How to Make iPhone 4 Wallpaper

Making wallpaper for the iPhone 4 is very easy. Just like making wallpaper for any other device or computer screen, you just need to get the right dimensions and make an image of that size.

Dimensions for iPhone 4 Wallpaper

The iPhone 4 features a “Retina Screen”, which is Apple’s fancy name for a high resolution mobile display. This display is 960 pixels high, 640 pixels wide and 326 pixels per inch. This means that your iPhone 4 wallpaper should be a 960 × 640 326 DPI image.

Making a Sample iPhone 4 Wallpaper

Everyone probably has their own method for making wallpaper. Mine’s not the only one and probably not the best, but it’s quick and it works. Here are the steps I use to make iPhone 4 wallpaper:

1. Open the original image in Photoshop.
2. Choose the Crop Tool.
3. In the Crop Tool’s toolbar, enter “640 px” for the width, “960 px” for the height, and 326 pixels/inch.
4. Crop out the area you want to use for wallpaper. Photoshop will constrain your crop borders to the dimensions of the iPhone Retina Display.
5. When you have a crop border around the entire area you want for your wallpaper, let go of the mouse button and hit Enter/Return to apply the crop.

You now have an image perfectly cropped and sized for the iPhone 4 Retina Display. Save it as a jpg and put it on your phone!

Photoshop Action for Making iPhone 4 Wallpaper

I also have a Photoshop action that can be used to make iPhone 4 Retina Display wallpaper. It works on a duplicate of whatever active image you have open, so it is non-destructive. Its process is as follows:

1. Duplicate the active image.
2. Convert the new image to 326 pixels/inch.
3. Resize to 960 pixels high.
4. Crop out the central 960×640 area.

If the area you want at the center of your wallpaper is not at the center of your image, just make a quick square crop with the correct central focal point before running the action.