Keep your wallpapers Open Source!

[clem]

Note: I'm making this a sticky as it's becoming more and more important.

Now, when it comes to images and pictures you're probably wondering what I mean by "Open Source"? Well... look where we are now and how fast the Linux desktop as a whole is evolving. This is all made possible thanks to the fact that so many people contribute, but also, thanks to the fact that each of these contributions can be used, forked and modified by others. This is the nature of open source: let people modify your work.

So when it comes to a picture, there is no source.. but there are layers, objects, text elements. When you export that to PNG/JPG/GIF you loose that information.. you merge the layers together. Of course, it still looks the same, but then it becomes really hard for other artists to reuse elements of your work.

More often than not people will like some elements in your wallpaper and they might wish to change a few things, to modify the text, the logo...etc.

So please share the whole thing and keep the layers available. Do not post just a single .png, post the .svg or the .xcf with it. Use as many layers as possible and make sure to share them.

Else we may as well consider these creations "proprietary".. sure they're free to use but if we can't modify them... there's not much point to them really.

Thanks in advance to all artists for their understanding in this matter.
Clem.

[tdrusk]

I agree with this and think it is an excellent idea. Do what you want with your work, but consider others needs and maybe keep 'em open.

[judgedredd]

Its interesting that this is being said yet Mint 7 has great artwork for the desktop workspace (green cloudy sky looking through a window which has raindrops on it) yet has the Mint logo smack bang in the middle without the ability of either hiding it or doing away with it. It has spoilt a really great picture (for me). Strangely enough it has put me off using Mint 7!

Why not make it a policy that artwork that is shipped with an Official Mint distro which is the default desktop background cannot be submitted and utilzed unless editable versions are also submitted with the jpg, no matter how gorgeous they are.

[mfreeman]

Its interesting that this is being said yet Mint 7 has great artwork for the desktop workspace (green cloudy sky looking through a window which has raindrops on it) yet has the Mint logo smack bang in the middle without the ability of either hiding it or doing away with it. It has spoilt a really great picture (for me). Strangely enough it has put me off using Mint 7!

Why has this put you off using Mint 7? The background can easily be changed to anything you want. Have a background from another Mint version you love? Save it and install it in Mint 7. Or, there are lots of free (cost) background images online. Download one and drop it into your Appearance preferences. Or, what's wrong with using another (newer) version of Mint altogether? (Yeah, I know there are some who prefer an older version to the newer ones, and that's ok)

[judgedredd]

Your points are valid but I am a very visual person (as are 99.9% of people in the world - those who are visually blind are the other 0.1%) so found the rain effect very appealing. The logo isn't.

Why do you think Apple has become so successful? Because the machines/gizmos are very appealing visually, as well as the desktop/operating system (with all the aqua buttons etc). That's why terminal OSes (where you work from a cursor prompt) are not prevalent. Linux would NEVER have been as successful as it has become if not for people like Clem making it visually appealing.

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that I get annoyed with others thinking that people should like what they provide (the artist thinking that everyone would like to have a logo bang in the middle of such a nice desktop).

If I wanted other artwork I would have gone to get it. If I wanted Mint 9 I would have downloaded it (which I do not want to do in a million years - guess why ....).

[Rifester]

Actually, the artist of the wallpaper in question, has the unbranded versions available in his Deviant Art Gallery. One of my favorites of all time... Google - Dew Unbranded Zwopper.

[Khalid]

Perfect idea/rule. When I make a wallpaper, I'm FOR SURE going to upload the layers/GIMP files/etc.

[Zwopper]

As I stated in a previous post on this subject somewhere...
This idea is great, but then again, some of my images contains up to 90 layers, and in a resolution of 5120x3200 they sometimes reach over 500MB and that's for ONE image, anyone peeking into my deviantArt gallery will see that the task would be gargantuan AND require a LOT of public storage space.
Don't get me wrong here, I will provide the xcf file to anyone interested in it - just ask, but to upload it together with the finished image, that's simply not possible, for me at least.
And another thing, since I'm Swedish the names of the layers in GIMP would probably make no sense what so ever to anyone not speaking Swedish.
So far I've been renaming the layers of the xcf's that I've made publicly available, but then again, the thought of doing it to them all...
*PHEW*

...just my 2 cents...

[clem]

Zwopper: Very good point. I myself promised a package with the source for the Mint 9 wallpapers and I'm yet to honour it.... the files are huge indeed, it's a real problem.

[rivenathos]

Has anyone really started up some ideas for LMDE-specific wallpapers yet? The ones that we have now are great, but there are a lot of them with a "9" or a "10" on there. Would it not be a good idea to have more LMDE-specific ones?

[bobwarner01]

Very good issue.Visibility option should be given to user.So that if they wanna enjoy then they can. Open source help to get more from lesser.Every body post new & latest & may be rarest also.

[Roken]

I agree in principal, though it isn't always possible. I create wallpapers from time to time, though my tool of choice is not a bitmap or even structured art package, but is a commercial 3D modeller and render.

Whilst technically it would be possible to share the scene file as well, this does present problems in that textures used may be subject to copyright, and whilst the license allows the end result to be shared as my own work, it does not allow the base textures to be shared. To make this a requirement, therefore, would effectively exclude me from producing any further artwork for Mint.

[asedt]

So what License should you use for the artwork?

You can't say just "open source" it's not the same thing. There should be a license that give us the freedom we want.

[omegaman]

creative commons would work.

[tatsujin79]

Quick question if I may

I run photoshop under wine not gimp. What is the status of .psd files? Since its just the layers before being processed would it be as "open" as say xcf? Is there a difference between the two as far as this is concerned, Or does anyone know a way to export xcf from photohop perchance?

[clem]

Yes, I think so. What really matters isn't the format itself here, it's to be able to modify the artwork by accessing individual layers. For instance, say somebody makes a brilliant wallpaper for Mint 10... and comes Mint 11 we want to modify it and transform that 10 into an 11... that's when we need to be able to access that layer, or to produce a new image without the number on top..

[tatsujin79]

Yes, I think so. What really matters isn't the format itself here, it's to be able to modify the artwork by accessing individual layers. For instance, say somebody makes a brilliant wallpaper for Mint 10... and comes Mint 11 we want to modify it and transform that 10 into an 11... that's when we need to be able to access that layer, or to produce a new image without the number on top..

Understood and thats what I figured, better safe then sorry though. I think I may contribute some art myself here soon so I wanted to ask, thanks for the response.

[samriggs]

What about themes, shouldn't this be totally open source as well?
I create them from time to time and get asked to change this or that, why not just give the gimp files so anyone can change whatever they want?
Saves me time and since there uploaded to be shared or changed to everyones heart desire it only makes sense to give away the gimp files as well.
Like the one I'm making for my desktop now, I have linux mint on it and mint leaves etc etc, I'm sure another linux os user wouldn't want that but if they had the gimp files volia change it in a heartbeat, and I don't have to (ya I know lazy lazy lazy lol)
Just a thought for making themes totally open source as well.

[dlkreations]

I think this was referring to original creations from individuals and their wallpapers. Themes are entirely different in the sense that 99% of themes are taken from other people's work. It would be a bit difficult to include source files for each and every image edited for a theme. It can be done, but that would make the compressed theme file larger than it needs to be when it get distributed.

[samriggs]

I seen that, I just remember one theme I made they wanted changes made and I thought it would be easier just to hand over the gimp files.
Although the download file would be bigger, for me I would just put it on my site for folks to download.
But yes there are a lot of files depending on the theme, literally lots of files.
but as far as buttons go you only need three gimp files they can add the x, <> etc part to downsize it.
Just thought it would be nice to see .
I'll do it anyhow for the new ones I make for folks, plus once I make one theme I get tired of all that artwork and want to move onto something lol.