Tired of having a folder full of wallpapers and only seeing one at a time?

wpmaker has the ability to create collages of randomly selected images from a folder. It can also do the standard one-at-a-time thing, keeping the aspect ratio and cropping instead of stretching.

Here are some examples

A few more examples

Why is this a better solution than those from other leading brands?

wpmaker is cross-compatible, it works on:

• Windows XP/Vista/7
• Mac OS/X
• Linux: GNOME and LXDE

wpmaker can be configured either by command line options or configuration file, see usage directions in the How do I use this thing anyways? section.

wpmaker also has plugins, I know amazing right?:

• No problem making wpmaker work on other systems, just add plugins
• Easy to create new collages, just add a plugin
• Do you want a completely new type of plugin? Well wpmaker is open source and you can just write it yourself.

What about these plugins, how do I create one? Check the wiki, I might add some info.

Installation

Requirements

• Python 2.7 (download link)
• Pygame (download link)
• wxPython (download link) (optional)
• docopt (easy_install docopt)
• appdirs (easy_install appdirs)

Follow the platform specific instructions and then download and extract the project. Then read the How do I use this thing anyways? section.

Windows

• Install python 2.7
• Install pygame
• Install wxPython (get the windows binaries for python 2.7) (optional)

Linux

• Install python 2.7
• Install pygame (python-pygame package in most repositories)
• Install python-xlib, for the get resolution plugin
• Install wxPython (info) (optional)

Fedora 17 (F17)

• You should already have python 2.7 installed
• Run yum install pygame
• Run yum install wxPython (optional)
• If you get a warning about Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "pk-gtk-module" when running wpmaker, you need to run yum update PackageKit-gtk3-module

How do I use this thing anyways?

On Windows you can run wpmaker by double clicking wpmaker.pyw. On linux you can also run wpmaker by double clicking wpmaker.py or wpmaker.pyw.

You can also run wpmaker from the terminal by running wpmaker.py(on windows), ./wpmaker.py on linux. See the help message below on how to run wpmaker from the terminal.

Help message (on Fedora 17)

Usage: wpmaker.py [options]

Options:
    --collage-plugins=COLLAGE Which collage plugin should be used
    --linux.desktop-environment=DE
                              Linux Desktop Environment
    --keep=INT                Keep INT files instead of replacing one file
    --recursive_split.recursion-depth=INT
                              Each split can be split INT times
    -r --resolution=RES       Forces resolution of generated wallpaper
    -s --single-run           Generate wallpaper once then exit
    --folder.source=PATH      Folder path of wallpapers
    --ui=UI                   Select which plugin, UI, should be used for ui purposes
    --update=SEC              SEC seconds between generating and updating wallpaper
    --wallpaper=PATH          PATH to generated wallpaper
    -h --help                 Displays this help message

Configuration files:
    (0) /home/user/.config/wpmaker/wpmaker.conf
    (1) /etc/xdg/wpmaker/wpmaker.conf

Configuration

To configure wpmaker, run python wpmaker.py --help for a list of configuration files. Then create either or both of them, (0) is user-specific, (1) is installation-specific. The options in the configuration files are the same as the longer name of options described in the help message.

Sample configuration

The following configures wpmaker to the default values, with comments on how each is configured.

[options]
collage-plugin=recursive split,simple resize
# Which collage plugins are active on startup
# Comma seperated list of names

resolution=0x0
# Hard code the resolution of the output wallpaper image
# widthXheight
# This can be used if no GetResolution plugin works on your system

single-run=False
# Set to true if wpmaker is to create only one image then exit

ui=wxPython
# The ui to be used, currently only 'Console', and 'wxPython' available

wallpaper=~/.wp.bmp
# The filename of the output wallpaper image

keep=0
# Keep a certain number of files (appends .#number# to the filename givein the 
# wallpaper option)

[linux]
desktop-environment=gnome
# The desktop environment used on linux, currently only 'gnome', and 'lxde' 
# supported

[recursive_split]
recursion-depth=3
# The number of splits within splits