How to set a desktop wallpaper on a Mac

On a Mac the desktop picture is set in System Settings. The steps below match macOS Tahoe and later; earlier releases use System Preferences or System Settings with slightly different names.

Pick the picture

Most Macs have a 16:10 or 16:9 display, and macOS crops and scales the picture to fill it. The 16:9 pictures on WallpaperDuck are 3840 × 2160 pixels, large enough for a 5K iMac or a Pro Display XDR after scaling. Choose the full-size PNG if you care about every pixel, or a 2560 JPEG for a laptop screen. The dark topic page at /wallpapers/dark and the space topic at /wallpapers/space both suit a Mac with a dark appearance.

The quickest way

Download the picture and open it in Finder.
Right-click it (or Control-click) and choose Set Desktop Picture.

If the picture is in the Photos app instead, select it, open the Share menu and choose Set Wallpaper.

From System Settings

Open the Apple menu, then System Settings, and click Wallpaper.
Under Your Photos, choose Add Photo, then select a photo, an image file or a folder. A folder is the best choice for a whole theme.
Use the size and position options that appear next to the preview to choose how the picture fills the screen. Filling the whole screen is the best default for a 16:9 picture.
If you picked a folder, look for the option to change the picture automatically and choose how often it changes.

Dynamic, light and dark

macOS Dynamic Wallpapers change with the time of day. Your own pictures do not, but you can use a dark picture and let Appearance in System Settings follow the schedule. If you want the picture to follow the schedule too, make a folder with a light and a dark version and let macOS change the picture automatically.

Multiple displays and Spaces

Each display has its own wallpaper setting, shown as a small preview at the top of the Wallpaper pane. Select the display you want to change and pick a picture for it. If you want the same picture everywhere, repeat the step for each display. For a full guide on matching two screens, see the dual monitor wallpaper guide on this site.

If something looks wrong

If the picture looks soft, you may have picked a smaller JPEG or a screenshot. Download the full-size PNG instead. If macOS keeps changing the picture, turn off the automatic picture change in the Wallpaper pane.