Better Backgrounds

by fredcw

Score 0

Issues Website Download

UUID: better-backgrounds@simonmicro

Last edited:

4 days ago 2025-09-11, 12:16

Last commit: [49dde8e1] Return better-backgrounds@simonmicro with new author/maintainer (#7718)

Apply new backgrounds from Bing, Himawari 8, Picsum Photos, PlaceKitten.com, Unsplash.com or even whole websites - specify search tags, triggers and more!

README

Better Backgrounds for Cinnamon

repo-size issue-count latest-commit license

A Cinnamon desktop applet to change your wallpaper to random images from many customizable sources and also some effects from ImageMagick.

Currently supported sources

Bing (no resolution modifiers available)
Himawari 8 (live earth wallpaper)
Picsum Photos
PlaceKitten (does not really respect resolution modifiers)
Unsplash (random photos with tags)
Websites (page is rendered as screenshot by cutycapt)

Known issues

The icon animation needs much CPU power (up to one core), see here

Icon note

The icon has been merged from the following Pixabay images:

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28 Comments

Juan-Lutz-10 months ago

What I really like about this applet is that it can load images from the web and that it features effects such as greying out wallpapers. Is it possible to ad more may be a sepia filter? That gives the desktop a serious, modern and attractive look all at the same time. The icons and other colored elements stand out nicely and I have less distractions when working. Keep up the good work with this applet. Thanks, for a very good work. I have a LM 22 Cinnamon system.

thieninox-1 year ago

Good app, but please change the icon to look more modern, thanks

DrAnthonyYbara-2 years ago

Can I suggest a feature, having a field on the unsplash source that is OR and also having a field that is AND for entering our own parameters. Also under effects, using an effect that darkens the image. Maybe something like applying a black opacity layer over the wallpaper to dim it.

Free-Radical-2 years ago

Wallpaper isn't changing. The applet is not showing any more either, tried multiple reboots + removing adding applet!!!! Also cant change wallpaper the old fashioned way by right clicking on desktop, choosing new wallpaper does nothing!!!! WHATS GOING ON???

razi006-2 years ago

My wallpaper isn't changing. The applet is showing "Could not download image (503)!

domy11-2 years ago

very good

vnjunge-4 years ago

If you're having trouble saving background pictures, you could be missing the 'convert' command required by this app to save a picture. You can get it by installing 'imagemagick' or other image modifying software. I'm running Mint 20.2, Kernel 5.4.0-81 and that solution worked for me. Cheers!

simonmicro-3 years ago

tholler3012-4 years ago

Hello, I'm using the current app on Mint 20.1, but I can't save backgrounds. Unfortunately no error message appears either. I have also tried it with different locations, in /home and also outside. Restoring defaults (and then switching from /home/simon to my /home) does not work either. Does anyone have any ideas?

simonmicro-3 years ago

Well, I've just noticed that I indeed forgot to add a warning about this! The settings now also mention this requirement. Thanks to the issue https://github.com/simonmicro/better-backgrounds/issues/18 I was able to track this "error" down :) Additionally I've now corrected the broken default variable (https://github.com/simonmicro/better-backgrounds/commit/c844826c3504ee2345eae59c3ed208e92e551eb5)...

tholler3012-4 years ago

Kernel is 5.4.0-73

Simonmicro-4 years ago

Could you open an issue over on https://github.com/Simonmicro/better-backgrounds for this? I would also need the logs, you can obtain it by right-clicking on your panel -> Troubleshoot -> Looking Glass -> Log and looking for better-backgrounds.

FlowXP-4 years ago

The only thing that is missing from this addon is to have the option to show recursively photos from a local folder. Thank you for the addon !!

simonmicro-3 years ago

Feel free to open a feature request over on GitHub: https://github.com/simonmicro/better-backgrounds/issues/new

Alexandru Lucian Paraschiv-4 years ago

Save current picture doesn't seem to work nor does it show any notifications. I'm running the latest version of mint 20 with 5.8 kernel.

simonmicro-3 years ago

Simonmicro-4 years ago

Sorry just seeing this right now - could you ensure the save location is correct?

1ce8reaker-5 years ago

Can I use "NOT" to exclude some terms of search?

Simonmicro-5 years ago

Sorry to disappoint you, but Unsplash currently does not support this without using an api key. If you still want to implement this, you'll need to extend the UI to also include a field for the api key and rework the download procedure for Unsplash images...

FlowXP-5 years ago

awesome addition for Cinnamon !!!

Juan-Lutz-5 years ago

I am surprised from this applet. Very good and nice to manage some wallpaper from the taskbar. My only question is it possible to add as source a specific folder in your HD with you own collection of jpg pictures?.

Simonmicro-5 years ago

Why would you need that? Cinnamon has a build in way to do that. But if you _really_ need that - you're welcome to open an issue to discuss this further over on GitHub :)

Juan-Lutz-5 years ago

Thank you for your attention. In other words what I propose is to have one place at the taskbar to switch between different sources adding the cinnamon wallpaper adjustments ( which includes the cinnamon wallpaper and the own Folder with own collection of pictures). But as you mention is only an idea. Anyhow your applet is great.

Kyle Weidner-5 years ago

App works exactly as expected. I would only suggest two improvements. First, it would be nice if the applet showed more information on the photo, like when using Bing as the source, it would be nice if the applet showed information about the photographer or the photograph itself. Second, as mentioned by scottdd, the option to 'Save current wallpaper' would be a very useful feature as well. Thanks for making this for us!

Simonmicro-5 years ago

Thank you. Your suggestion has been added to https://github.com/Simonmicro/better-backgrounds/issues/10 - but please note that I didn't implement that part, because it would only work with Bing as source. All the others don't provide the necessary information. And 'Save current wallpaper' is already implemented, but the cinnamon servers are caching extremely well and therefore the update will roll out in the next weeks or so (hopefully). This caching behavior is indeed not intended (and already worked around by the cinnamon desktop), but their workaround is not rolled out yet in major distros - like Mint...

scottdd-5 years ago

The only improvement I would suggest is to add 'Save current wallpaper' option to right-click menu, that saves to the user's Pictures folder or other configured path. Thanks for writing this great applet!

Simonmicro-5 years ago

Thanks for your positive feedback! I'll look further into it, the next time I got time for this. You can check out the progress of that feature over on https://github.com/Simonmicro/better-backgrounds/issues/8

rmleonard-4 years ago

into what directory do the images save to? After clicking on 'Save current Picture ' - no new images show up in my home/Pictures directory. I've tried running a global find on image files.. more info please?