splashpaper

Turn Unsplash into a desktop wallpaper.
Works on Windows, most Linux DEs/WMs, macOS and Android (check compatibility)

Installation

To use this script, you need Python 3.6+ and pip installed.
Then, just run:

python -m pip install splashpaper

Getting help

It's as simple as:

python -m splashpaper --help

That would print help (mostly the same information as below, but shorter)

Usage

Basic

Basic usage is simple:

python -m splashpaper

But that would set a random picture! Not really cool...

Resolution

First of all, the script currently doesn't know your screen resolution.
Provide it with -r/--resolution option to fetch smaller picture, e.g:

python -m splashpaper --resolution 1920x1080

Sources

Then you'd probably want some specific images.
Splashdesktop got your back here!

You can provide four types of sources (and combine them), each with as many sources as you want:

Search terms

With -s/--search option:

python -m splashpaper --search sea ocean water

Collections

With -c/--collections option (that's my dark wallpapers collection, by the way):

python -m splashpaper --collections 22546183

Presets

If you don't really know where to look:

python -m splashpaper --presets dark

Available options: dark, light, all-wallpapers, abstract, nature, night, city

User photos

With -u/--users option:

python -m splashpaper --users erondu aditya1702

User likes

With -l/--likes option:

python -m splashpaper --likes qevitta erondu

Modifiers

There are three modifiers:

• --featured: Use photos picked by Unsplash editors.
• --daily: Use photo of the day.
• --weekly: Use photo of the week (overrides --daily).

These can be used with any combination of sources.

Slideshow

If you want to change wallpaper once in a while, you can set interval in seconds with -i/--interval:

python -m splashpaper --interval 600

Autostart

If this wasn't obvious, you need to add this script to autostart if you want it to work continiously.

Examples

Photos from my collection of wallpapers, changing every minute

python -m splashpaper --resolution 1920x1080 --collections 9943257 --interval 60

Photo of the day from my collection of wallpapers

python -m splashpaper --resolution 1920x1080 --collections 9943257 --daily

Water photos, changing every 10 minutes

python -m splashpaper --resolution 1920x1080 --search water ocean sea --interval 600

Featured photo of the day

python -m splashpaper --resolution 1920x1080 --featured --daily

Using as a module

You can use script as a module, using dictionary of options as args:

from splashpaper import main_action
from time import sleep

args = {
    "collections": ["9943257"],
    "resolution": "1920x1080",
}

while True:
    main_action(args)
    sleep(60)

Functions

Script uses a very modular workflow.
By default, script calls main_loop(args), which in turn calls main_action(args) once or with interval.

main_action(args) is defined as:

def main_action(args):
    return set_wallpaper(
        download_file(
            build_url(args), 
            abspath(dirname(__file__)) + "/wallpaper.jpg"
        )
    )

This snippet shows that:

• To build a URL based on your args, script uses build_url(args)
• To download a picture from that URL, script uses download(url, path), which returns path
• To set picture as a wallpaper, script uses set_wallpaper(path)

Compatibility

Splashpaper runs on:

• Windows
• macOS (Warning: when changing wallpaper, Dock restarts and screen may freeze for half a second.)
• Linux
  • XFCE
  • LXDE/LXQt
  • Gnome
  • Unity
  • Cinnamon
  • Mate
  • i3
  • bspwm
  • awesome
  • sway
  • ... and also any other de/wm where feh can change wallpaper (used as a fallback)
• Android

Usage on Android

To use module on Android:

1. Install Termux.
2. In Termux, install Python (pkg install python) and Termux:API (pkg install termux-api) if it's not already installed.
3. Install module in Termux just as on desktop: (python -m pip install splashpaper)
4. Use it!