Every major version of Mac OS X macOS has come with a new default wallpaper. As you can see, I have collected them all here. While great in their day, the early wallpapers are now quite small in the world of 5K displays.

Major props to who does all the art of Relay FM, the mysterious, for upscaling some of these for modern screens. If you want to see detailed screenshots of every release of OS X, Sponsored by Hover What are you passionate about? Launch your passion online with a domain name from Hover.

With over 300 extensions to choose from and free whois privacy, we know you’ll find the domain you need to take that first step. Head to now​ ​and get 10% off your first domain. 10.0 Cheetah & 10.1 Puma The first two releases of Mac OS X shared the same wallpaper. The sweeping blue arcs and curves helped set the tone of the new Aqua interface. 10.2 Jaguar Jaguar took the same Aqua-inspired theme but added some depth and motion to things.

In my head, the trails streaking across the screen were from a set of comets. 10.3 Panther While Panther inflicted Macs everywhere with its wallpaper stayed on brand, refreshing the original 10.0 image. 10.4 Tiger Many consider Tiger to be the best “classic” version of Mac OS X. While that may or may not be true, it has my favorite Aqua-inspired wallpaper. 10.5 Leopard Complete with a revised, unified user interface and shiny new Dock, 10.5 broke the Aqua mold. As such, Leopard was the first version of OS X to break from the Aqua-themed wallpaper.

Best Wallpapers For Mac

It ushered in the “space era” of OS X wallpapers, which was used heavily in the new Time Machine interface as well. 10.6 Snow Leopard The “no new features” mantra for Snow Leopard didn’t ban a new wallpaper, thankfully. This starscape is still one of my favorites. 10.7 Lion Lion kept up the space theme, this time showing off the Andromeda galaxy. The space nerd in me likes the idea, but the execution of this one leaves dead-last on my list of favorites. 10.8 Mountain Lion Just like Snow Leopard before it, with Mountain Lion, Apple opted to clean up and revise the existing theme as opposed to changing directions for what would be a less-impactful release of OS X. 10.9 Mavericks Mavericks marked the beginning of Apple’s “California location” naming scheme for Mac releases.

Images Of Wallpapers For Desktop

The wave depicted looks as intimidating as the ones in the famous surfing location. 10.10 Yosemite Yosemite brought another UI refresh to the Mac, making things flatter and more modern. The wallpaper ushered in a new era based on well mountains.

10.11 El Capitan Named after a breathtaking spot in Yosemite National Park, El Capitan was a clean-up year after 10.10. 10.12 Sierra More mountains. 10.13 High Sierra Even more mountains. 10.14 Mojave No more mountains!

Mojave brought a new system-wide Dark Mode, and the OS shipped with two versions of its default wallpaper to match. Users could even have macOS slowly fade between the two background images over the course of the day. Day Night Support projects like these, receive exclusive content in the monthly newsletter and enjoy advanced screenings of my YouTube videos. Become a Member.

Share on Facebook Tweet this Share Bill Roberson/Digital Trends If you work or play for hours on end on your PC, having a wallpaper that’s interesting to look at can be one of the best ways to spice up your usage of the system. Nobody likes staring at a blue screen or Windows logo for hours on end, so let’s make things a little more interesting, shall we? We’ve trawled through the near-endless options of pretty images and animated backdrops to find you the best wallpapers out there. But we haven’t just picked the pretty ones.

We’ve looked specifically for images that make for a good backdrop. They’re not too cluttered, provide plenty of space and clarity for icons, and in the case of the smarter ones, give you plenty of options to tweak them how you like.

Wallpaper Images Free

Static screens Don’t fancy all of the fuss and distractions of something animated or interactive? Not a problem.

There are still millions of beautiful images you can pick from and even if they aren’t specifically designed to be a wallpaper, doesn’t mean they won’t work as one.