MFM Favorite Things: Photo Mosaic Screensaver

New Mac owner and reader Daniel Brophy wrote in recently with a Favorite Thing he discovered while exploring his new Mac:

I've had my mac for about 10 days now, the coolest thing by FAR! Is the photo MOSAIC screen saver option. When choosing a screensaver, choose (preferably all your photos) then on the "Display Style" choose the one on the far right! This creates a STUNNING MOSAIC transition, where all of YOUR pictures create another one of your own pictures. By adjusting the settings, you can make it go faster because initially it moves very slowly.

I have to confess that the photo mosaic was new to me. I usually don't mess around with screensavers since you don't need your screen saved these days. But they are so popular due to their entertainment value that they remain key features of all computers. Also, there are just so many cool things that come with your Mac that some are just buried. So of course I had to try it out and was pleasantly surprised.

Be sure to select that button on the right to get Mosaic style

Speed it up by adjusting the sldier under the Options… button.

Later that day at a get together at a friend's house, I set his MacBook Pro to display photos of the people there as mosaic on his screen. Boy was I surprised how that sucked people in to watch, comment and try to guess the picture that was being formed. I came away thinking this would be a really fun thing to do on a large screen for a party or wedding.

Give it a try and let us know what happens. And let us know what your Favorite Mac Things are.

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Your Comments:

I don't get the option to choose different photo albums or events as you show in the screenshot. I can only choose "Pictures Folder" or "Choose Folder...". Am I somehow using a different version? I'm using Leopard and all my updates appear to be ... up to date.

 THOR
 05/22/2009  at  11:28 AM

The albums and events will be from your iPhoto. Those are the ones from mine. You can always throw some in a folder and choose that.

 Chris Kerins
 05/22/2009  at  02:54 PM

Wow! Thanks for doing an article on my suggestion! I was so surprised to see it right on the home page! Thanks Chris!

 Daniel Brophy
 05/25/2009  at  11:36 AM

I loved my friend's screen saver and we have been trying to set it up on my Mac, which has the same OS 10.5.7 as his...

When I go to Desktop and Screen Saver I do not have the 3 Display Styles bar to choose from on the window. Also on the left, it does not have Main screen Only box to check. How can I get the Display Styles to show on the screen saver window?

 Lou McCall
 07/01/2009  at  05:00 PM

Lou, you need to select something under Pictures to get the options. Also, I have 2 displays, so I get the Main screen option. One display probably doesn't cause it to show up.

 Chris Kerins
 07/01/2009  at  05:15 PM

thanks so much, it worked! I didn't figure out the main screen option, but it is working fine. I dont usually use a screen saver, but this is just too cool!

 Lou McCall
 07/10/2009  at  11:01 AM

how do i save. i got the pictures i want and i test it but i see no where to save... help

 john Vazquez
 10/10/2009  at  03:07 AM

I love love love the mosiac screen saver. I saw it once before I had a mac and searched and searched for a version for Windows, now that I'm a Mac user my search is over

 Genevieve
 05/02/2010  at  06:28 PM