Comments on: Using Leopard’s Mosaic Screen Saver

By: Garvio

Garvio — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:44:06 +0000

I’ve been using the Mosaic screen saver ever since I upgraded to Leopard. It has been working flawlessly. Yesterday, I finally received my Nvidia Geforce 8800GT graphics card for my Mac Pro. I installed the card without any problems and everything works fine except for the mosaic screensaver. As the image zooms out to create the next image, the screen flashes white, just as it is about to dissolve to the image it is creating. Could this be a problem with the Nvidia card or is there something else that may a been corrupted. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas.

By: Maria Langer

Maria Langer — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:48:29 +0000

Hasan, this feature only works if iPhoto is installed. It then uses the iPhoto images as the mosaics to make up the images in the folder you select.

Hope this helps!

By: Hasan

Hasan — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:53:09 +0000

I wanted to use this mosaic screensaver for a specific folder, but it chooses pictures outside of that folder. I was wondering if there are any solutions to this problem.

By: Don Pratt

Don Pratt — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:35:25 +0000

Sorry, I figured it out. I totally missed the iPhoto Library part, and thought I could just dump a bunch of photos to a folder. You’ll have to be patient with me. I’m still making the transition from Windoze. :-)

By: Don Pratt

Don Pratt — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:19:43 +0000

This isn’t working right for me. I dumped a whole bunch of jpeg files to my pictures folder and set up the mosaic picture screen saver. It selects any picture to make the big picture (like it should), but it insists on using only TWO images to construct the mosaic – YUCK!

I have no idea why this is happening. As far as I know, there’s nothing different about the two images it uses to construct the mosaic, except that some days earlier I’d placed those two images into my pictures folder and done a quickie test of the mosaic screen saver using those two images. Now the screen saver seems to treat these two images as “special” and ignores the others.

By: Maria Langer

Maria Langer — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:01:10 +0000

The mosaic screen saver definitely works best if you have a LOT of photos on your hard disk. I have more than 2,000 so I see a lot of variety.

Although I think the mosaic screen saver is way cool, I don’ t usually use it. I’m a plain Jane kind of person and stick to a slide show from one of my iPhoto event folders.

Let’s face it: a screen saver usually goes into action when you’re not using your computer — possibly not even in the same room. So those pictures are likely to be displaying themselves to an empty room.

By: Andy Piper

Andy Piper — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:03:17 +0000

I was using this for a while, but I’m not a big iPhoto user. I use an RSS feed / photocast of my Flickr photos in iPhoto, but the images in it don’t seem to be used by the Mosaic screensaver…. hmm… OK I’m not phrasing this well.

I have a photocast from Flickr in iPhoto. I use this as the album for the Mosaic screensaver.

The screensaver will use the images for the large / main image, but the individual pictures that are used to make the main one are drawn from only my local iPhoto albums – and since I barely use iPhoto, that’s a small(ish) pool.

Not your fault, of course, Maria, but just an observation. It’s still a really really cool screensaver, but I’m using the Collage style by preference with my Flickr photocast, it’s just a better fit.

Andy Piper’s last blog post..Year Two

By: Maria Langer

Maria Langer — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:30:04 +0000

No, I don’t know of any programs that will do what the mosaic screen saver does or print the mosaic. But I’m sure there must be something out there. Why not try http://www.macupdate.com/ and do a search there? Good luck!

By: Edwinabackinbowl

Edwinabackinbowl — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:33:11 +0000

Sorry – hit enter to fast.

Any programs that would print the mosaic?

By: Edwinabackinbowl

Edwinabackinbowl — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:32:15 +0000

Maria – My friends were so impressed with the mosaic screensaver, which I happily found by accident. Are there any programs you know of that would create a mosaic like this to?

By: Maria Langer

Maria Langer — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:59:02 +0000

Lim, I used IShowYou, an excellent screen recording app.

Diana, sorry, but I don’t know of any. I would be a neat effect in a video, though. And thanks for your kind words about my books!

Partners, which Screen Saver are you referring to? And do you mean the desktop (as in under all the windows) or just the screen itself?

By: Partners in Grime

Partners in Grime — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:28:35 +0000

Mosaic Screen Saver is pretty cool. I like the Screen Saver that tosses the photos on the desktop.

By: Diana

Diana — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 03:47:49 +0000

Is there an app for Mac which replicates this Mosaic function? My husband would like to include such an effect sequence in a TV commercial for a client in our town. He’s editing in Final Cut Pro.

By the way, Maria, we’re big fans. We rely on your Mac OS books. Now I see your Leopard version is out, it’s on our shopping list!

By: Lim

Lim — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:05:36 +0000

Hi,

Excellent video, may I know how did you create your video? It’s very professional especially the audio, it’s very clear. Thanks.

By: Maria Langer

Maria Langer — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:50:27 +0000

Sorry about this. I assume you mean the very big attachment I linked to? I linked to it to avoid problems like that. But you know, I think it might happen in any offline RSS reader. I’ll remove the attachment now so it doesn’t bother anyone else. Thanks very much for pointing this out.