How to Create a Phone Wallpaper Using DALL-E

DALL-E is among the most powerful AI image generators out there, and we’ve discovered that it’s the perfect tool for creating wonderfully imaginative wallpapers custom fit for your phone. In this guide we’ll show you how.

1. Find the Resolution of Your Screen

Start by finding out the dimensions of your phone screen, we’ll use these measurements to create a wallpaper that fits nicely. This is an especially useful step for those who own a foldable phone, a flip phone, or one that’s extremely large.

The easy way to do this is to type your *phone model* + screen resolution into Google or another search engine. For my Samsung S10, the screen resolution was listed as 1440 x 3040 pixels.

Keep this number in mind as we will need it later.

2. Generate an Image Using DALL-E

Now for the fun part. Head over to the DALL-E website and start working on a wallpaper design.

If you joined OpenAI late, you might not have access to free monthly credits, but there is still a way to use DALL-E for free through Microsoft’s Bing Image Creator. You can in fact access the latest model of DALL-E using this method.

Don’t know where to start? Take a look at some of our AI art prompt ideas. Ferrofluid, architectural renders and surreal digital art are among some of our favorite categories to explore.

If this is your first time using an AI generator, you can check out our guide to using DALL-E 2.

3. Use Outpainting to Extend the Image

When you land on something that looks good, click on the image, then click Edit to open the editing window. We’ll use DALL-E’s Outpainting feature to get the image closer to the dimensions of our phone screen.

By default, DALL-E generates a square image with a resolution of 1024 x 1024 pixels. You can compare this to the resolution of your phone screen to figure out how much you need to extend the image.

In my case, my phone screen is 1440 x 3040 pixels (Samsung S10). Roughly speaking, that’s about 3 times as tall as the original square frame. The width also needs extending by about a third.

You can start by pressing F on the keyboard to add a new generation frame. Next, position the box so that it just overlaps with the top edge of the image and click to set it in place.

After that, the text box will appear giving you the option to edit your prompt. Initially, try keeping the prompt the same so that the new image will look like a continuation of the original. If you want to experiment, you can remove or add words change what you generate in the next frame.

When you’re ready, hit Generate and wait for the results, you will get four different options to choose from. Don’t forget to click through the options with the arrows beneath the image. Confirm your choice by clicking Accept.

We added two frames above the original, and then filled out the sides by adding frames that overlapped the side of the image. Aim to get as close to your phones dimensions as you can.

4. Download and Resize the Image

Once you’re finished, click the download button above the Generate button. It can be easy to miss, but it looks like an arrow pointing down.

You can stop here and move to the next step if you like. Or if you want to check the image size is correct, open the file in an image editor such as Preview on MacOS. Alternatively, there are a number of ways you can resize an image in Windows. Use the resize and crop tool if necessary to get the image closer to the size of your phone screen.

5. Set the Image as Your wallpaper

All that’s left is to transfer the image from your computer to your phone.

If you’re an Apple user on both ends, a quick way to do this is to turn on your bluetooth and use AirDrop. For those on Windows computers, there are a few different options for transfering files from your PC to Android.

A universal solution is to email the files to yourself and open it on your mobile. Messaging apps works as well, but since they often compress the file size, its not a great option for quality.

Here is the final result.

Building Custom Wallpapers Using DALL-E

Jump onto DALL-E and start designing a custom wallpaper for your phone. The built-in editor lets you expand your image to accommodate different sizes, which is helpful for tailor fitting the design to your device.

Of course, don’t feel like you are limited to simply building phone wallpapers. You can use the same tools to build out larger landscapes if you want to try creating a wallpaper for your desktop or tablet. Just watch those credits because they’ll go fast!