Vvv3llBmCI

• Tokyo Bay in the Rain by Alex Knight, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/Ys-DBJeX0nE

Flowers

• Blooming Flowers by Sergey Shmidt, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/koy6FlCCy5s

• Almond Blossom by Dulcineia Dias, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/HQOA0LA91As

Fields

• Golden Mountain Grassland by Jean-Pierre Brungs, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/qxCqkbF7tUc

• Bokeh in Lavender by Arthur Aldyrkhanov, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/KR0Dvou4qdw

Mountains

• Go with the Flow by Julien Millet, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/HYBOqyse6EU

• Mt Rainier by Becca Tapert, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/3ecYnQot4Bc

Skies

• Untitled photo of Gulf of Mexico, by NASA, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/Q1p7bh3SHj8

• Dancing Northern Lights by Lightscape, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/LtnPejWDSAY

Water

• Gray Bridge and Trees by Martin Damboldt, source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-bridge-and-trees-814499/

• Lake Bled on a Blue Night by Artem Sapegin, source:

https://unsplash.com/photos/uy1-fYSh4HY

Abstract/Legacy

• Space Story by Joel Filipe (rotated), source:

https://unsplash.com/photos/QwoNAhbmLLo

• Elarun by Nuno Pinheiro, source: https://github.com/sddm/sddm/blob/develop/data/themes/elarun/images/background.png

• Fallen Leaf by Martin Klapetek, source: https://github.com/KDE/plasma-workspace-wallpapers/blob/master/FallenLeaf/contents/images/2560x1600.jpg

Issues

• Fallen Leaf and Elarun - not available in 4k or 5k
• Tokyo Bay in the Rain - heavy on the green, substitutions welcome
• Secret Beach in Seychelles - should probably be rotated by 180° for better icon label readability
• Dancing Northern Lights - while quite beautiful, very grainy
• Should only the highest resolution/quality wallpapers be included (61.3 MiB at present) or should multiple aspect ratio and/or resolution images be provided?

Looks fantastic to me, visually speaking!

Should only the highest resolution/quality wallpapers be included (61.3 MiB at present) or should multiple aspect ratio and/or resolution images be provided?

I think we need a Plasma or more seasoned VDG person to answer this question. I recall that there's some history with aspect ratios previously not being preserved correctly, but that's not the case now. It does seem like overkill to have one image per resolution, but I can see the logic behind one image per aspect ratio, if that works technically.

I think what happened before was that images would end up looking blurry if scaled and cropped. I know I had to crop my wallpapers manually. It's fine now, though.

I'm in favor of just letting Plasma do the cropping and scaling. We don't really have detailed abstract wallpapers where it's super important that a particular element is at an exact spot.

Basically our problem would however be wallpapers that have something important at their very edges. That means these 2:

• Noticed by Borna Bevanda, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/w12NAMymqnk
  

• Almond Blossom by Dulcineia Dias, source: https://unsplash.com/photos/HQOA0LA91As
  

Tested on a 5:4 monitor they don't scale ideally due to centering, but it's not that big of a deal. We could replace them if we found something better though.

As for 21:9 monitors, those are just a difficult breed... they'll have to make do with what's on the table because wallpapers usually just don't come in that ratio!

I think they came out looking quite nice after being cropped. :D

Choosing wallpapers is a very subjective task, so I think the more input is received the better :D

I suggest having clean and colorful wallpapers (or if not clean, at least be colorful, and vice versa).

Some examples:

Nature/Animals

• Jellyfish (6000x4000) https://unsplash.com/photos/dxk6tMxNkJY

• Butterfly (4322 × 2881) https://unsplash.com/photos/iilZhNg5uaQ

• Crustacean (7249 × 4838) https://unsplash.com/photos/Cbo4Bxx7SaA

• Rainbow over the sea (5472 × 3648) https://unsplash.com/photos/1iqLU3K_x8o

Macros

• Feather (5760 × 3840) https://unsplash.com/photos/hahyMPtfgZ4 (Not so clean but it has nice colors).

Architecture

• Salling Tower (4871 × 3237) https://unsplash.com/photos/cnOlhGQY-SI

Abstract

• Smoke (4000 × 2824) https://unsplash.com/photos/2vHXzi3RER0

• Liquid mixture (3648 × 5472) https://unsplash.com/photos/Mbf3xFiC1Zo (rotated)

Analyzing the proposed selection, I would replace Golden Mountain Grassland, as it is not particularly colorful or clean, and lacks quality. Gray Bridge and Trees also looks very artificial and visually cluttered to me. The first abstract image could also use some improvements too!

Those are quite lovely too, @Luwx!

I would agree that Gray Bridge and Trees is rather cluttered. It's pretty, but maybe not best as a wallpaper. I do really like Golden Mountain Grassland though--but I'll admit that maybe it's because I live in the region of the world where the photo was taken so I'm rather partial to that sort of landscape. :)

The nice thing here is that if we can ship only the high-res versions, that will cut down on the space required for everything so we have more breathing room to add more images.

I suggest http://alpha.wallhaven.cc, there are lots of beautiful wallpapers on that website.
For example:

• https://whvn.cc/479771

• https://whvn.cc/327491

• https://whvn.cc/543828

And this is very subjective, so we should select some pictures and create a poll to get users' options.

Finally we would choose the most loved ones.

In T10220#171808, @Luwx wrote:

I suggest having clean and colorful wallpapers (or if not clean, at least be colorful, and vice versa).

We'll aim to improve the cleanliness, remove wallpapers such as Grey Bridge and Trees. Thanks!

In T10220#171923, @trmdi wrote:

I suggest http://alpha.wallhaven.cc, there are lots of beautiful wallpapers on that website.

If I'm seeing it right we can't use the wallpapers from that site. It says: "All images remain property of their original owners." plus it might not even be authors themselves posting there.

And this is very subjective, so we should select some pictures and create a poll to get users' options.

I agree that this would be nice, but that it would be cumbersome to ask to have about 30 or more wallpapers ranked and then choose the best 15 e.g. We can always improve the package based on feedback.

A few more notes on implementation:

• the size of e1638b613172 additions is really big, no one else has a wallpaper packages this big so it would be be best to just ship the 4K versions of these wallpapers
• it's fine to just have silly resolutions such as "5148x2568.jpg", Plasma recognizes the wallpaper and will use it well
• that being said, it would be much better if the default scaling method was "scaled and cropped" and not "scaled" (at least that's was the case for me in Manjaro)
• screenshot.jpg is not actually necessary; Plasma will create its own preview of the wallpaper, but will not scale oddly dimensioned wallpapers well so we still need to produce these files

The diff is almost here!

Yeah and the thumbnails that Plasma creates are actually scaled the way they are on the desktop.

What about cropping the images to a 5k or 4k resolution?

In T10220#172078, @rooty wrote:

What about cropping the images to a 5k or 4k resolution?

I tested with the Bled wallpaper, which is fairly oddly dimensioned, and it wasn't important. It still scaled great to 16:9. I think we can just leave the pictures at their max. size.

Besides, enforcing strict 5k or 4k resolutions would lead to unfortunate actions such as having to shrink Bled to 4k size since it's dimensions are 5426x2713 and 5k is 5120×2880.

In T10220#172081, @filipf wrote:

In T10220#172078, @rooty wrote:

What about cropping the images to a 5k or 4k resolution?

I tested with the Bled wallpaper, which is fairly oddly dimensioned, and it wasn't important. It still scaled great to 16:9. I think we can just leave the pictures at their max. size.

Besides, enforcing strict 5k or 4k resolution would lead to unfortunate actions such as having to shrink Bled to 4k size since it's dimensions are 5426x2713 and 5k is 5120×2880.

And it works for a really wide screen too, not bad.

In T10220#172077, @filipf wrote:

• the size of e1638b613172 additions is really big, no one else has a wallpaper packages this big so it would be be best to just ship the 4K versions of these wallpapers

Please remove all the different sizes for the current wallpapers in a patch. :)

• that being said, it would be much better if the default scaling method was "scaled and cropped" and not "scaled" (at least that's was the case for me in Manjaro)

...And this goes in another patch. Big +1 on it.

Actually I'll take care of submitting those patches.

• D18004: Use "Scaled and Cropped" as the default wallpaper image fill mode
• D18005: Include only the largest size for each wallpaper
• D18006: Include only the largest size for the "Next" wallpaper

Given that the soonest the diff can land is for Plasma 5.17, we still have time to think some more about this.

I've been seeing people compliment some existing wallpapers, and I also noticed people using some of them. That makes me wonder if it would be good to make a poll where the existing wallpapers would be rated. The poll could also have an additional comment field where users could say what kind of wallpapers they would like to see added. Thoughts?

Here's the bug tracking the required wallpaper cache feature: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=408223

i dont know if this should be a different task or just added here. In unsplash picture of the day categories, i feel there should be a custom tag so that we can have wallpapers based on a topic which is not mentioned in the list.

what do you'll feel about that?

Please file a bug report/feature request on bugs.kde.org against kdeplasma-addons | picture of the day.

Thanks Nate.

done https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=427712

With the Plasma 6 transition underway, it's time to revisit this. Unfortunately we never got the wallpaper cache feature for Plasma 5 that would have unblocked this work, but for Plasma 6, we're free to make breaking changes so now's a good time. And replacing wallpapers has become less breaking over time as well; at this point, if your wallpaper doesn't exist on disk, Plasma will now fall back to the default wallpaper, rather than an ugly black screen.

One thing that comes to mind is license compatibility. The Pexels license appears to be CC0, and I notice that we used Pexels images for the users KCM's photographic avatars. Unsplash's license doesn't look like it's technically a free software license, even though though the restrictions it stipulates are not in any way a problem for us. If that's the case, we may need to find replacement images on Pexels or somewhere else with a free software license.

Is anyone CCd on this Task interested in picking it up again?

Just my 2 cents: we should avoid HDR-looking, oversaturated, overexposed stuff at all costs

@pinheiro 's idea of determining 3 things we want the wallpaper to make you feel would be really useful here because of all the options

just a few more suggestions:
https://unsplash.com/photos/Bhg4x0bQOsE
https://unsplash.com/photos/SGZ5DkDOoRo
https://unsplash.com/photos/Y6I4VvyN_sA
https://unsplash.com/photos/Z6xvxAuWq0k
https://unsplash.com/photos/nyL-rzwP-Mk

Tips and opinions about wallpapers from a former photographer:

1. Bokeh—probably not. Yes, it's pretty and I love to take many of my shots with the widest aperture on my lenses but, bokeh's best utility is for story telling and tends to look best when framed at sizes smaller than a computer screen. Think, ‘photo book’. This is something that wallpapers are either not good at or can't do as a result of their medium. The inherent flaws of cameras/digital images (color noise, grain, chromatic aberration, lens defects, etc.) become more apparent on top of bokeh when viewed at large sizes. And, above all else, humans naturally don't notice bokeh because everything we directly look at is in focus and this is what the end user will anticipate. I personally find it frustrating when I want to look at a specific detail of a wallpaper but it’s out of focus. So, for that reason, I always prefer wallpapers to be completely sharp or mostly sharp. Sometimes there are exceptions but in general, heavy usage of bokeh is understood in the photography community as a crutch—let’s avoid it.

2. Avoid images that were shot on long or emulate long focal lengths. Telephoto and macro lenses have their place but because of user/screen proximity the normal focal lengths (35-85mm @ FF*) simulate the angle of view of the human eye much better. This results in a more natural experience for the end user.

3. Images that were shot on wide or emulate wide focal lengths also look off. My arguments here echo the ones in the previous tip. I'll add that wide angle shots can sometimes be disorienting depending on how wide the shot is and it's execution.

4. Obvious HDR edits can hurt your credibility. Good HDR images don't look like they're using HDR, you may never even realize that the image you're looking at is an HDR shot. Bad HDR edits on the other hand are over processed, overly saturated, have high levels of contrast, ugly halo effects, break immersion for the user and communicate "cheapness".

5. B&W, sepia, duo tone, high contrast, selective color and other forms of heavy stylizations for photos are overrated and look amateurish. Minor color grading is good. A full color, tastefully edited image will always look more professional and timeless as a wallpaper than a stylized one.

6. Be cognizant of exposure and lighting quality. Over exposure is easy to spot and, depending on execution, can look beautiful. The same can't usually be said about under exposed images. A lot of images will lie about the quality of lighting they were shot under. Clever editing can make any photo look nice but great photos are necessarily well lit and exposed well. Learn to identify flat, non-dynamic lighting and avoid images that have it.

7. Images of people exploring or having "the time of their lives" is generally a no-go. For one, these types of images share the same aura as social media influencers and can come across as corporate/disingenuous. Instead, photos of people living their day to day lives is more down to earth and respectful to the end user. Who wants to be reminded that they are in fact NOT drinking piña coladas while sailing through the Caribbean?

8. Pixel peep. Wallpapers NEED to be clean of artifacts otherwise they look very unprofessional. Zoom in and look for color noise, compression artifacts, etc.

9. Rotate the image upside down, flip it horizontally, etc. Look at it from a different perspective. If it looks weird and un-balanced then it is likely not that great of a photo or it is in desperate need of editing.

10. I recommend against photos of cute animals. Yeah, they're real sweet but pictures of kittens and puppies tend to be artistically shallow. There are plenty of cute inanimate objects and we already have Konqi.

Here is a couple of images that I particularly like:
Blue lake and green shore
Low angle photography of building

Here are images I don't like so, I think we should avoid similars:
Good example of HDR missing the mark
This could be great wallpaper but it is over-processed--too contrasty
Subject and composition is good but it was color graded for Instagram

These are just some of my thoughts on what makes a decent wallpaper from a technical standpoint. Let's keep the conversation going :) What emotion do we want to evoke from our next wallpapers?

Nice, it's great to have a pro around!

I think we need to figure out the license situation first. If it turns out we can't use Unsplash images, that would be good to know sooner rather than later so we don't waste a bunch of time.

Unsplash License

License FAQ

Terms of service

It seems that the Unsplash license is very similar to CC0 expect that Unsplash "does not include the right to compile photos from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service".

Their FAQ clarifies this. They give two examples:

Mass scraping or crawling images from Unsplash and using those photos to build a site just like Unsplash where your users could download, copy, modify, distribute or use photos originally found on Unsplash, for personal or commercial use.

Using Unsplash content to submit it as your own on any other photo sharing or stock photography website;

I wonder if this policy conflicts with Plasma's wallpaper download hub? I'm doubtful since it isn't trying to be "just like Unsplash" (though I have no clue how they're defining that) but we may need to contact them to make sure.

If possible have the wallpapers be cohesive, they can have different subjects and styles, but it's nice that there is a "flow" among them...
For example all of them have a subject in "focus"...
Or all of them use an obvious rule of thirds balance placement...
Something that when the user opens up the UI looks like a cooheseve set...

In T10220#291021, @heldaeus wrote:

Unsplash License

License FAQ

Terms of service

It seems that the Unsplash license is very similar to CC0 expect that Unsplash "does not include the right to compile photos from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service".

Their FAQ clarifies this. They give two examples:

Mass scraping or crawling images from Unsplash and using those photos to build a site just like Unsplash where your users could download, copy, modify, distribute or use photos originally found on Unsplash, for personal or commercial use.

Using Unsplash content to submit it as your own on any other photo sharing or stock photography website;

I wonder if this policy conflicts with Plasma's wallpaper download hub? I'm doubtful since it isn't trying to be "just like Unsplash" (though I have no clue how they're defining that) but we may need to contact them to make sure.

Wikimedia Commons has a collection of CC0-licensed images from Unsplash before the licensing change:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Images_from_Unsplash

Sourcing images from Wikimedia Commons instead of Unsplash directly could be a viable way of finding wallpapers with no potential for legal problems.

Let's nail down this; how many wallpapers do we need? There are currently 13.

Are we trying to stick to that number?

If not then how many wallpapers is too many? How many wallpaper is too few?

I'm going to vouch for 15. It is easily divisible into 5 categories of 3 and gives the user plenty of choices without overloading them with options. Dividing the wallpapers into 5 different categories helps reduce choice overload as well. And, if they don't like any of the wallpapers--great. This gives them the opportunity to interact with the system either by installing their own wallpaper or using the built in wallpaper downloader.

For example:

• 3 Landscape
• 3 Abstract
• 3 Architectural
• 3 Illustrated
• 3 Texture/Patterns

Having to only pick 3 wallpapers per category will actually speed up the process for us. It's easier to find 3 great landscape images than to find 5 or more.

In T10220#291030, @heldaeus wrote:

• 3 Landscape
• 3 Abstract
• 3 Architectural
• 3 Illustrated
• 3 Texture/Patterns

Where would space photography fall under these categories?

In T10220#291028, @linuxpusher wrote:

Wikimedia Commons has a collection of CC0-licensed images from Unsplash before the licensing change:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Images_from_Unsplash

Sourcing images from Wikimedia Commons instead of Unsplash directly could be a viable way of finding wallpapers with no potential for legal problems.

Seems quite limiting. I think we should try to figure out if we can use Unsplash. It's a great resource and the images don't suffer from many compression artifacts if downloaded at full size. Oh yeah, and full size usually means 6k+ horizontal resolution.

I'm not the best representative for KDE but I'll reach out to them if no one else more qualified will.

Oh yeah, and our current default wallpaper is based on an image using the Unsplash license. Link.

In T10220#291031, @linuxpusher wrote:

Where would space photography fall under these categories?

We could replace any of those categories with any other category (within reason of course). We could probably hold a community vote on this if we really wanted to.

Oh yeah, and our current default wallpaper is based on an image using the Unsplash license. Link.

It should be noted that the base photo of the default Plasma 5.27 wallpaper was published on the 7th of January 2017, which is before the Unsplash licensing change occurred (5th of June 2017).

Regardless of whether KDE can directly use Unsplash as a source of wallpapers (outside of the Picture of the Day wallpaper plugin), it may still be prudent to have a selection of wallpapers known to be clear of potential legal issues just in case.

In T10220#291034, @linuxpusher wrote:

It should be noted that the base photo of the default Plasma 5.27 wallpaper was published on the 7th of January 2017, which is before the Unsplash licensing change occurred (5th of June 2017).

The date it was posted doesn't matter (I don't think) because licenses change. What matters is from where KDE sourced the image and when. I don't think the usage of this image goes against Unsplash's license policy though.

Regardless of whether KDE can directly use Unsplash as a source of wallpapers (outside of the Picture of the Day wallpaper plugin), it may still be prudent to have a selection of wallpapers known to be clear of potential legal issues just in case.

I agree but I haven't found many image sources that offer the quality that Unsplash does. But more importantly creators on Unsplash, in my experience are easy to get into contact with. Maybe interacting with creators directly is a better option.

Perhaps if we absolutely decide one a specific image we can source the RAW file from the original creator. This would be ideal as I could edit the image with far more granularity.

Yeap this usually works, talk to the original author ask him to do the edits himself if he desires and tell him millions will use it... That usually does it...

In T10220#291037, @pinheiro wrote:

Yeap this usually works, talk to the original author ask him to do the edits himself if he desires and tell him millions will use it... That usually does it...

In fact he should pay US to use the images. It's for a good cause after all

All I'm saying is that it may (hard emphasis on may) be worth investing in these wallpapers if they'll be around for a while.

A proposed set of possible wallpapers with Public Domain or CC0 licensing:

Space

Saturnian Profile

UFO Galaxy

Moon on the Horizon

Landscape

Carpathian Sunrise

Ogoy Island in Winter

Tunnel in Zion National Park

Flora

Solaris Grapes

Letchworth Blossoms

Blue Periwinkle

Architecture

Colourful

Evening Columns

Fushimiinari Shrine

Abstract

Fest

3D Cubes

Light is Flowing

Water/Aquatic

Turtle Trying to Fly

Rippling Water

Jellyfish

Art

Free Wall

Hand Out Hope

Birches in Autumn

Objects

Hot Air Balloon

Hanging Paper Lanterns

Minimal Nana

City

Place du Tertre

Lights in Motion

Metro Venice

Aerial

Ocean Waves

Maaenboodhoo

Hirzel

A new consideration that wasn't present when this task was introduced is the presence of wallpaper-based accent colour tinting. Default wallpapers prolly should also help showcase that feature, by having prominent colours that Plasma will pick up well.

In T10220#291057, @linuxpusher wrote:

A new consideration that wasn't present when this task was introduced is the presence of wallpaper-based accent colour tinting. Default wallpapers prolly should also help showcase that feature, by having prominent colours that Plasma will pick up well.

This is a really cool idea but we need to have the lossless version of images, preferably raw, to pull it off.

I also went through the images you proposed, pixel peeped all of them, inspected their source and most of them have issues in my opinion. The best one was 'Satumian Profile' which was truly sharp and had a lossless version.

We have time. Let's pick out the wallpapers one at a time and do testing on them thoroughly. I have access to every computer and monitor under the sun at my work so testing for different screens and resolutions won't be a problem.

We have time. Let's pick out the wallpapers one at a time and do testing on them thoroughly. I have access to every computer and monitor under the sun at my work so testing for different screens and resolutions won't be a problem.

That's good to know, since I only have 1080p screens on hand. Still combing through a lot more wallpapers currently, so replacements could be proposed as needed. Could you please elaborate more on your feedback regarding the images I posted? It would help with refining searching and sorting through future candidates.

Sure, the main thing to understand is that not all sharpness is created equal.

Soft focus: This can either be a creative technique, an artifact of the camera lens or a poor focusing job on part of the creator. Images with soft focus can be sneaky. When zoomed out they look sharp but when zoomed in or viewed at 1:1 they appear slightly blurry.

Artificial sharpening: This is a contrast technique used for emphasizing small details. It doesn't actually sharpen the image. Instead it increases the contrast between adjacent pixels. Lighter pixels become lighter and darker pixels become darker. This, usually when overdone, is what creates the small halo effects around objects--for example, mountain ranges against a sky backdrop.

True sharpness: This happens when everything goes right in the photographic process. True sharpness resolves the most detail. In fact often times a truly sharp 1k resolution image will appear to have more detail than a 4k image with soft focus--sometimes it actually does.

So, how do you identify a truly sharp image? Pixel peep. Zoom in so that you can see the individual pixels. If the image looks kind of smooth then it has soft focus. If there are a lot of pronounced small details (such as edges of objects) but in between those details the pixels seem smooth then the image was artificially sharpened. When zoomed in, if the image looks like a fusion between photo-realism and pixel art then that image is truly sharp. The difference between these kinds of sharpness's is actually very obvious once you're aware of it--you can't unsee it. Images, when viewed at 1:1 benefit immensely from true sharpness because a detail that occupies a single pixel gets fully resolved.

This is what we should be striving towards. Note: most images are not truly sharp. Remember, I said when everything in the photographic process goes right true sharpness is achieved and this includes post processing. We will have to manipulate all the images we choose to use for them to look their best.

Picked some artwork on Rawpixel for consideration:
https://www.rawpixel.com/community-board/1668812/wallpaper-candidates

Rawpixel has TIFFs for scanned artwork and art that they've digitally enhanced themselves. Unfortunately, they don't have uncompressed formats for any other kind of image.

I like several of those as art pieces but as wallpapers I’m not sure they will work. In this task there doesn’t seem to be any mention of scanned artwork either, so I think we should focus of photographic images instead. I appreciate your culling efforts though.

In T10220#291161, @heldaeus wrote:

I like several of those as art pieces but as wallpapers I’m not sure they will work. In this task there doesn’t seem to be any mention of scanned artwork either, so I think we should focus of photographic images instead. I appreciate your culling efforts though.

The task author did suggest an Abstract/Other category in a comment however, so presumably scanned artwork (especially abstract art) should be still fair to include.

Update

Andy and I are currently collecting a variety of wallpapers for each category. We're picking ones that demonstrate artistic depth and have good technical quality.

Our plans are to then cull through these wallpapers and find the best from each category based on technical quality and cohesiveness.

We'll post another update soon with our results.

If you want you can also look at the ones I tried to add here https://phabricator.kde.org/D18078