Develop Bugs

Why doesn't my custom wallpaper look sharp? **SOLVED**

Hi all. I just bought the Galaxy S Vibrant, and I love it. I wanted to change the wallpaper, so I made my own. I crop my pics in Photoshop (960x800) and the sizes come around 500-700KB. I then transfer them onto my phone via Kies. Then when I go into the phone to set the pic as wallpaper, I stretch out the orange crop square to include the full picture, then set as wallpaper. But the pics don't look sharp on the phone. They are not incredibly dull, but they definitely don't look as sharp as I know they are on my computer monitor. And I have a run of the mill $200 computer monitor. Even the factory wallpapers look sharper on the phone. Does anyone know why this is? Great forum, thanks for all the help!
**UPDATE**
Ok so here's what was happening, First off let me just say I finally got reconnected to my PC, don't ask me how, because it took half a day to finally connect, and I have no Idea why it decided to all of a sudden successfully connect to my PC after forever failing to connect. Whatevs....back to the topic at hand. So when I was transferring Pics from Kies to Phone, apparently Kies was compressing the image to save space I guess. I got hooked up as mass storage, looked at the pics on the phone and low and behold my 600+ KB pic was showing to only be a measly 60KB pic on the phone. Big time compression from Kies. So I quickly deleted that garbage off the phone, and instead dragged and dropped my original 600+KB pic on to the phone, it's still at the correct resolution of 960x800, took a look at it on the phone's display and VOILA sheer utter crispness. Just the way it should be. So there you go, DONT USE KIES TO TRANSFER PICS!!! Hope that helps anyone making their own wallpaper. Now to go and see if I can find a solution to this issue of hit and miss with connecting to my PC.

The Samsung i9000 has a resolution of 480x800. If a picture has a different resolution, the phone has to "recalculate" the picture, because the resolutions dont match. At first i would try to change the resolution of the picture to that one of the phone and see if its any better.

Tempott said:
Hi all. I just bought the Galaxy S Vibrant, and I love it. I wanted to change the wallpaper, so I made my own. I crop my pics in Photoshop (960x800) and the sizes come around 500-700KB. I then transfer them onto my phone via Kies. Then when I go into the phone to set the pic as wallpaper, I stretch out the orange crop square to include the full picture, then set as wallpaper. But the pics don't look sharp on the phone. They are not incredibly dull, but they definitely don't look as sharp as I know they are on my computer monitor. And I have a run of the mill $200 computer monitor. Even the factory wallpapers look sharper on the phone. Does anyone know why this is? Great forum, thanks for all the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried everything from downloading 2560x1600 images to resizing them in photoshop to no avail - they always looked blurred once set as wallpapers on the SGS. Then I tried an iPad wallpaper(1024x1024) and lo' and behold - 't was sharp!
So to anyone looking for custom wallpapers for the SGS just download the ones meant for the iPad and then use the gallery to set it as wallpaper and you'll have a razor sharp wallpaper.

I allways use my photos (taken from digital camera) as they are, without changing resolution. Touchwiz automatically rezises the images/photos to fit the best way. Never had any blured background.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

TMReuffurth said:
I allways use my photos (taken from digital camera) as they are, without changing resolution. Touchwiz automatically rezises the images/photos to fit the best way. Never had any blured background.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must be kidding because on my galaxy they look like utter crap. Are you sure they are sharp(have you compared them to the ones that come pre-installed)?

Exellent tip toss3 with the iPad wallpapers! they are really sharp

Toss3 said:
You must be kidding because on my galaxy they look like utter crap. Are you sure they are sharp(have you compared them to the ones that come pre-installed)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really don´t know what you mean! Every photo i use as background looks exactly as it looks on my Desktop Computer. No blur, no distortion, no unscharpening. They really look like the original!
I don´t understand why they should look different!? When i choose a background Photo or image, the Phone gives me the ability to select the part (with a rectangle) i want to see as my background. So the phone automatically crops the photo. I mean why to crop it manually on the home computer? Doesn´t make any sense.
BTW: i haven´t my SGS rooted and haven´t installed a different Launcher.

if you crop your pictures with the tools for setting wallpapers then i agree they are very poor, very blurry!
i cropped one of these images in PS to that reso, and it looks freekin awsome.
are you saving your PS image properly? max quality etc? .png i think is best also

My wallpapers are sharp, if they are in 960x800. Most of the other walls are also sharp, even they would be 1280x800. There is also an app on the market colled: Wallpaper Set & Save. This keeps the wallpaper sharp, but the walls must be the right resolution, cause it scales it to fit the screen automatic.

Metatron111 said:
The Samsung i9000 has a resolution of 480x800. If a picture has a different resolution, the phone has to "recalculate" the picture, because the resolutions dont match. At first i would try to change the resolution of the picture to that one of the phone and see if its any better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes resolution of the screen is 480x800, but the wallpaper needs to cover the area of all 7 backgrounds. That makes it an area of 960x800. The factory wallpaper are all 960x800. For instance the factory wallpaper of the kitten is 960x800 and only 178KB in size. My pic I'm using for my wallpaper is a pic I took with my Nikon D90 cropped to 960x800 and downsized to 616KB. My pic definitely looks sharper than any of the factory wallpapers, but once I transfer it to the phone, it loses some the sharpness.

960 by 800 should be the resolution. Any resizing will produce a less than ideal image. I'm not sure why (probably the algorithm used in resizing the image?) but it's one those little things that hopefully gets fixed.

Try sending it via email to yourself instead of using kies, or uploading it via USB drive.
I've never had any problems with custom backgrounds on the phone.

Spybreak said:
Try sending it via email to yourself instead of using kies, or uploading it via USB drive.
I've never had any problems with custom backgrounds on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
or transfer via bluetooth if the laptop/desktop has that

You can just always send you files from pc to phone via bluetooth, while SGS having gps issue, its bluetooth connectivity rocks!

I had this problem which annoyed the hell outta me. Sure I could resize it, but on a modern phone I think it's quite silly that it's not able to auto adjust it automatically.
To get around manual adjustment, use an app called "Wallpaper Set and Save" from the app store. It will do exactly as you need. It's made my life a hell of a lot easier. Or, you could use a wallpaper app to download and set such as Backgrounds or Flikie Wallpapers which also work a treat.
Personally, I'd recommend getting WSS for setting your own papers, and using Flikie for finding new ones. The interface on Flikie is fantastic (similar to the native gallery app), and the range and quality of wallpapers on it are sensational
Edit: Oh, and just to add, if you want to add custom backgrounds to apps like Handcent, you'll have to manually resize them or you'll face the same crop-expand-horrid quality issues.

[Q] Wallpapers on cyanogen 6.1 or evo period.

Ok I have been looking everywhere and can't seem to find a app that will set the wallpaper as is without cropping or cutting the edges off. I know the best resolution is 960x800 but it still cuts off parts of the picture. I've tried wallpaper set and save and a host of other apps from market and various android freeware sites. None of them seem to set them right, any help would be highly appreciated. I have an HTC evo running cyanogen 6.1 stable and everything is so far so good and I want to thank this website because without it I was lost. This is my number 1 forum so I know ill get the answer, its out their please help me find it. Thanks in advance!!

flikie wallpapers hd is about the best ive seen at this. it still crops but i keeps most of the image quality

Only thing I can think of is to take the photo you want, make the actual photo whatever the screen resolution is (480x800 from what I've read) with black bars on the side to make the entire picture file 960x800. Then use launcher pro to freeze the background so it doesnt move when you swipe. Your picture should be centered.

When you select the image for a wallpaper, you see that little box in the center? Drag outwards on one of its edges.

dkelle4 said:
Only thing I can think of is to take the photo you want, make the actual photo whatever the screen resolution is (480x800 from what I've read) with black bars on the side to make the entire picture file 960x800. Then use launcher pro to freeze the background so it doesnt move when you swipe. Your picture should be centered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you all for the speedy replies, I see what your saying. I have my desktop set to have only one screen already, but I went and got launcherpro cause of its features. But yea I downloaded a few pictures before that were 480x800 and it had the black bars on the sides but when I set it, it cuts off the head and feet, 960x800 however does not, it only cuts just a little off the sides. I'm guessing now that the picture is to wide and I wanted to know if I could make a picture keep its height and change its width. I don't know maybe keep the height from the 960x800 setup and the width from the 480x800 setup if that's possible.
My friends, friend has his set up so that when he sets a wallpaper it gives him the option to set as is, to crop, and i think the other one was to cut it. I don't know if its a application or if its the firmware (like cyanogen i mean) he uses, I would ask but he lives very far a few cities over. I have been combing the internet for this app or whatever, and I'm fairly new to android phones, but I got a pretty good history with computers so that definitely helps. But this one seems to be a common problem with a somewhat easy fix. Any ideas?

Are you sure you didn't mix up the 2 sizes lol. 960x800, and not 800x960. Not trying to be a jerk or anything, but I've done that before using Photoshop.

Fuzzy wallpaper

Hi, i have a trouble. I want to set my wallpaper (so i download it on PC and it is png file) And when i copy it into the phone and than i set as a wallpaper it is fuzzy.
And ROM does not matter. Any ideas how to fix it? (BTW LauncherPro Plus)

nobody knows?

what is the resolution of the wallpaper? 1024 x 768 wallpapers tend to get a bit fuzzy as the screen of your i9000 is 800 px high

no, it is 2560x1900

I don't have any issues with cropping or seeing what you are mentioning.
Have a try with the App 'Crop Wallpaper'. If it works using this method you will then know the problem may be down to an issue with your Gallery App.
The Gallery App uses a lot of compression.
Also, have you tried making a wallpaper from a photo taken with the SGS's camera?
If it works you will then know it is something to do with either the source files or the the Gallery App not liking the source files.

I know what you mean, could be some kind of crappy compression going on but sometimes i'm not sure if it's just the screen that isn't sharp enough to my liking. Banding in dark gradients is also an issue that really bugs me, if there is a solution for that I'd love to hear it.

dakine said:
I know what you mean, could be some kind of crappy compression going on but sometimes i'm not sure if it's just the screen that isn't sharp enough to my liking. Banding in dark gradients is also an issue that really bugs me, if there is a solution for that I'd love to hear it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I mentioned above, try Crop Wallpaper.

Lockscreen wallpaper quality?

Is there a way to make the lockscreen wallpaper good quality like the homescreen one? It seems the lockscreen is allways a lower quality, also while im at it is there a status bar transparency mod for jedi x?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

Turning off "Ripple Effect" in Lock Screen Option will make lockscreen quality same as home screen. Of course, you won't have anymore ripple effect or ink effect but oh well

That gets rid of those dark blotches on the ls as well.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

make sure the wallpaper you're using is the right resolution, if you crop the photo it will stretch to fit and ruin quality

Finally found a thread where I can help out! Okay, so I have this problem ALL the time; not only is it a big deal finding photos with the right resolution for this gigantic phone but it is also a pain setting up the wallpaper because you're only subjected to a certain size by the system. Here is how I found my ways across this problem.
1. Use wallpaper wizardrii here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twistedapps.wallpaperwizardrii
Use this app to stretch the wallpaper to fit your launcher.
2. If your photo is too small of a resolution to where it'd look like a Super Mario SNES game on your background use this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.niksoftware.snapseed
Snapseed not only has a sexy UI but is very reliable and I use it for low resolution photos. Now what you do for things like this is adjust the sharpness of the photo, not to where it looks like it was drawn by a pencil but to where the blurs disappear. I also adjust the contrast and saturate my photos but only when it's a sexy wallpaper.
Finally, and this is the last of all resorts.. use Photoshop for your computer and literally adjust almost every single pixel to resize your wallpaper to a newer and bigger size. This is my last resort ever, I've done this once, it took 6 hours for that to be fixed and I'll never do that ever again.
If all else fails Google is your bestest friend or you can go here: http://www.wallbase.cc
Hit that thanks button! I wish you the best of luck in your wallpaper quest!

frostyroot said:
Finally found a thread where I can help out! Okay, so I have this problem ALL the time; not only is it a big deal finding photos with the right resolution for this gigantic phone but it is also a pain setting up the wallpaper because you're only subjected to a certain size by the system. Here is how I found my ways across this problem.
1. Use wallpaper wizardrii here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twistedapps.wallpaperwizardrii
Use this app to stretch the wallpaper to fit your launcher.
2. If your photo is too small of a resolution to where it'd look like a Super Mario SNES game on your background use this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.niksoftware.snapseed
Snapseed not only has a sexy UI but is very reliable and I use it for low resolution photos. Now what you do for things like this is adjust the sharpness of the photo, not to where it looks like it was drawn by a pencil but to where the blurs disappear. I also adjust the contrast and saturate my photos but only when it's a sexy wallpaper.
Finally, and this is the last of all resorts.. use Photoshop for your computer and literally adjust almost every single pixel to resize your wallpaper to a newer and bigger size. This is my last resort ever, I've done this once, it took 6 hours for that to be fixed and I'll never do that ever again.
If all else fails Google is your bestest friend or you can go here: http://www.wallbase.cc
Hit that thanks button! I wish you the best of luck in your wallpaper quest!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Big thank you:thumbup:
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks for replys!
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

photo cropping

anybody know a way around cropping photos for screen savers,ive got a photo that just cant be cropped so was looking for an app that might show full photo

tonybhoy said:
anybody know a way around cropping photos for screen savers,ive got a photo that just cant be cropped so was looking for an app that might show full photo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe put the photo on a larger colored background? It crops the photo for both directions of the screen. If your original will fit inside both directions you can keep it whole. Only deal here is that you will see a colored background on the sides or top depending on the size and shape of the original. black or deep red might not be bad.

tonybhoy said:
anybody know a way around cropping photos for screen savers,ive got a photo that just cant be cropped so was looking for an app that might show full photo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi cheers for reply but found an app that works really well it's called picspeed wallpapers. Thanks
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app