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How To Change The Google Search Background Image

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:25:41 +0000

Google is just rolling out a feature to U.S. users that allows them to change the background image of the Google Search homepage. The feature should be available to all U.S. users in the coming days and international availability is also expected in the coming days.

Please note that this feature is only available to Google account owners who are logged into Google while visiting the Google search page.

The Change Background Image link should be visible in the lower left corner of the search screen if the feature has been enabled for the user.

A click on the link opens the JavaScript overlay window “Select a background image for your Google homepage”.

Select the background image from one of the four available choices:

From My Computer: Upload an image from your computer to use it as the Google homepage background.
My Picasa Web photos: Pick a photo from Picasa Web Albums
Public Gallery: Select a photo from the public Picasa Web Albums gallery.
Editor Picks: Select one of the recommended images

Images that are selected by the Google user need to be at least 800×600 pixels in size and of the following formats: .jpeg, .tif, .tiff, .bmp, .gif, .psd (Photoshop), .png, .tga, and selected RAW formats.

Google recommends to use images that use landscape orientation for best effects. Images that are uploaded from the user’s computer are automatically added to Picasa Web Albums. Images are automatically resized to fit the screen.

Once an image has been selected it will automatically be displayed as the Google Search homepage background image. The Change Background Image link turns into a Remove Background Image link to remove it again at any time.

It is recommended to select a background image that has the same resolution as the computer monitor. Please note that you must be logged into the Google account to see the background image. It is not shown if you are signed out.

Remove Background From Photos With Instant Mask

Martin Brinkmann — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:52:13 +0000

It is sometimes necessary to remove backgrounds from images or photos to continue working with the remaining part only. This can for instance be interesting when trying to copy and paste several objects or people from different photos into a newly created image or when the background needs to be exchanged with a different one.

Instant Mask is a very basic but capable software program to remove the background from photos. A single photo can be loaded into the program at a time. The removal of the background is a three step process. It begins by using the red marker to mark the background area of the photo. After that the green marker is used to mark the foreground area of the photo. A click on the preview button will process the request and display the results based on the user’s selection of the background and foreground marker.

The basic nature of the program becomes apparent if it is necessary to tweak the marker settings as there is no way to remove existing markers from the photo. It might therefor be necessary to reload the image and apply all markers again to remove the background properly from the photo.

The zoom can be used to mark both areas more thoroughly on the photo to avoid that hassle. Photos can be saved as new images or as the same image. Instant Mask is available for download at the developer’s website. It is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems including Windows 7.

1000 Wallpapers on a single page

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 13:12:38 +0000

Many wallpaper websites can be classified as spammy. They have to many ads, some use popups and other means of making a quick buck. Good wallpaper sites are therefor rare and deserve to be mentioned in an article. The over 1000 abstract wallpapers on a single page website offers what its page title suggests, a good way of viewing and downloading some or even all of the wallpapers offered on that page.

Width and height of the images vary between 1280*1024 and 1600*1200, there is however no way to find out about the original image size without clicking on the thumbnail which loads the full sized image.

The page could take some time to load if you are using a low speed connection, all thumbnails on that single page are about 2K which means that you will have to download about 2 megabytes before all thumbnails are displayed.