Lock screen wallpaper ideas: clean backgrounds for your phone

The cleanest lock screen wallpaper ideas are designed around what the phone puts on top: the clock and widgets in the top third, notifications in the middle and shortcuts in the bottom corners. Keep the area behind the clock calm and evenly dark (for white type) or evenly light (for dark type), put any detail lower down or at the edges, and choose quiet styles such as soft gradients, a single colour with grain, or one simple shape. Make it at your phone's exact resolution, which any screenshot will tell you.

Where things sit on a lock screen

Every phone arranges the lock screen a little differently, but the pattern is broadly the same. Design for it and your wallpaper will look intentional rather than covered up.

The size depends on your phone. Take a screenshot and check its dimensions in your photo app: that is the resolution to design at. Most current phones are tall, around 9:19.5 to 9:20; phone wallpaper size explains how to check and why 1080×1920 is usually too short.

How to keep the lock screen clock readable

The time is the reason you look at the lock screen at all. Most phones show it in white by default, and some let you pick its colour. Either way, the rule is the same: the area behind the clock should be one even tone, clearly darker or clearly lighter than the digits. A bright cloud in a dark sky, or a face right behind the time, is where lock screens go wrong.

Lock screen wallpaper ideas

Clean does not mean boring. Each of these leaves the top third calm and still gives the phone a look.

1. Dusk gradient. Deep navy at the top fading to a warm horizon at the bottom. White clock, no contest.
2. Light from below. A dark ground with one glow of colour rising from the bottom edge.
3. Pastel wash. Pale pink into lilac, with a dark clock. Soft and readable in daylight.
4. Single colour with grain. Your favourite colour, flat, with fine noise. Looks like paper, not a default.
5. One shape at the bottom. A circle, arch or wave sitting low, leaving the top empty.
6. Horizon photo, low. Sea, field or desert with the horizon in the lower third and plain sky behind the clock.
7. Depth effect friendly. A subject at the bottom with a plain background above, so the clock can sit behind or in front of it on phones that support it.
8. Monochrome. Black into charcoal for a phone that disappears into a desk.
9. Seasonal colour. Change the palette with the season: greens in spring, ambers in autumn.
10. Matched pair. A lock screen and a home screen in the same colours, the home screen calmer still.

For more colour, gradient wallpaper has a wider collection, and dark gradient backgrounds is worth reading before you choose a very dark one, since that is where stripes show most.

How to make your own lock screen wallpaper

1. 1

   Screenshot your lock screen

   The screenshot gives you the exact size and shows where your clock and widgets sit.

2. 2

   Plan the three bands

   Calm at the top, soft in the middle, detail at the bottom if you want any.

3. 3

   Build the background

   Pick a ground colour and one or two related colours. Keep the top area even in tone.

4. 4

   Leave a margin

   Keep anything important away from the edges, because some phones zoom or shift the wallpaper slightly.

5. 5

   Save as PNG and test

   Set it, lock the phone, and look at it with notifications showing. Adjust until the time reads at a glance.

Gradiently's Studio has wallpaper templates and custom sizes from 200 to 8,000 pixels, so you can match your screenshot exactly. A Mark's background knows where words sit and keeps that area calm, which is exactly what a clock needs, and on Pro it can export as a seamless MP4 or WebM loop if you want a live wallpaper on phones that support video.

Lock screen wallpaper mistakes to avoid

Want matching backgrounds on your other screens? See iPad wallpaper size and desktop wallpapers.