How to make a picture fit as a wallpaper on your iPhone

Apple makes it easy to display your favorite photos on your iPhone as "wallpaper" the background image on which your phone's icons and other controls rest. You can set a custom wallpaper on the lock screen and the home screen (also known as the app screen, where you find all the icons for your

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  • You can make any picture fit the wallpaper on your iPhone by customizing your phone's (or the photo's) display.
  • If you can't zoom the photo all the way in, turn off "Perspective Zoom" in the Settings app.
  • You can also take a screenshot of a photo zoomed all the way out if you want to use the entire photo, but don't mind having black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.   
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple makes it easy to display your favorite photos on your iPhone as "wallpaper" — the background image on which your phone's icons and other controls rest. 

You can set a custom wallpaper on the lock screen and the home screen (also known as the app screen, where you find all the icons for your installed apps). 

You might find, though, that the picture you want to use doesn't perfectly fit the screen. There are ways to fix that. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

How to make a picture fit the wallpaper on your iPhone

1. Start the Settings app and tap "Wallpaper."

Tap the "Wallpaper" tab. Isabella Paoletto/Business Insider

2. Tap "Choose a new wallpaper."

You can set the wallpaper image in Settings. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

3. On the "Choose" screen, pick the image you want to use.

4. Now pinch and expand your fingers to zoom in or out on the image and position it where you want to place it on the screen. 

5. If you are having trouble including the edges of the photo, it's because Perspective Zoom is turned on, so the iPhone needs to zoom in on the photo, leaving a bit extra of the photo outside the edges to enable the perspective effect. Disable it by tapping the "Perspective Zoom" button at the bottom of the screen.

Turn off Perspective Zoom using the button at the bottom of the screen to include more of the photo. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

6. Tap "Set" and choose if you want to save it as your Lock Screen, Home Screen, or both. 

How to make an entire picture fit the wallpaper on your iPhone (with black bars at the top and bottom)

If you want to include all of a photo, but your iPhone won't let you do so because the photo isn't tall enough, there's a trick to work around this limitation.

The problem is that your iPhone won't let you include blank space in a wallpaper — the selected photo must cover the screen, edge-to-edge, in every direction. But you can cheat by taking a screenshot of the photo in your iPhone's Photos app, which adds black bars to the empty spaces.

1. Open the photo you want to use in the Photos app.

2. Make sure you are zoomed in so the entire photo is visible.

3. Tap the photo so the background turns black. 

4. Take a screenshot of the photo. 

5. Start the Settings app and tap "Wallpaper." Tap "Choose a new wallpaper" and select the screenshot of your photo. You'll be able to include the entire photo from side to side, with black bars at the top and bottom. 

Zoom all the way out and take a screenshot — the resulting photo may have black bars, but you'll be able to include all of it as your phone's wallpaper. Dave Johnson/Business Insider
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Dave Johnson Freelance Writer Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider. Read more Read less

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