New, Wintry Desktop Wallpaper: SnowTree

Here's an alternative desktop wallpaper to the December calendar. It's a snow-covered tree, a leafless one at that, that I photographed a year or two ago. I applied Virtual Painter's Pointillism effect in Paint Shop Pro which gives the photo a complementary snowy effect. The cool blues and purples of this image chill - just the feeling you get when you walk outside on a crisp winter morning and forgot to put on your ear muffs and scarf.

Download one of four sizes of SnowTree on the fourth Wallpapers page and enjoy.

This is absolutely the last graphic I'll be releasing this year. I've got a ton of maintenance work to do on my web site in anticipation of the new year (wow, it's almost 2008?).

While you're on the wallpapers page, do check out the other offerings on the site as well. Maybe you haven't started a web page yet, but see what's available. Looking around might spark your interest; if not a web site, then a social-networking page perhaps?

New Background Tile

Alrighty! In keeping with the wintry theme, here's another snowflake background tile you can play with. Created from a Microsoft Wingding, this background tile can be used on web pages or your computer's desktop. The sample pages offer different ways you can use this tile on web pages. Go to the patterned tiles page 5 for more information and the download.

Note: the thumbnail image above is just a sample at 60% of full size. The full size 100x100 pixel graphic is more detailed.

(Edit 12/5/07: Thumbnail image removed due to someone in Florida thinking that was the download.)

Double Delight: Desktop Wallpaper & Background Tiles

Today's offerings are December's Desktop Wallpaper and Snowflakes Background Tiles! I haven't done background tiles in awhile, so what better timing than now and with a pattern that's popular at this time of the year. So is the image used in this month's desktop wallpaper: red berries, green foliage and snow.

The image for the desktop wallpaper comes from a photographer whose nickname on the web site, Image Temple, is Raistlin. It's a pretty picture that I left untouched other than putting those translucent boxes for the calendar. The font used on the calendar is called Girls Are Weird created by Robot Johnny AKA John Martz. Download a desktop wallpaper now in one of four sizes.

The background tiles were created using the dingbat font, Snowflake, from type foundry P22. I created the tiles with Paint Shop Pro, first making the "full strength" tile, then adding some translucent layers of white to create the two "faded" tiles. The sample page shows how you can use all three tiles with nested tables. You don't have to do that on your web pages; use just one tile or two tiles. View and download the snowflakes background tile now. By the way, these tiles can also be used on your desktop. Just set a tile as desktop wallpaper and make sure you indicate that it should be tiled, not stretched or centered.

The desktop wallpaper calendar is the last for this year and forever. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I will not be making these any more for the public. I hope that those of you who downloaded the previous months enjoyed them as I did.

November's Desktop Wallpaper

Hey, it's here! Download November now in one of two looks: Regular or Enhanced. Regular starts out with one of my landscape photos that I applied the Watercolor filter to and using the font, Pristina by the Esselte Corporation, created the latest calendar desktop wallpaper. Enhanced goes a step further with autumn leaves from a PSP tube. While I really like how the regular calendar turned out, I thought it needed a little something extra to give it more "oomph"; thus, the leaves. So I offer for this month two versions of November.

Choose one or both versions from the fourth page of the Wallpapers section. You can either download the image to install later or apply the desktop wallpaper now. Instructions are on each window of the size you choose.

More news: December will be the last calendar desktop wallpaper I'll make. I'm not sure how well these are being accepted because I don't receive any feedback. So instead of me working hard to create these graphics for the public, I'll resume creating them for my personal enjoyment only. But I will continue to make desktop wallpapers in general.

Top Border Backgrounds: Reversed Gradients

Earlier this year I released a group of top border backgrounds with gradient colors. Reversing the graphic so that it starts out with a white or near-white background then slowly transitions to the color is something I've been thinking about doing for awhile. So here it is now.

I hope that for some of my visitors wishing to use a gradient background for their web pages, this selection fits better than what was offered previously.

You can find the reversed gradients on the fourth top border backgrounds page.

Birches, Clouds & Sky: New Desktop Wallpaper

While we are going through another warm spell, I'm releasing this scene on the latest desktop wallpaper of the European birches in my back yard against a backdrop of the brightest blue winter sky and fluffy clouds. But this is not your ordinary photo. I've taken the admittedly plain Jane photo and touched it up with Paint Shop Pro's Virtual Painter. I used the Drawing Effect on Washi paper to come up with this abstract desktop wallpaper rich with textures. I love it and hope you do, too.

Go to the fourth desktop wallpapers page to find the links to four sizes and set or download the wallpaper of your choice. Remember, the wallpapers are meant for your desktop, not for web pages. They are too large, even the 800x600 size, to use for web pages. Not everyone surfs with high speed connections...yet.

The November desktop wallpaper will be released on Thursday. So check back to the web site then.

Cats On A Fence: New Top Border Background!

Latest top border background graphic features sleek black cats scampering across the top of a fence. Added spookiness is the yellow glow emanating from the cats. Just right for your Halloween page or other pages of your web site.

This latest linkware is available to all users, subject to the Terms of Use. Download instructions are on the sample page which is password-protected. The thumbnail sample above doesn't do the background justice, so head out to the fourth page of the top border backgrounds to view the full page sample from the link there.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

October's Desktop Wallpaper Is Here!

After some fits and starts, I've finally finished October's wallpaper for you to download to your desktop and enjoy for the entire month. This month's photo comes from the creative eyes and camera of Simon Schaller AKA simu at MorgueFile.com. It's an orange moon -- harvest moon perhaps -- on a dark landscape in a park, it looks like. Pretty cool! The font I used this month is called "Fletcher Gothic FLF" by Software Complement at the Casady & Greene page at Typoasis.

The thumbnail shot above doesn't do the image any justice, so check out the full size desktop wallpapers for yourself on Wallpapers 4 page. Click the link that most closely matches your monitor's resolution and follow the instructions on the page that opens.

In other news, changes are in store for the site. I'm working on them throughout October and November, so there may be fewer graphic sets and pieces coming during that period. I'll continue to make the calendar desktop wallpapers, though. So come back at least once a month to pick up a new calendar for your desktop.

Last Two Space-themed Desktop Wallpapers

I've uploaded the last two desktop wallpapers with space images from GRIN. One is a revisit featuring the Carina Nebula. The other is an image taken by the Apollo 8 crew of the Earth rising over the moonscape.

The Carina Nebula is one of the most beautiful nebulae in the universe. I had offered it only in the 800x600 size, so this time I changed the look a little and created four sizes including another 800x600 size.

The Earthrise wallpaper puts you over the moon looking back at the Earth as it looked way back on December 29, 1968. Many of you haven't been born yet; many of you remember those years as being turbulent ones. Yet, how peaceful and beautiful our planet looked from space. This wallpaper is offered in four sizes to fit most of your monitors' resolutions.

Download one or both wallpapers from the second wallpapers page. Be sure to check out the other desktop wallpapers on the other three pages, too.

September's Desktop Wallpaper Is Here!

Just as I promised on the 17th the latest desktop wallpaper calendar is uploaded today, at least for some folks in my part of the globe. It's an acknowledgment of the arrival of fall or autumn coming soon.

The photograph of orange and brown autumn leaves serving as the basis for this calendar comes from me and my camera. I touched it up with Virtual Painter's watercolor effect. The font is called "Mistral" from URW and Microsoft. I'm kind of fond of those script and handwriting fonts, can you tell? Anyway, hope you enjoy looking at your desktop during the month of September.

Download one of four sizes at the fourth wallpapers page.

Break Time!

It's been a slow month as far as putting out new graphics and it'll stop altogether next week, because I'm going on vacation. I've been so busy during the summer months with baseball games to attend and other things, I haven't had a lot of time to work on graphics.

But I will have a new desktop calendar for September which I hope to upload on Wednesday the 29th after I return. So hang in there and enjoy August's desktop calendar (see below or link in the left column) while it lasts.

August 2007 Desktop Wallpaper

August's scenic calendar wallpaper is a closeup photo of shells and rocks on a gray sandy beach taken by kahanaboy of morguefile.com. This month's wallpaper is a farewell to summer as it winds down, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. So enjoy the sand and sun while you can, whether it's at the seashore or lakeside.

Download August's desktop wallpaper on the fourth wallpaper page in one of four sizes. While you're there, check out the other wallpapers on that page and the other three pages.

Two Cool Desktop Wallpapers Pages

While I love offering desktop wallpapers for you to download, I also like some of the wallpapers available around the 'Net. Two of the sites I love are The Nature Conservancy, a conservation organization, and the National Geographic Society, known to me as a magazine but it's an organization that documents all things scientific, cultural and natural around the globe as well as funds projects. Both offer some of the most fantastic photographic desktop wallpapers around.

I've always admired the photos taken by the National Geographic photographers. They are beautiful and moving. Ever since they began offering photographic calendars, I've been buying them each year. So when they started offering desktop wallpapers, I've stopped by their web site to check them out and download a few.

Every month I get e-mail newsletters from The Nature Conservancy about their projects and an offer of a new download of desktop wallpapers. Besides the wallpapers they also offer nature e-cards which I haven't checked out yet.

Every now and then I like to have a new look on my desktop, not satisfied with the same old image day after day, month after month, nor with the standard stuff MS offers. So these two sites allow me to have a different and fabulous look on my computer's desktop. Of course, sometimes I have one of my own on there, too. But check out these two sites. It's one way to see the world without actually having to travel there.

The Nature Conservancy's "Decorate Your Desktop" page
National Geographic Photo Archive - wallpapers and photos to e-mail

July 2007 Desktop Wallpaper

This month's scenic calendar wallpaper was made from a photo taken by Ana Golpe of a hammock swinging poolside near a beach somewhere in Sri Lanka. The colors of blues and greens are so cool and serene, it makes you want to be there. What a great view to look at while you work on your computer!

It comes in four sizes, so there's sure to be one that fits your monitor's resolution. Check it out and download one from the fourth wallpapers page.

Photo source: Morguefile.com

New! Yellow Lily Desktop Wallpaper

I made this desktop wallpaper last year but didn't release it then. I don't even remember why. But here it is now to splash some bright and cheery color to your monitor!

I used a photo I took of a yellow lily from a bouquet and applied Virtual Painter's Watercolor filter to it. Looks pretty good. The desktop wallpaper comes in four sizes and you can go to the fourth wallpapers page to get one. Be sure to check out the other wallpapers, too, including this month's calendar wallpaper.

New! Sunset Kaleidoscope Web Page Graphic Set

As promised on Wednesday this week, a complete nested tables set using the same kaleidoscope graphic as on the top border and side border backgrounds. The set comes with 10 background tiles to mix-and-match, a bullet and a page divider. The colors are oranges and shades of brown. Very earthy.

I'm not going to chat too much today as I'm going to a baseball game tonight and really need a nap. So go to the sample page to view the graphics and layout, then download the zip file. If you think you'd like to make sure no one else (or very few other people) grabs this set, click the Kagi link on the page to buy the non-exclusive license now.

Set 214 - Sunset Kaleidoscope

Be sure to enter the username and password provided.

Two New Web Page Background Graphics!

Featuring an orange and tan kaleidoscope border on the side or the top, these two background graphics will make your web pages pop! I started this background from a funky sunset photograph that I cropped and then applied a kaleidoscope filter over and over again until I got the graphic that I liked. Then I sampled parts of the kaleidoscope to get the light-colored background used for the rest of the graphic. The first background made was the top border in 100x3000 pixels. I turned this graphic 90 degrees and cropped it narrower to create the side border background.

The top border background sample page shows a fictitious company's main page just to show you how the border incorporates the company's name which I made as a .gif with a transparent background. You can do the same or leave the border area blank and start your content below it. Since the border is only 100 pixels wide, in the side border background I made the text smaller at 10 points so that the links would just fit. I also added margins of zero width to make the table hug the left side more closely.

Enough chatter about these two graphics. View and click on the thumbnail images to get the sample pages where you can proceed to download the graphic. The sample pages will open in a new window after you enter the username and password provided.

Sunset Kaleidoscope Top Border
Sunset Kaleidoscope Side Border

Also coming later this week is a nested tables set using the same kaleidoscope graphic as a tile and some background tiles in colors sampled from the image.

Two New Desktop Wallpapers Featuring Whitewater Rafting!

One of them is actually June's calendar wallpaper. Springtime usually signals the start of the commercial whitewater rafting season out here in California, so that's the inspiration for these two desktop wallpapers. Both are created from photos that I took many springs ago and gussied up with Paint Shop Pro 7 or PSP and Virtual Painter.

A little more information about the photos: These show whitewater rafters from two different companies on the North Fork Yuba River near Downieville, California. This is the class IV lower section below Son of Maytag rapid (IV) that's run from Goodyears Bar to the Fiddle Creek campground. (Maytag rapid is the only class V rapid on this run.) The river runs next to the highway for the most part and that's where I was standing while I took these photos with my trusty little Pentax ME Super film camera with zoom lens.

The set, "Kayaker's Delight," is on the same river, but I used only the photos of the kayakers who were going down the same time as the rafters to create the set.

Go to the fourth wallpapers page to download the desktop wallpapers in one of four available sizes.

For more information about rafting California rivers:

California Whitewater Rafting
RaftInfo.com
Total Escape

Whitewater rafting companies featured in the wallpapers:

Beyond Limits
Whitewater Voyages

I've rafted with both of these companies and they are great!

Earth Day Desktop Wallpaper

In honor of Earth Day, I've modified one of my favorite desktop wallpapers created with two photos of our planet from NASA's Visible Earth web site. Our planet is often referred to as "The Blue Marble" due to its resemblance to marbles. For this wallpaper, I've replaced the "blue marble" reference for some terms in honor of Earth Day.

Some of the common experiences astronauts and cosmonauts expressed have been the feeling of awe, humility and respect for the planet that is our home. While geopolitical turmoil, personal drama, natural disasters and more make us forget where we are, seeing it from the vantage point of space shows us how beautiful and fragile it really is.

The Earth is our only true home. We really cannot live anywhere else without help from mechanical, electronic or other artificial means. Despite all the space exploration stuff and sci-fi stories, there's no place else that humans and the other creatures and living things we share this planet with are meant to live. So it is imperative that we respect and protect our home.

What are you doing for Earth Day and every day?

You will find the Earth Day desktop wallpaper on the 2nd wallpapers page.

New Top Border (Sort Of) Backgrounds!

Thought I'd get the snowflake background graphic out of the way to remind us that we are in spring now. And now for something completely different. Here are the gradients!

These backgrounds are way lighter in color than the names suggest, and they really aren't strict top borders per se. But they are gradients nonetheless. All of them -- black, blue, green, orange, red and wine -- are 50x3000 pixels. So there's lots of room for lengthy content per page. If you want, you can use different colors for different subjects on your web site or blog. These backgrounds make great backdrops for other graphics you'd want to put on your page, such as photos.

Since all of these colors blend into white, do not use white as your text color. Black works fine for all, even the black gradient background which really looks more gray than black.

Anyway, go to the third top border backgrounds page for the thumbnail samples and link to the full download pages. All open up to new windows. Be sure to use the provided username and password.

New Calendar Desktop Wallpaper for May!

While this is way ahead of schedule, I need to put this up now before I find myself having no time to do it.

For the month of May I chose one of my photos of some purple wildflowers (sorry, I'm not that botanically minded so I don't know the name of these pretty flowers!) The photo was treated to Virtual Painter's watercolor filter and covered with a sheer white layer to really soften it.

The font I chose this month is called "Steinem" by Apostrophe of Apostrophic Labs. While the web site no longer exists, you can find this font as well as the entire catalogue at pedroreina.net. Another source of most of the Apostrophic Labs' fonts is Typoasis.

To download or install May's desktop wallpaper, go to the fourth page of the Wallpapers section and click on the link for the size you want. This month we have four sizes to choose from. Cool, eh?

New Background Tiles: Polka Dots!

Having fun with polka dots!

Call it the influence of modern pop culture. Or not. The "Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" tune has been swirling around in my head ever since a certain yogurt company's commercial featuring that tune aired every start of the year when women supposedly are dieting like crazy to fit into their swimsuits. Yogurt, and other milk products, reportedly help you lose weight. Okay, so that's the basis for this background tile's creation.

But instead of just yellow polka dots, I've created pink, green and blue polka dot background tiles. All come with a sample page to see what they look like tiled on a page and with download instructions.

Check out the page now.

New Calendar Desktop Wallpaper

The month of April is only a couple of weeks away, so here's the April desktop calendar for you to download now. Might as well get a head start, no? This month I decided to do a flowery daffodil with greenery decor calendar. The font used is called "Penguin Attack" by Dustin Norlander. It's a curly and somewhat girly font face but appropriate with the daffodils. Spring comes in a few days, so what better way to celebrate April than with some spring flowers!

You can either install the desktop calendar now or download it to your computer's hard drive to install later. Instructions are on the download page of whichever size you choose. These come in 800x640, 1024x819 and 1280x1024 sizes.

As to tomorrow's holiday in some areas of this globe, I already have a shamrock side border background on site. Sorry, no corned beef and cabbage to go with that.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Changes to Web Graphic Sets Pages

I've removed a set type, created a new set type and moved sets to other types.

First, the set type called "Home, Kids & Pets" was removed and all of those sets moved to "Simple Table Sets." Second, I created a new set type called "Left Border Sets." Last, three sets in "Simple Table Sets" were moved to two other types because the setup of those sets more closely resemble their new set types. Those sets are "Pretty Pink Roses" and "Poppies," which were moved to the newly-created set type of "Left Border Sets," and "I Heart You," which was moved to "Double Border Sets."

All of these changes put sets into the type that best describes the layout of the set. In the case of moving sets out of "Home, Kids & Pets," the layout of those sets were simple tables. The "Home, Kids & Pets" set type was the only one that described the sets' target user or subject rather than type of layout. These changes are noted on all affected pages mentioned above.

More sets are in the works in both the non-exclusive and exclusive categories. The debut of the exclusive sets may be delayed into the next quarter, though, as I'd like to offer more than one set in the debut and I haven't figured out the layout of the Kagi page.

Stay tuned!

New Desktop Wallpaper Experiments with Calendars!

I decided to try out calendar desktop wallpapers for this year. Starting out with March, it's a kite decorating the calendar. You'll notice the casual look. I tried hard not to strive for perfect alignment of the numbers. The boxes aren't exactly in line either. I made the kite with Paint Shop Pro 7. It's not made from a dingbat font nor clipart nor tubes, for that matter. The font, in case you're wondering, is called Eskargot by Apostrophic Lab. You can find it at DaFont.com (PC and Mac), Apostrophic Lab at Pedroreina.net (#0156 PC and Mac) or Typoasis (PC only).

Each month I'll pick out a theme to decorate the wallpaper and release it a few days before the month starts. This will be an experimental year. If it's popular, I may continue it for next year.

To view and download the appropriate size for your desktop, click here to go to the Wallpapers 4 page. Note that the sizes are bit larger in length from the standard for 800 and 1024 width wallpapers. The 1280 width is 1024 long.

Kagi Now Offers PayPal

Just about a month ago Kagi announced that PayPal will be another payment option for buyers. What that means for you, my visitors, is that you have more ways than ever to pay for a non-exclusive or exclusive set license from Arride Graphics! What that means for me is now I don't have to open a separate PayPal merchant account to give you another option of paying, although Kagi already has many options to pay for all visitors from around the world.

Just select PayPal when you go through the checkout process. If you don't already have a personal PayPal account, go to https://www.paypal.com/ (Be sure a locked icon appears in the status bar of your browser and that your address bar shows the above URL with the https and PayPal "P" favicon next to it to assure you're at the real PayPal web site, or type in the above URL in a new window.)

Shortly, I will be changing the look of the web site and will begin offering the first exclusive set. I still need to work out how each set will be presented in the Kagi order form. But the non-exclusive set licenses are ready to go now with the new fee schedule in place. Additionally, I will not be able to put text on navigation buttons, header graphics and do the JavaScript for rollover buttons, so those fees are removed.

I have other offerings in mind to have at Arride Graphics. Whether or not I'll implement those, we'll see.

New Side Border Web Graphic Set: Pretty Pink Roses!

Something for a little girl's page? Maybe for your wedding page? This web page graphic set is pretty in pink roses.

Created with PSP tubes and a little touch of Virtual Painter, it comes with the left side border background graphic, a blank header graphic, a page divider and two bullet graphics, all in pink roses. This is a very nice set, not too heavy with graphics, and fairly simple in appearance, so it doesn't take away from your content. The sample page shows how you can use the set. But you can use as much or as little of the other accessory graphics as you like.

This set is linkware for all users, personal or commercial, and requires no user license. You must, however, link back to my web site from all pages using any graphic from this set. You have the option of using the provided link button or a text link.

Click the screenshot on this page and enter the provided username and password. It will open a new window with the sample page and the download link. Close the window when you're done to return to the previous page.

This 'n' That

Today, I'm just going to ramble. I've had a bad cold with the works since the weekend and I'm now just beginning to feel a little better. And I really don't feel like working hard on any graphics today.

I was checking out some stats on this blog and noticed that someone was looking for linkware with fishing boats. They found my blog post about the boat near Skagway, Alaska, wallpaper, but for some reason Goggle search did not list the actual post, which happened on September 5, 2006. So all the person got to was the main page of this blog that only has the most recent blog posts. I don't know where the problem lies since I recall most posts are searchable in Google by post date/ title.

Then I got to thinking, the wallpaper image really could make a nice header web page graphics set. That's getting off on a different tangent. Or maybe not.

Anyway, when I go through the stats page for Arride Graphics, sometimes I get ideas for the next web page set or desktop wallpaper. Just by viewing what people are looking for. Maybe the graphics won't be for the person who was searching, but it could be for the next person who's searching for the same thing. It can happen.

Also, I've amended the template for this blog by reversing the order of the archives so that the most recent month is on top. That may have helped the boat-linkware-seeking person, maybe.

Lastly, I mentioned previously that I'd stop reporting on the milestone visitors. That was a mistake. It will continue. I said awhile ago (last year?) that I'd stop reporting on my web host's downtime. Overall, my web host has been pretty good with uptime (97-99%). That's why I'll stop reporting it.

New Spacey Desktop Wallpaper!

I really spaced out today, literally. I mentioned on Wednesday this wallpaper will debut today and I forgot to upload it until I saw something else. Well anyway, here it is.

It is an image, actually multiple images on the left side, of Star V838 Monocerotis. I obtained this public domain image from the HubbleSite.org. Here's the blurb accompanying this image:

"The red supergiant star in the center of this image brightened suddenly for several weeks in 2002, illuminating dust that may have been ejected from the star during a previous explosion."

Awesome! And so are the desktop wallpapers I made of this photo. Three sizes to download from the Wallpapers II page. Choose one size which will open up in a new window. Large images, so be patient while it loads in your browser window.

Visitor 12500!

I knew this person was coming but I didn't know how soon.

This visitor comes from Escondido, California, on January 9 using a Windows XP computer and surfing with Internet Explorer 6.0. He or she was using the MSN search engine looking for floral wallpaper and found the Big Orange Flower. But I guess it wasn't the right flower.

Better luck next site... Thanks for dropping by anyway and keep us in your bookmarks.

(Did I say I wasn't going to report these anymore? Well, the next milestone will be the last I promise.)

I will announce the latest desktop wallpaper on Friday.