The artwork included with Mac OS X is stunning, and Apple prides itself on finding the greatest images for the Mac background. This feature looks at how to locate the Mac OS X Mavericks desktop image files.
Apple locates or creates some of the best artwork on earth to use in Mac OS X. The Mac OS X Desktop and Screen Saver images are fantastic to look at, and we think its worth getting your hands on the digital image files. In this feature, we’re going to take a look at how to access the desktop images.
How to find the Desktop Images in Mavericks: drag and drop from System Preferences
The easiest way to access a Desktop image is to drag it directly from the Desktop & Screen Saver Preferences window to the desktop. This Preference pane offers you direct access to the Desktop image:
- Open System Preferences (Choose Apple > System Preferences).
- Click on Desktop & Screen Saver.
- Pick the image you want to use from the selection.
- Drag the larger Preview image to the Desktop.
That image file is now be copied directly to the Desktop. You can work on it as you would any other image file.
Find Screen Saver images in Mavericks: Use Finder and Go To Folder
The easiest way to quickly find Screen Saver images in Mavericks is to open the Finder folder that contains them. Apple keeps this folder hidden away in the depths of the Mac OS X operating system. These steps show you how to open this folder:
- Click on the desktop so the Menu bar displays the Finder.
- Choose Finder > Go > Go To Folder from the Menu bar (or press Command + Shift + G).
- Enter this path into the Go To Folder dialog window: /Library/Screen Savers/Default Collections/
A Finder window called Default Collections opens displaying four different folders:
- 1-National Geographic
- 2-Aerial
- 3-Cosmos
- 4-Nature Patterns
Open these folders to locate the files inside. These are standard .JPG image files that you can copy to the Desktop (or any other Finder folder) and open in Preview, Photoshop or any other program. The images are 3200 x 2000 pixels 72 dpi and perfectly high quality. The Screen Saver images are great for playing around with in Photoshop, or just checking up close in Preview
