Changing your wallpaper is a simple computer adjustment, but it can have a huge effect on your mood and productivity. And with today’s impressive displays, using a high resolution wallpaper is a must.
Whether you want to build up a collection of high quality wallpapers or just replace the generic default that came with your computer, here are the best wallpaper sites full or high-quality images.
A Note on High-Resolution Wallpapers
Before we begin, we should briefly explain what’s considered “high-resolution.”
Computer displays, as well as digital images, are generally measured by width and height in pixels. For example, a 1080p display is 1920px wide by 1080px tall. Because 1080p is considered “full HD”, this is our baseline for high-resolution wallpapers. We’ll only include sites that have plenty of wallpapers in 1920×1080 and above, like 4K wallpapers.
You can use a wallpaper that’s smaller or larger than your monitor’s output if you want. But if it’s too small, the image will stretch to fit your display and look distorted. And there’s not much point to using a higher-resolution wallpaper, as you’ll have to either downsize or crop it to fit your display.
See our overview of high display resolutions
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Photos of the Earth’s landscape make great desktop wallpapers, and you’ll find thousands of them here. InterfaceLIFT automatically detects your display resolution and shows high quality wallpapers at that size. However, you can click the dropdown box under a wallpaper to change it.
Simply click the Download button next to an image to grab a copy of it. If you’re interested, you can also see information about the image provided by the photographer.
By default, the site sorts images by date. If you’d prefer, use the Sort by line at the top to sort by the number of downloads, rating, or even randomly instead.
Wallhaven makes its way onto many lists of the best wallpaper websites. And while it’s not specifically known for high resolution wallpapers, we found that nearly all the images on offer were 1080p or above.
Start by browsing the homepage or using the Latest, Toplist, or Random buttons at the top. Once you find one you like, Wallhaven makes it easy to find similar images. Use the Tags on the left sidebar, select Search for similar to display comparable images, or even choose a color from the image to search by.
If you want to download a wallpaper in a different resolution, choose Crop & Scale under Tools to resize or crop it.
3. Reddit
It’s no surprise that Reddit has several subreddits dedicated to wallpapers. You’ll find several active communities with new wallpapers posted all the time.
The most popular is /r/wallpaper, which boasts one million members. Most wallpapers are at least 1920×1080. If you don’t find what you’re looking for on that subreddit, give /r/wallpapers a look.
These are similar communities, and many people cross-post to both subreddits. But it’s worth scouring both for the maximum amount of cool wallpapers.
Finally, if you’re looking for higher resolution wallpapers, have a look at /r/WQHD_Wallpaper. WQHD (wide quad HD) is a term for the 2560×1440 resolution, also known as 1440p. Thus, these wallpapers are a good fit for 1440p and 4K displays.
If you find the offerings on other sites too cluttered, try Simple Desktops. This site offers clean and minimal wallpapers that are still attractive to the eye.
It’s also a pleasure to browse—click an image you like and you can save it. There are no annoying full-screen ads or other nonsense to deal with.
The site asks that all uploaded wallpapers are 2880×1800, meaning they meet the hi-res wallpaper criteria. And because they’re so simple, you can easily crop them to fit smaller displays.
WallpaperStock has a huge amount of desktop wallpapers for all purposes.
Use the categories on the right side of the page to search by categories like Cars , Animals, and World. If you like, you can select a desired resolution on the left side. However, this is unnecessary, as you’ll see all available resolutions once you visit a wallpaper’s page.
Because the site detects your display resolution, you can simply click on a wallpaper to open it in the matching size. From there, saving it is easy, as usual.
As evidenced by the name, this is another site offering HD and above quality wallpapers. Like what we’ve seen so far, you can look through the various categories in addition to checking what’s new or popular.
If you don’t want to download a wallpaper in your native resolution, pick from the Available Resolutions on an image’s download page. The only downside with this site is that you must wait 10 seconds before downloading a wallpaper. Thus, it might not be the best choice if you’re looking to download many at once.
If you’re still searching for the perfect wallpaper, WallpapersWide can hopefully provide it. It contains the elements you’ve come to expect, making it one of the best websites to download HD wallpapers from.
Mouse over an image and click the arrow that appears to jump right to the download screen at your current resolution. Alternatively, you can select an image to see tags and review all available resolutions.
Aside from this, the site lets you filter by aspect ratio or resolution in the bottom-left corner. With thousands of images available, you’re sure to find something you like.
High Resolution Wallpapers Galore
You don’t have to stay stuck with the handful of wallpapers included on your computer. Have fun going through these high quality wallpaper sites to find dozens of fresh desktop backgrounds. They’re a good way to express yourself to anyone walking by your computer, and a fun collection to build up over time.
For something more unique, have a look at some neat live wallpapers for Windows
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, or how to create dynamic wallpapers on your Mac
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