Update 4.50 for the PS4 brought a few long requested features, including the ability to use an external hard drive, which we detailed earlier this week. It also brought the ability to do custom backgrounds for your PS4, and while this is a perfect use of all those photo mode screenshots you’ve been taking, there are ways to get custom wallpapers onto the system that aren’t part of your capture gallery. It just requires a small bit of technical know how and either a connection to the internet or a USB thumb drive.
Before we get into custom wallpapers that aren’t part of your capture gallery, we should detail how to set a custom image as your PS4 wallpaper.
Setting the PS4 Background Image
Go to [Settings] > [Themes] > [Select Theme]. At the bottom will be an option that says [Custom]. Press [Select Image] and choose a screenshot from your capture gallery to set as your background.
You can also set an image as a PS4 background directly from the capture gallery by pressing [Options] and then [Set as Background] while on the image that you want.
Note that this will override any music, icons, and sound effects from other themes, using the default PS4 options for these instead. Maybe a future update will bring an option to manually select each one of these for truly custom themes.
How to Set a Custom Image as a Wallpaper
Using the internet browser:
- Find an image that you like online and visit the URL with your PS4 browser. Make sure that the resolution is high enough that it will fit in full screen mode (not to mention look good as a background).
- Press square to put the browser in full screen, and then click R3 if you need to zoom in on the image at all.
- Hit the Share button to capture as a screenshot and save to your capture gallery, then follow the steps above to set the image as your background!
Using a USB drive and ShareFactory:
- Create a cool image in Photoshop or Paint that you want to use as a background? There’s a way to do that without posting your image online. The latest update to ShareFactory allows users to pull in media from a USB drive to use in their creations as well as creating photos and gifs in addition to video.
- Make sure that your images are saved on the USB under subfolders /SHAREFACTORY/IMAGES.
- Start ShareFactory. Select [Import Content] and then [Import Images]. Choose the images you want to use as a background and import them.
- Go to the ShareFactory menu, select [Photos], then [New Project]. Use the image that you just imported.
- From here you can either edit the photo further using ShareFactory, or simply export it to your gallery as is. Once you are done, follow the initial steps above to set the image as your PS4 background.
Bonus Feature – Custom PSN Profile Theme Color
If you want to match your PSN profile color theme to your custom header image, 4.50 let’s you do that now. First go to your profile. Make sure you have a custom header image selected by clicking on the three dots, and then [Change Cover Image]. If you’ve selected a cover image, you can go to [Change Background Color] from here, and you will receive a few custom color choices that match the color palette in your cover image. Select one to channel your inner interior designer on your PSN profile.
