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It's a nice idea, and seems well executed. To be honest, and I hope this isn't too much of a downer: a) I probably won't pay to evaluate it. It seems like the

It's a nice idea, and seems well executed. To be honest, and I hope this isn't too much of a downer: a) I probably won't pay to evaluate it. It seems like the kind of app that would be perfect for a cut-down trial version. b) I wonder how many people - especially this audience - really care about what's on their desktop. I know I barely ever see mine, because I run all windows maximised (or tiled). It's nice to have a good looking image for the brief period of startup/shutdown time during which I can actually see it, and I plump for the Mountain Lion-era space image because I think it's a lot more attractive than the recent mavericks/yosemite equivalents. But anything more, in my book, is overkill.

tomkinstinch 12y ago
A trial version is a great idea. I didn't want to split my time too much, but maybe I'll release a free version with a limited range of artists (the all van Gogh, all the time app?). How many people care about art on their desktop? I don't know either! Seeing more art can only be a good thing. It's a discovery tool for me. I've chanced my Mission Control preferences so I can quickly show the desktop by moving my mouse cursor to the lower left hot corner of my screen.
- __Joker 12y ago
  I kind of take some time to time to see online arts, just for curiosity. Definitely would like to give a go with the free app with van Gogh. Not sure I would like to pay though, for financial reasons. Great idea though.
Someone 12y ago
"wonder how many people - especially this audience - really care about what's on their desktop." I do. The duller, the better. Uniform gray is my preferred background (not too bright red on production systems or when logged in as administrator). Pictures I liked had 'dull' parts in regions where icons tend to show up. An option to reduce (color) contrast would be a nice feature, especially if it were to have some smarts depending on the picture and what icons are on the desktop.
- tomkinstinch 12y ago
  There actually is an option to "dim" the image; it applies a black overlay over the image of selectable opacity.
  - redacted 12y ago
    Have you seen the Android wallpaper app Muzei [0] ? It dims and blurs the image, and launching the app or double tapping the wallpaper itself brightens and focuses the picture momentarily. No idea if that is possible on OS X though. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roman.muzei https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roma...
    - tomkinstinch 12y ago
      Difficult to implement something like that on OSX without a resource-intensive overlay. As it is, Artful takes advantage of the built-in NSWorkspace API to change the wallpaper, which only causes activity on download and change of the image.
      - jkestner 12y ago
        Perhaps you could pre-render a blurred version to a new image, and switch to the focusing animation just when needed? Granted, that may have flicker.

tomkinstinch 12y ago

A trial version is a great idea. I didn't want to split my time too much, but maybe I'll release a free version with a limited range of artists (the all van Gogh, all the time app?). How many people care about art on their desktop? I don't know either! Seeing more art can only be a good thing. It's a discovery tool for me. I've chanced my Mission Control preferences so I can quickly show the desktop by moving my mouse cursor to the lower left hot corner of my screen.

__Joker 12y ago
I kind of take some time to time to see online arts, just for curiosity. Definitely would like to give a go with the free app with van Gogh. Not sure I would like to pay though, for financial reasons. Great idea though.

Someone 12y ago

"wonder how many people - especially this audience - really care about what's on their desktop." I do. The duller, the better. Uniform gray is my preferred background (not too bright red on production systems or when logged in as administrator). Pictures I liked had 'dull' parts in regions where icons tend to show up. An option to reduce (color) contrast would be a nice feature, especially if it were to have some smarts depending on the picture and what icons are on the desktop.

tomkinstinch 12y ago
There actually is an option to "dim" the image; it applies a black overlay over the image of selectable opacity.
- redacted 12y ago
  Have you seen the Android wallpaper app Muzei [0] ? It dims and blurs the image, and launching the app or double tapping the wallpaper itself brightens and focuses the picture momentarily. No idea if that is possible on OS X though. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roman.muzei https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roma...
  - tomkinstinch 12y ago
    Difficult to implement something like that on OSX without a resource-intensive overlay. As it is, Artful takes advantage of the built-in NSWorkspace API to change the wallpaper, which only causes activity on download and change of the image.
    - jkestner 12y ago
      Perhaps you could pre-render a blurred version to a new image, and switch to the focusing animation just when needed? Granted, that may have flicker.