The evenings are drawing in and the computer still looks like July. An autumn desktop setup changes that with one photo and a few small choices about the wallpaper, the browser and the page you open most.
The pictures show Backs, the Chrome new tab we make, since its widgets, called Backons, are what this site can draw. Where an idea depends on Backs, it says so.
Start the autumn desktop setup with one photo
Use the same photo everywhere
Choose one autumn photo and set it as both the desktop wallpaper and the new tab background, so opening the browser keeps the scene in place. Unsplash is a good place to look: its licence lets you download and use its photos for free, without asking permission. In Backs, add the same file as your own background.
Pick a photo with somewhere calm in it
Fog, a forest road, low sun through bare branches: the photos that fill autumn wallpaper aesthetic boards tend to have a plain area where a clock or a list can sit and still be read. We think warm suits the season better than loud: bright orange foliage from edge to edge leaves text nowhere to go.
Take three earthy tones from the photo
Autumn palettes are earthy tones: cream, bark brown, rust, ochre, moss. Take three from your photo with a colour picker, one pale, one dark and one accent, and use them wherever the computer lets you choose a colour. In Backs this happens by itself: the Backons take their colours from the background photo and change when it does.
Make the new tab the centre of it
A clock, a short list and the weather
The new tab is the page you open most. Three things are enough: a clock, a short list for the week, and the weather, which earns its place when a walk depends on the rain and the light. In Backs each is a Backon you place on a grid, so all three can sit on the calm part of the photo.
A dusk version for the evenings
Autumn has two moods: crisp by day, dark early. Keep a second, cosier setup for the evening: a dusk photo and less on it, a clock, perhaps a note. In Backs that is a second Space with its own photo, layout and content, and the free plan includes two.
Match Chrome to the photo
Chrome itself can join in. Google's help page describes a panel called Customise Chrome (Customize Chrome in US English). Under Appearance you can pick a colour for the browser and choose Light, Dark or Device, which follows the computer's theme. Take the colour closest to your photo's dark tone. The panel opens from the bottom right of Chrome's own new tab page or, when an extension has replaced that page, from Side panel at the top right.
Small touches, and what comes after
Add one seasonal touch
A note with an autumn reading list, or one line you like, is enough to mark the season. Backs also has small decorations on the free plan: three plants and four lanterns, the Acorn lantern among them, which can hang from other Backons. One lantern over a dusk photo is plenty.
Change it again when winter comes
A seasonal setup has an end date, and that is part of the appeal. When the leaves are down, swap the photo for frost or bare trees. In Backs the colours follow the photo, so the layout can stay as it is. Keep the autumn photo for next September.
Questions people ask
- Where can I find autumn wallpapers that are free to use?
- Unsplash is one place. Its licence says its images can be downloaded and used for free, with no permission needed. Search for fog, a forest road or autumn leaves, and pick a landscape photo.
- Does an autumn setup in Backs cost anything?
- No. Everything in this article fits the free plan of Backs, which needs no account and includes two Spaces. Premium is optional: €3.99 a month or €39.99 a year, with a 14-day trial. It adds unlimited Spaces and sync between computers, among other things.
- Does this work on a phone?
- The wallpaper and colour ideas work anywhere. Backs itself is for Chrome on a computer.
Photo via Unsplash