To personalize your Apple devices, you can set a self-chosen image or photo as the background. You can also change the wallpaper of the desktop on a Mac.
You can choose between a standard background, dynamic wallpaper or a self-chosen image. Since macOS Ventura you can change the background of your Mac in a new way, and you also have more choice between standard wallpapers.
Consult settings Mac background
- Open  ▸ System Settings
- Navigate to ‘Background’
If you have a Mac running macOS Monterey or earlier, you can customize your wallpaper by going to  ▸ System Preferences ▸ Desktop & Screen Saver ▸ Desktop.
Next, you’ll see the settings for your desktop background. For example, you can manage automatic switching and determine whether an image should be displayed full screen, fit to screen or stretched.
Since macOS Ventura, you get an extended preview of the available wallpapers. This way, you can use not only the wallpapers of macOS, but also the ‘promotional wallpapers’ of different Macs. Below we explain the differences.
Dynamic desktop
The most fun wallpapers are probably the dynamic desktop images. The wallpaper gradually changes from light to dark during the day, depending on your current location.
If Location Services is turned off, the image will change depending on the time zone specified in the Date & Time settings. This will cause the background to change over time, giving you a different color hue depending on the time of day.
Please note, this option only works if you have macOS display set to automatic. If dark mode is selected, the background will always be displayed as still dark.
Light and dark desktop
The images in this selection work with the light and dark mode for macOS and consist of two still images. At sunset it changes from light to dark, depending on your current location. Of course, the background also changes when you manually select a display mode.
Desktop
These are the default wallpapers of macOS and only contain one version. Regardless of the appearance of macOS, the wallpaper of the desktop remains the same.
To colour
If you want peace, you can choose a color as the background for the desktop. No busy image that automatically changes during the day. Click on an existing color that you want to use as a desktop image or click on the plus sign to choose a color that is not displayed.
Images
Of course, you can also add images yourself to use as background. You can do this in several ways. For example, you can drag an image to the preview of your Mac at the top of the window. You can also click on the image with a secondary click (right mouse button) and choose ‘Set desktop picture’.
Use a map or photo album
Finally, you can also use a folder of pictures or a photo album. If you want to use an image in a folder on your computer, choose ‘Add Folder’ and select a folder. Once the folder is added, you can choose an image from the folder. The same is also the case for photo albums in the Photos app.
Additional benefit: folders and photo albums have a rotate function, just like the color option. Select this option to display the images in a folder or photo album or the colors in succession.