How to Import and Apply Custom Wallpapers (Video, GIF, Photo)

While Canvas comes bundled with a beautiful curated gallery of live 4K loops, you can easily turn any of your favorite videos, animated GIFs, or high-resolution photos into a dynamic desktop background instantly.

Supported Media Formats

• Live Videos: High-definition .mp4 and .mov (fully supports hardware-accelerated HEVC and H.264 codecs).
• Animated Images: High-fidelity .gif files.
• Static Photos: .png, .jpg, .jpeg, and Apple's native lossless .heic formats.

How to Import Custom Wallpapers

You can import your media in two ultra-convenient ways:

• Option A: Drag-and-Drop (Easiest): Open the main Canvas library window and simply drag your video or image file from Finder and drop it directly into the window grid. It will immediately ingest and display in your Custom Imports tab.
• Option B: Menu Bar Plus Icon: Click the Canvas system menu bar icon in the top right of your screen. Click the small + icon at the bottom of the popover panel, select your files, and click open.

Applying & Favoriting Wallpapers

• To Apply: Hover over any preset inside the Library grid and click the PC Icon to apply it as your active desktop wallpaper.
• To Unload: Click the PC icon again on an active wallpaper (which turns into a red xmark.desktop indicator) to unload it and return to your standard macOS desktop wallpaper.
• To Favorite: Click the heart symbol on any preview card to add it to your Favorites quick-access list.