macOS makes wallpapers easy, and recent versions added a few genuinely nice touches — per-display backgrounds, automatic rotation through a folder, and crisp scaling on Retina screens. Here's how to set yours.
Set a wallpaper on macOS (Ventura, Sonoma and later)
- Download your wallpaper (it'll land in your Downloads folder by default).
- Open the Apple menu → System Settings.
- Click Wallpaper in the sidebar.
- Scroll down and click Add Photo / Add Folder or File, then choose your image.
The quickest route: find the image in Finder, right-click (or Control-click) it, and choose Set Desktop Picture.
Older macOS (Monterey and earlier)
Go to Apple menu → System Preferences → Desktop & Screen Saver → Desktop, click the + button to add the folder containing your image, then select it.
Fill the screen correctly
Under the wallpaper preview there's a drop-down for how the image is displayed. For a high-resolution wallpaper, choose Fill Screen — it covers the whole display and crops the edges slightly rather than leaving borders or distorting the picture. Use Fit to Screen only if you want to see the entire image including any empty space.
A different wallpaper on each display
Connect your external monitor first, then open System Settings → Wallpaper. macOS shows a separate preview for each display — set each one independently by selecting the display's preview and choosing an image.
Rotate through a folder automatically
Want a fresh background every day? Add a folder of wallpapers instead of a single image, then enable "Rotate" and pick an interval (every day, every hour, on wake, etc.). Drop a handful of your favorite downloads into one folder and macOS will cycle through them for you.
Keeping it sharp on Retina
Retina displays pack a lot of pixels into a small area, so a low-resolution image shows its flaws quickly. For a 14" or 16" MacBook Pro, or a 4K/5K external monitor, download the largest file available — a true 4K (or 8K) source will look flawless, while an upscaled image will look soft. macOS handles the scaling automatically once you've picked Fill Screen.