Padbury Clock Mac Screensaver. Designed by Robert Padbury, the Padbury Clock is a fan favorite, featuring a simple digital clock layout centered on a black backdrop. Reminiscent of the iOS 7 lockscreen display, the Padbury digital clock screensaver uses a thin numeric design for a sleeker look suitable for any Mac screen. Download Padbury Clock. 1024x768 free screensavers and wallpaper A Wallpapers Club. Animal, aquarium, marine mammal.
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Editor’s note: We’ve updated this guide with a new pick for enjoying rad wallpapers that comes with widgets.
Ever since the macOS became the multimedia powerhouse it is today, visuals have been a strong suit of the operating system. With the release of macOS X Mojave, Apple brought out the glorious Dynamic Wallpapers, which shifted the landscape based on the time of the day. Thanks to the unprecedented popularity same glorious dynamic wallpapers are compatible with macOS Big Sur update too. As stunning as the native wallpapers on macOS with every new version can be, you might find seeing the same aesthetic elements, as stunning as it may be, a bit boring.
By default, you are limited to the number of wallpapers available for the system to just a handful, which would make you want to find a few surreal ones of our own. But where can you find wallpapers and desktop backgrounds for your Mac computer that are good enough to rival the pieces of visual art that Apple crafts with the help of world-renowned photographers?
We bring you a comprehensive collection of some of the best wallpaper apps for macOS, personally tried and tested for the best results.
TL;DR: top wallpaper apps for Mac right now:
- For HD Wallpapers:Wallpaper Wizard 2
- For Dynamic Desktops:24 Hour Wallpaper
- For Rad Wallpapers with Widgets:Hologram Desktop
- For 3D Wallpapers:Earth 3D
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For HD wallpapers: Wallpaper Wizard 2
Developed with the minimalist design in mind, the Wallpaper Wizard 2 app comes from MacPaw, which is already an established development studio. We enjoyed the lightweight wallpaper app, which comes with the finesse you would expect from native macOS apps, and a gargantuan collection of visually pleasing desktop backgrounds under the hood.
When you download and install the application, you’ll see a beautiful and elegant main interface. It is not cluttered with extra icons, here you’ll be approached with a simple “App Store” style catalog of numerous thumbnails of background collections.
Bringing out the best of the Retina HD display that makes the MacBook and the iMac such an eye-candy, Wallpaper Wizard 2 gives you an ever-updating catalog of all sorts of wallpapers, ranging across the spectrum of nature, space, architecture, colors, seasons, and everything in between.
Built with the philosophy to keep things simple, we enjoyed the straightforward setup of Wallpaper Wizard 2 and barely takes up any system resources. You start off with a 7-day trial to dip your toes in, and from there, the browsing experience is rich and comprehensive. We checked out the Explore tab for some of the latest collections to pick from right way, with categories listed right below for you to look into.
The Roll section is where you add wallpapers you want to add as a carousel to the desktop. With the press of a button, you can go to the next one on the list, along with a shuffle button to mix things up. Finally, there’s an entirely separate section for the Favorites you can add from the thousands of wallpapers by hitting the star icon right next to them.
If you are looking for a specific genre of wallpapers but don’t want to sift through the thousands of high-quality offerings in the Wallpaper Wizard 2 app, there’s a handy Search bar built into it. Taking inspiration from iOS with the rounder corners and masonry grid design, you will always have a window into a fantastic collection of macOS HD wallpapers, which are updated by the thousands each month.
Price: $9.95 via official website (Free Trial for 7 Days). It’s also available via Setapp, a $9.99 monthly subscription service.
For dynamic desktops: 24 Hour Wallpaper
The best wallpapers for Mac are not in short supply, we could not find a whole lot of wallpaper apps for macOS that offer you dynamic wallpapers Apple ships the operating system with. We found the ability to see the day pass by with the wallpaper reflecting it, quite pleasant, which is exactly what Jetson Creative strives to offer with the 24 Hour Wallpaper app.
Available as both, an app and a standalone bundle of wallpapers too, you will find the pricing model of 24 Hour Wallpaper as the only confusing part about it. We found everything else about the wallpaper app to be straightforward, with the wallpapers designed with the same craftsmanship that you come to expect only from the award-winning photographers that Apple hires for its official dynamic wallpapers.
Built in 5K HD resolution to keep your eyes fixated on the desktop for hours, the 24 Hour Wallpaper app features more than 80 different scenic spectacles to choose from. Apart from the three that are offered for free to give you a little taste of the goodness (Big Sur, Miami, and Earth from ISS), the app packs a whole lot more in 5120×2880 resolution.
Price: $9.99 or $1.29 per wallpaper. It’s also available via Setapp, a $9.99 monthly subscription service.
For rad wallpapers with widgets: Hologram Desktop
Hologram Desktop is a cool app we recently discovered in the Mac App Store.The app transforms your Mac desktop with 5 million scenic wallpapers from Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels. You get five-preloaded themes that you can instantly apply and use, then would have to download more wallpapers from built-in three top image providers above.
This software is not just about wallpapers, but more about a combination of wallpapers and widgets. Why? It allows you to blend your own creativity into it by neatly arranging the shortcuts and icons on wallpapers you fetched. The app comes over 50 widgets now, that lets you add the weather, date and time, moon phase, system information, inspirational quotes, jokes, and lots of other stuff to appear from your homescreen. You can even customize Widgets with tons of settings directly from the app.
Hologram Desktop supports Macs running macOS 10.15 Catalina or higher. It comes in Free and Pro versions. The Free version comes with 10 widgets and is limited to 5 wallpaper downloads per month, while Pro version comes with unlimited wallpaper downloads, all available widgets, 25 beautiful pre-built pro themes, and lets you save your wallpapers to your own folders. You can buy the app for $9.99 from the Mac App Store.
For 3D wallpapers: Earth 3D
Earth 3D is a cool app we recently discovered in the Mac App Store. It is a combination of 3D Screensaver and Live Wallpaper, you can launch app in a full screen and use as 3D screen saver or launch in a small window and enable Live Wallpaper mode and app periodically will generate a new wallpaper.
Earth 3D gives you live wallpapers and screensavers of the earth, with details of buildings, airplanes, and more. It shows you over 2,600 geographic objects, over 500 wonders of the world, a real=life night sky, a day/night cycle with city lights, and a whole lot more. The graphics are high-quality 3D, with HD textures for 1080p and up, and it supports Apple’s Retina displays. There’s also an interactive mode where you can click and drag to explore the planet.
Price: You can buy Earth 3D on the Mac App Store for US$2.99.
Some more wallpaper apps worth mentioning
There were a lot of other great wallpaper apps that we considered when writing this review, but none of them quite measured up to our top picks. Still, they definitely have unique features that deserve a mention.
Dynaper – Dynamic Wallpapers
Built for photography enthusiasts, the wallpaper app for Mac allows you to easily create dynamic wallpapers, including elements such as time and solar shifting in the background, and complete compatibility with macOS Mojave, Catalina, and the latest Big Sur version too.
The helper tools built into the Dynaper makes it easier to set the timeframe for the images, or just go with the Light/Dark wallpaper modes that automatically adapt to the appearance change. We were offered the compatibility for Retina HD display MacBook and iMac the wide-gamut colors, with better hues even for darker images, matching the quality of visual experience that macOS native wallpapers provide.
Live Desktop
From the cool blue vibes of rippling water, to the gentle blows of the sandy beach, we were delighted by the entire catalog of awe-inspiring live desktop backgrounds for you to try out on the Live Wallpaper app.
Speaking of the interface, the general experience is simplified and selecting the best ones from the lot is made easy with the Featured section. Apart from live wallpapers, the app also comes with its own collection of built-in Live Audio, which allows you to enjoy pleasant tunes while you feast your eyes, and can be easily turned off at any time.
Unsplash Wallpapers
Fact of the matter is that there is not shortage of top-quality wallpaper service providers out there, but consolidating all of them can be difficult. Unsplash is one of the leading websites when it comes to high-quality wallpapers in the millions, and Unsplash is the app which brings to the best of it to your macOS computer.
The tiny and lightweight app is easy to get around, and allows you an automatic wallpaper times that can be set to minutes, hours, days, and weeks. The different channels allow you to shuffle through different sections such as new, featured, and others, along with auto-adjustment feature to set the color schemes in relation with the macOS theme you have installed.
Living Wallpaper HD
Another instance where the Live Wallpaper feature from the Apple iOS has been successfully adapted into the macOS platform, Living Wallpaper HD sets the standard for beautifully crafted scenes like no other. Covering everything from the hustle and bustle of the cityscapes, to the scenic marvel of galaxies far away, Live Wallpaper HD comes with 20+ variants for you to choose from.
There is a weather and clock widget subtly integrated into the live wallpaper by itself, so the aesthetic beauty doubles up as a utility feature too. Apart from the ones provided with the app, you can also choose your very own wallpapers and customize them with the app, along with add-on features such as hot corners to activate the screensaver, and Informative Dock for a quick glance into the important stats.
Wallpaper FAQs
Q: How to set up a Dynamic Wallpaper on macOS Big Sur
The latest version of macOS, similar to the older ones, comes with a couple of Dynamic Wallpapers built into it, and here’s how you can enable them:
- On the home screen, click the Apple icon on the top-left corner of the taskbar.
- Click on the Desktop button on the window.
- Select System Preferences and head to Desktop & Screen Saver from the menu.
- From the sidebar, you can choose to view the pictures saved as Desktop Pictures, Colors, or Photos saved on your computer.
- Under the Dynamic Desktop option, you will find the available options, so select the one you prefer and it will automatically be set as the background.
Q: Where to get more dynamic wallpapers
While there is an abundance of stunning wallpapers you can enjoy on the 5K Retina HD display of the iMac and MacBook, the number of Dynamic Wallpapers that Apple makes is fairly limited. Built for the very purpose of fulfilling the need to add more dynamic wallpapers to macOS, Dynamic Wallpaper Club is built with the finesse and style you have come to expect from Apple itself.
The crowdsourced website allows you to not only craft dynamic wallpapers of your own, but browse through a handsome catalog of wallpapers created by other users. The best part is, all of it comes to you free of cost, with the high-quality ones marked with the “5K” sticker for you to download right away.
Keep your Mac’s screen fresh everyday
Rather than limiting the potential of macOS with just a list of handpicked wallpapers, we want to give you the creative freedom to find, and even make your very own macOS desktop backgrounds. Whether you’re looking to capture the best of nature in a stunning way, set a dynamic wallpaper that transitions along with the day, or want to add a splash of animation to the desktop, we’ve got a wonderful list of best Mac wallpaper apps for you to browse through.
Enabling the screensaver. When using screensavers on your Mac, logically, the first thing to do is to enable them. In order to do that, you need to go to the System Preferences menu and select the Desktop & Screen Saver category. In the new window that opens up, click on the Screen Saver button from the middle-upper part and change the value in. Select a screensaver you like and click Download. After that you will be able to download this screensaver on the page with its description. 34 Stunning & Free Mac Screensavers for OS X. ScriptSaver is a Mac OS X screensaver which runs AppleScripts when.
Nothing completes an Apple setup like a functional screensaver for your desk monitor. Adding a well-designed Mac clock screensaver will instantly level up your workspace, while providing the time in a unique way – whether on your MacBook, iMac, external monitor, and beyond. With the ability to now customize iOS home screens and app icons on your iPhone and iPad, it’s time to level up your Mac setup!
There are hundreds of Mac screensavers to choose from for your home office setup, but we’re here to help you pick your next go-to with this list of top 10 Mac clock screensavers!
If this is your first time installing a clock screensaver on macOS, learn how here. Some screensavers have unique installation instructions, which are included in the download links.
1. Fliqlo – Retro Flip Clock Screensaver
The retro flip clock screensaver is arguably the best Mac background you can have – there’s a reason you see it on almost every Instagram setup feature page. The simple clock design acts like a traditional calendar and creates a flip animation as minutes and hours go by. The minimal black and white screensaver design isn’t too distracting and provides a clean look for every desk setup whether you’re on a MacBook or Windows desktop!
There are many retro flip clock screensavers out on the web, however, the one we recommend is Fliqlo. Apart from the incredibly simple black and white design, Fliqlo offers several unique screensaver features such as customization on brightness, time display (both 12 or 24-hour clock), screen orientation, multiple screen display functionality, and much more. Both versatile and widely adaptable, Fliqlo is the go-to when it comes to having a proper clock screensaver.
How To Download A Screensaver On Mac
2. Simple Analog Watch Clock Screensaver
If you’re a watch enthusiast or have an appreciation for watch design, you’ll love these two Mac screensavers. Both of these backgrounds are inspired by the simple layout of an analog watch clock and provide a minimal, yet classy look to your Mac screen.
Minimal Analog Wall Clock Screensaver
A simple analog wall clock design, but for your Mac! This screensaver includes several variations of an analog clock aesthetic – from minimal to sophisticated.
Simple Braun BN003 Analog Watch Screensaver
Inspired by the Braun BN003 analog watch, software engineer Sam Soffes developed this clock screensaver to act as a digital Braun watch face.
3. Black & White Minimalist Clock Screensaver
Looking for the best clock screensaver to go along with your minimalist desk setup? Check out these sleek Mac screensavers that tell you the time without taking up all of your screen real estate.
Alternative Minimal Clock Screensavers
Download Minimal Clock 2
Download Minimal Clock 3
4. Color Clock Screensaver
For any designers or hue lovers looking to add a pop of color to their desk setup, The Color Clock is the screensaver for you! This background shows a different color every second, starting with black at midnight, shifting towards white throughout the day.
Unfortunately these can’t be installed natively to macOS, but both options below will run on browser:
Go to Color Clock
Go to Hex Clock
5. Literature Clock Screensaver
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Sometimes it’s just better in words. Inspired by the e-reader literary clock by Jaap Meeijers, these literature-inspired screensavers display quotes that include the time, by the minute, from famous written pieces – a unique alternative to the classic numeric clock display.
Download Literature Clock (Light Theme)
Download Literature Clock (Dark Theme)
Windows Free Screensavers And Wallpaper
6. Padbury Clock Mac Screensaver
Designed by Robert Padbury, the Padbury Clock is a fan favorite, featuring a simple digital clock layout centered on a black backdrop. Reminiscent of the iOS 7 lockscreen display, the Padbury digital clock screensaver uses a thin numeric design for a sleeker look suitable for any Mac screen.
7. Momentum Chrome Extension
Looking for some morning motivation? Momentum Dash is the perfect browser extension to have as your personal dashboard. Available on Google Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers, Momentum provides the time, a daily quote, a beautiful background visual, and even your to-do list every time you open up a new tab.
8. Grid Clock Screensaver
Grid Clock is another one for the word lovers. This screensaver’s crossword-style design is an elegant, yet simple take on time display.
9. Neon Genesis Evangelion Digital Clock Screensaver
Inspired from the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, this neon digital clock screensaver gives a colorful look that is perfect for any gaming setup or any playful home office.
10. Polar Clock Screensaver
If you can tell time on a polar clock and you’re on the hunt for a minimal Mac screensaver, you’re in luck. Besides displaying the time in an unconventional way, this clock has a flat design, which features bright neon colors, to help your setup stand out.
What’s your favorite Mac screensaver? Are there any other backgrounds we should add to the list? Let us know in the comments below!
Own a wallpaper collection
Since the introduction of macOS Mojave, Mac desktop backgrounds got quite a bit more lively and dynamic, adapting to the exact hour of the day. But even then, let’s face it, default Mac backgrounds are pretty boring. When everyone sports the same wallpaper as you, it comes across as a sign of laziness and conformity. Luckily, we can easily spice things up!
There are lots of options for you to choose as your background, from a set of default ones to anything customized. Here, we’ll explore how to change background on Mac quickly as well as touch on how to change screen saver, so you never get tired of looking at your Mac.
Craft a creative desktop space on Mac
Your Mac can look and perform just as you expect it to. Download Setapp and upgrade your creative routine with a curated toolkit of apps.
How To Change Wallpaper On Mac
If you simply want to switch away from the default Mac desktop wallpaper, you should first try one of the Apple backgrounds already pre-installed on your Mac.
Changing MacBook backgrounds is easy:
- Open System Preferences ➙ Desktop & Screen Saver
- Make sure you’re in the Desktop tab
- In the sidebar, open Apple ➙ Desktop Pictures
- Click on any of the pictures to set it as your background
Set custom Mac backgrounds effortlessly
To divert from Apple’s preselected style, Macs allow you to set any image of your choice as a Mac desktop wallpaper. Simply find the image anywhere on your Mac, right-click on it, and select Set Desktop Picture from the menu. In case your image is in the Photos app, open it up, click on the share icon, and choose the Set Desktop Picture option from there.
When choosing a custom background, check that it fits the desktop just right. If not, adjust the fit by selecting a dropdown and picking from either Fill Screen, Fit to Screen, Center, etc.
Rotate a collection of Mac desktop wallpapers
There’s also another way to add your own group of images, which gives you more flexibility in terms of setting them to automatically rotate later on:
- Go to System Preferences ➙ Desktop & Screen Saver
- Click on the plus sign in the bottom-left corner
- Navigate to the picture folder of your choice
- Click Choose to add the option to the Desktop menu
Now your folder should be visible in the sidebar of the Desktop & Screen Saver window. You can still just select one of the images out of the folder. But if you want the images to rotate:
- Check the box next to “Change picture”
- Set the frequency from the dropdown
Remove duplicates from your image folder
Most of the time, the image folder you set to be rotated is the one from your recent trip or maybe even a photoshoot. Hence it’s likely to contain lots of similar photos: the ones taken from the same angle of the same object. How do you get rid of them? Going through the whole folder yourself and deleting all near duplicates one by one is boring and time consuming. Instead, you should use an automatic solution.
Gemini is a lightweight but mighty duplicate finder utility for your Mac. Its AI-based algorithm not only finds the exact duplicates in any folder on your Mac, it also compares all the similar pictures and preselects the redundant options for a one-click removal. Don’t worry, Gemini makes it easy to restore any files that were wrongly deleted.
Before selecting your folder for Mac desktop wallpaper rotation:
- Open up Gemini
- Drop the folder right onto the app
- Click “Scan for Duplicates”
- Remove any similar photos that Gemini has found
Retouch all the images at once
Once you’re sure no duplicates or similar-looking images are left in your picture folder, you might want to adjust them in one way or another for a better look.
It could be that your images are of a different size than the MacBook Pro backgrounds, or you’ve been shooting in RAW format and need to convert images to .jpg, for example. Again, you probably already have a one-by-one workflow that does this, but is there a faster way?
PhotoBulk is a powerful image processing app that was designed to work specifically with batches of photos, editing dozens or hundreds at a time. It’s perfect for resizing, changing formats, renaming, compressing, and watermarking.
Using PhotoBulk is as straightforward as an editing app can be:
- In the app, add your picture folder using the plus icon in the bottom left
- Choose the modifications you’d like to do in the sidebar
- Adjust those edits and click Start
Now when you got rid of all the duplicates and made the necessary edits to your photos, you can add your photo folder to Desktop & Screen Saver and be sure it’ll look good there.
Rotate beautiful backgrounds automatically
Having your photos rotate as your MacBook backgrounds is great. But what if you don’t have any high-quality pictures around? Or just don’t want to spend any time setting something up?
Bring beauty to your Mac desktop
Download Wallpaper Wizard to rotate your custom desktop images on Mac. Get immersed in the creatives that were made just for you.
Wallpaper Wizard was created to rescue your Mac desktop wallpaper and bring beauty and inspiration to it. The automatic rotation function is already built in and you can choose from more than 35,000 high-quality royalty-free images to keep your collection ever-fresh.
Starting with Wallpaper Wizard is quite straightforward:
- Browse the app for the broad category you like, whether People or Vehicles
- Choose a specific set of images
- Click on the plus icon to add them to your Roll
You can also create your own Rolls by clicking on the plus icon of specific images. And if you just want one of the beautiful Mac desktop backgrounds from Wallpaper Wizard to be static, simply open it up and choose Set Desktop Picture.
Choose and install the best screensavers for Mac
Once you’ve decided what your MacBook backgrounds should be, you can similarly adjust your Mac screensaver too. You know that you have a screensaver on your Mac by default, right?
To see your current Mac screensaver, just go to System Preferences ➙ Desktop & Screen Saver and navigate to the Screen Saver tab. Your default screensaver would appear on the right. If you want to change it, you can simply explore all the options on the left and click on the one you like. Additionally, many screensavers would present customization options for further adjustments.
You might be wondering how to change screen saver to something custom. First, you need to find a suitable screen saver online and download it. The screen saver should have a .saver file extension. Then to install it, either double-click on the file or move the file to your Library ➙ Screen Savers folder. Now you should see the new screensaver in the Desktop & Screen Saver list.
Improve security with Hot Corners
Screensavers For Mac Pro
Since you now have a perfect Mac screensaver in place, there’s one more thing you can modify to make your computer more secure overall.
Hot Corners is a great little feature that triggers a certain action when your cursor reaches one of the corners of your screen. What you want to do here is set a Hot Corner to lock your Mac and start a screensaver.
To set up Hot Corners:
Free Screensavers And Wallpaper For Mac 2020
- Go to System Preferences ➙ Desktop & Screen Saver
- In the Screen Saver tab, click Hot Corners in the bottom right
- Using a dropdown, set one of the corners to Start Screen Saver
- Navigate to System Preferences ➙ Security & Privacy
- Check the box to “Require password immediately after sleep or screen saver begins”
From now on, when you move your cursor to a given corner, your beautiful new screensaver will start and your Mac will lock. It’s strongly suggested to do this every time your step away from your computer to keep your data safe.
So set up a rotating Mac desktop wallpaper, whether it’s your personal archive, quickly processed with Gemini for duplicates and PhotoBulk for retouching, or Wallpaper Wizard with its gorgeous HD rolls of images. Then install one of many custom screensavers for Mac and configure Hot Corners to improve your laptop’s security.
Best of all, you could use all the apps mentioned above free for a limited time through Setapp, a platform of more than 150 Mac apps that improve your daily workflow and ensure a beautiful user experience. Enjoy the view!
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Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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