# Question about wallpaper...can you change the way the Tile setting works?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-wallpaper-can-you-change-the-way-the-tile-setting-works/391397
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 8, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-wallpaper-can-you-change-the-way-the-tile-setting-works/391397 "2007-02-08T19:49:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-wallpaper-can-you-change-the-way-the-tile-setting-works/391397/1 "2007-02-08T19:49:50Z")
I recently upgraded to a 22inch flatscreen that insists on a 1680x1050 setting.
and that definitly messes with all my backgrounds of which I have hundreds.
so my options are center wich can leave a ton of extra space
Stretch…not really an option unless you are into warped everthing
and Tile, I like the tile option with one complaint, it always places the initial image in the upper left corner and then tiles from there. what I would like is to have the initial image centered and then tile from there (with off center tiles from that one would rock but I would just love to have this feature at all)
and again my google fu is to weak for this one.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-wallpaper-can-you-change-the-way-the-tile-setting-works/391397/2 "2007-02-08T20:33:55Z")
My WAG is that you are SOL. Calculations for tiling begin from the top left-hand corner of the screen, regardless of the graphics card and monitor used.
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### Author:  [@rocksolid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocksolid)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-wallpaper-can-you-change-the-way-the-tile-setting-works/391397/3 "2007-02-08T20:54:44Z")
This might be stating the obvious to you but just in case…
You could of course create your own jpeg files using photoshop or similar. Either creating a blank document to the correct dimensions and copying and pasting your image from the centre out, or trimming your pictures top and bottom to fill the screen without distortion.
I suspect this isn’t much help to you but i think it’s your only option. For me, i just live with the distortion although i must admit it does bug me a little.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-wallpaper-can-you-change-the-way-the-tile-setting-works/391397/4 "2007-02-08T21:00:14Z")
You could use a graphics program to ‘recenter’ the tiles. Just make an image out of 4 copies of the original picture, _i.e._ aligned as if they were tiled, and crop out a new tile with its topleft point being the point which, when placed in the upper left corner of the screen, will give you a centered image on your monitor.
This’d be a lot of work to do manually with hundreds of pictures, but is probably amenable to scripting.
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-wallpaper-can-you-change-the-way-the-tile-setting-works/391397/5 "2007-02-08T21:04:35Z")
You might try looking for a desktop wallpaper changer/manager. One of them might be able to resize to the maximum of one of the dimensions of your screen while preserving the aspect ratio.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-wallpaper-can-you-change-the-way-the-tile-setting-works/391397/6 "2007-02-08T23:00:21Z")
Another option is to resize the tile, to make it fit evenly within the 1680x1050. For example, make it 168x105 pixels. Otherwise, one of the previously-mentioned solutions is the best.
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### Author:  [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2007, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-wallpaper-can-you-change-the-way-the-tile-setting-works/391397/7 "2007-02-09T07:07:37Z")
actually I never cosidered the idea of just creating my own tiled images…would be a lot of work though.
I kinda figured I was outta luck but I was hoping for some script you could patch in.