Anyone Know How To Use A Landscape Pic As Your Home Screen Image??

I ran some searches, but didn't find any info on this topic. I want to use a picture taken in landscape mode as my Home Screen Image. I can select the image in the Media Center and it will change to a great looking pic for a Portrait pic which I want to use on my Storm home screen. (the black bars on the top and bottom would be perfect as the background for the top and bottom info normally on the home screen).

The problem is this: I can select the pic as my home screen image, however, when I get back to the home screen, the entire background is black. I have tried this with several pics which I have loaded into the phone and with landscape mode pics I have taken with the Storm. It appears that the home screen will not accept an image as its background unless it is a Portrait type pic. Is this correct? Any ideas how to work around it, if so?

Thanks in advance,
Rich

have you tried minimizing the # of icon rows on your home screen? might just be that its hidden under the icons because of resizing from landscape to portrait. if thats not it then i give up.

When you view the picture in the Media Center, the black bars at the top and bottom are not actually part of the picture - they're empty space that results from squishing the picture into the boundaries of the portrait view. Because the picture has not actually been resized or converted, you still can't use it as the home screen background because it's not the right dimensions. You'd have to load it to a computer and manually edit the picture to 360 x 480 pixels.

Or you could try running it through CrackBerry's wallpaper creator: http://wallpapers.crackberry.com/wallpaper/maker I've never used it, but it might work for you.

Try loading the picture into an app on the PC (photoshop if you can afford it, gimp for free power, irfanview for quick lightweight basics, etc), and rotate it 90 degrees, then save it, load the new image into the storm, and see if it renders it with the orientation you want.

edit - nevermind, I misread the OP and thought you wanted the homescreen background to be a full screen landscape picture, rendered to look right in landscape mode. doesn't make sense, switch to landscape mode and the background doesn't get displayed.

edit 2. OK, try this. Load CaptureIt, a cool app worth having anyway. Go into Media -> Pictures, and display the desired landscape picture full screen, where it will have black borders top and bottom. Hit the BB (menu) key, select CaptureIt, it will buzz and save the screen as a new image. Select the new image and make that your background.

Originally Posted by kf6tac

When you view the picture in the Media Center, the black bars at the top and bottom are not actually part of the picture - they're empty space that results from squishing the picture into the boundaries of the portrait view. Because the picture has not actually been resized or converted, you still can't use it as the home screen background because it's not the right dimensions. You'd have to load it to a computer and manually edit the picture to 360 x 480 pixels.

Or you could try running it through CrackBerry's wallpaper creator: http://wallpapers.crackberry.com/wallpaper/maker I've never used it, but it might work for you.

I don't want to sound rude in any way, but this is incorrect. I have used many pictures for my background that are not sized to 360 x 480. I had never tried using a picture taken in landscape before, so I just tried it on my phone. It showed right up as the background image. Granted, there was blank space at both the top and bottom of the home screen (because it is a landscape picture), but it worked as the background just fine. Even a portrait picture doesn't have to be exactly 360 x 480 for it to work. It will size itself to the screen.

I'm not sure why this isn't working for the OP. :(

Originally Posted by Morf32

I don't want to sound rude in any way, but this is incorrect. I have used many pictures for my background that are not sized to 360 x 480. I had never tried using a picture taken in landscape before, so I just tried it on my phone. It showed right up as the background image. Granted, there was blank space at both the top and bottom of the home screen (because it is a landscape picture), but it worked as the background just fine. Even a portrait picture doesn't have to be exactly 360 x 480 for it to work. It will size itself to the screen.

I'm not sure why this isn't working for the OP. :(

Not rude at all. I just realized that it works for me as well. It should have occurred to me to actually try it before opening my mouth.

OP, what OS version are you using?

I'm on .109. I got it to work by reversing the sizes to 480x360. I used a free program, Picture Resize, downloaded from cnet.com. Good program! Now my pic loads as a background fine!

Thanks everyone. CB is great!

Click on the picture and you can zoom in and out.

Also after you click on it and zoom once, you can then press the BB button and choose rotate.

Any changes you make with zoom or rotate will stay if after you make the changes press the BB button then choose make this my homescreen image.

Thanks Bong
That worked too. And its great to be able to do this right on the Storm.
Rich

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Originally Posted by richs10

Thanks Bong
That worked too. And its great to be able to do this right on the Storm.
Rich

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

no problem, makes life easier.