I have seen a lot of questions around for how to set a wallpaper so it doesn't get cropped incorrectly, stretched, or look really bad when shifting between landscape and portrait modes. So I played around for a little bit with it and came up with a template to get some great looking wall-papers, regardless of orientation.
To start with the template can be downloaded here: Megaupload A500 Template
The zip contains four files. Two are sample backgrounds, I made with the template, that you can add to your tablet to see how everything looks. One is a JPG of the template for those that cannot edit PSD files. And the last file is a PSD with all layers and groups labeled appropriately to make things easy.
1. Download the zip, extract and open the template PSD if able or the JPG. You will see this:
2. Parts of the template:
Blue shaded area - the entirety of what is shown in portrait view.
The green shaded area - the entirety of what will be shown in landscape view.
The black border - a buffer that will keep Honeycomb from stretching your image. Only a very thin portion of the top of it will be shown in portrait mode. It will actually look like a bar thats part of the OS to hold the google search, microphone and apps shortcuts.
Center Gray Area - This is where your artwork will be.
Red Borders - This is a buffer that will keep Honeycomb from stretching the width of your image undesirably. These borders will not be shown at all in either orientation, but removing them will distort the image.
3.1 If you are using Photoshop, GIMP, or an editor that can read and modify PSD files and layers: select the entire gray box in the "your art here" layer. Paste in your image. Press ctrl+T to transform your image so it fits nicely. Holding shift while transforming will preserve the aspect ratio.
3.2 If you are using the JPG because you cant edit PSDs, just paste your source image on top of the gray box and make sure you size it to be a perfect fit. Do not obscure the black or red borders.
4. For best results, you want the heart of your image to be in the center of the gray box where the green and blue areas overlap.
5.1 If you are using the PSD, then hide the group named "Hide when done" and save the image as a jpg.
5.2 if you are using the JPG you don't need to worry about the overlays since you pasted over them in 3.2. Save the image as a copy jpg.
It will look something like this:
6. Use one of the 6000 methods available to get your saved image on the tablet. Go to the set wallpaper option and browse to your image.
7. When you are prompted to resize for cropping, adjust the box so that it lines up with the inside edges of the red border. You will notice that you are not getting the images entire vertical height and a bit of the black border is outside of the selection box. This is fine. It is as designed.
8. Enjoy your beautiful new custom background! It will look great regardless of orientation. It's your own image. And you don't need to run any resource intensive wallpaper apps to accomplish the same thing.
To start with the template can be downloaded here: Megaupload A500 Template
The zip contains four files. Two are sample backgrounds, I made with the template, that you can add to your tablet to see how everything looks. One is a JPG of the template for those that cannot edit PSD files. And the last file is a PSD with all layers and groups labeled appropriately to make things easy.
1. Download the zip, extract and open the template PSD if able or the JPG. You will see this:
2. Parts of the template:
Blue shaded area - the entirety of what is shown in portrait view.
The green shaded area - the entirety of what will be shown in landscape view.
The black border - a buffer that will keep Honeycomb from stretching your image. Only a very thin portion of the top of it will be shown in portrait mode. It will actually look like a bar thats part of the OS to hold the google search, microphone and apps shortcuts.
Center Gray Area - This is where your artwork will be.
Red Borders - This is a buffer that will keep Honeycomb from stretching the width of your image undesirably. These borders will not be shown at all in either orientation, but removing them will distort the image.
3.1 If you are using Photoshop, GIMP, or an editor that can read and modify PSD files and layers: select the entire gray box in the "your art here" layer. Paste in your image. Press ctrl+T to transform your image so it fits nicely. Holding shift while transforming will preserve the aspect ratio.
3.2 If you are using the JPG because you cant edit PSDs, just paste your source image on top of the gray box and make sure you size it to be a perfect fit. Do not obscure the black or red borders.
4. For best results, you want the heart of your image to be in the center of the gray box where the green and blue areas overlap.
5.1 If you are using the PSD, then hide the group named "Hide when done" and save the image as a jpg.
5.2 if you are using the JPG you don't need to worry about the overlays since you pasted over them in 3.2. Save the image as a copy jpg.
It will look something like this:
6. Use one of the 6000 methods available to get your saved image on the tablet. Go to the set wallpaper option and browse to your image.
7. When you are prompted to resize for cropping, adjust the box so that it lines up with the inside edges of the red border. You will notice that you are not getting the images entire vertical height and a bit of the black border is outside of the selection box. This is fine. It is as designed.
8. Enjoy your beautiful new custom background! It will look great regardless of orientation. It's your own image. And you don't need to run any resource intensive wallpaper apps to accomplish the same thing.
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