RESOLVED - 1280x800 screen, distorted logo -- how to set right?

[eager2no]

At the laptop's 1280x800 resolution, the logo is vertically compressed.
Is there any way to adjust the logo to my resolution?

TIA

[Neal ManBear]

Most wallpapers are not for widescreen.
Is this KDE4? XFCE? LXDE? Or which DE? What is the wallpaper? More info would be helpful. A widescreen version maybe can be created.

[eager2no]

Neal, thanks for replying.
It is KDE4, and the problem is with the splash screen:

Name: KDE 4.3 Splash Screen
Description: Air Aurora Splash Screen
Version: 1.0
Author: cialdo99
Homepage: http://www.kde.org

It looks beautiful on my desktop, hate to see it squashed on the laptop...

[eager2no]

Sproggy,
Thank you for the tip, but where do I center the background? Or scale and crop it?
Sorry for the dumb question...

[Neal ManBear]

You're using it as wallpaper? Okay. Then open Gimp, click > File > New and fill in the resolution field in the pane that opens. Click OK. Click Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Click Layer > Transparency > Colour to Alpha and click OK. This will clear the white background. Now open /usr/share/wallpapers and drag and drop the graphic on the gimp pane. it will be droped on top of your creation. Next, on the Toolbox pane (open on your left) click the move icon (equal armed cross) and below that look for and click Move the active layer. Left click the graphic and drag it down until the top lines up with the top of your transparent background. Be certain you've not gone off to either side. Lining your cursor up with one of the markings at the top can help with that. Next click Image > Merge visible layers. On the pane that opens, click Discard invisible layers. Click File > Save as and choose a name and file type (.png or .jpg). Click to save.

Oh! I see Sproggy replied while I was typing. He's much better than I am at this. You can't go wrong following his advice.

[eager2no]

Neal, thank you for the detailed instructions. They sure look daunting to me -- I am totally useless with graphics.
I have a feeling that Sproggy's method is more on my (admittedly low) level, I hope he'll give a bit more info.

Edit: Following your howto, I was actually able to change the wallpaper as needed.
Thank you very much!

[T6]

the steps mentioned are basic but maybe you need a video explaining it, there is many of those in internet explaining how to use gimp

remember that there is many wallpapers possible, you don't have to limit yourself to that one and there is more pclinux artwork

some examples on this page

http://linfx.com/gallery/

[eager2no]

T6,
Thank you for the tip.

As for "the steps mentioned are basic", they were still above my nonexistent Gimp prowess. But blindly following Neal's instructions did the trick 

[Neal ManBear]

I wrote the instructions as I had learned. Gimp isn't too hard to learn. You just take a bit of time and experiment a little with the different features. If you don't like something you've done, click Edit > Undo >Whatever operation<. And as T6 said, there's lots of instructions on the web.

[T6]

i learned some basic stuff in gimp and lately i tried photoshop cs3 and found many similarities so i learned basic stuff on other app on other os that worked in it, still find more simple and capable gimp as a image editor

there was a post on this forum with many tutorials in video to help you learn gimp, there is also a forum with lots of tips to use on gimp, it is a not that complicated app with so many capabilities, can be a little scary but is similar to other apps, you don't use everything on it, only what you need, it is a good approach to the app, do only what you need and learn slowly other options when you require them