National Geographic offers some stunning, professional-quality wallpaper photos, but only as individual downloads. If you're a frequent wallpaper switcher, or like background variety, a simple command line script makes it easy to grab them all.


Update: Windows users, you can now accomplish this with even less hassle using the NatGeo Wallpaper Downloader.


In Linux (and, presumably, Mac's terminal) , the two scripts offered by the Web Upd8 are easy enough to run. Download either natgeo2008.sh for National Geographic's 2008 photography contest selections, or natgeo2009.sh for 2009. Make the script able to run by entering chmod a+x natgeo2009.sh (or substitute for 2008), then move it to a folder where you want the downloads to appear. Run the script ( ./natgeo2009.sh or something similar, in most cases), and you'll get your downloads—226 for 2008, 170 in 2009.

G/O Media may get a commission Subscribe and Get Your First Bag Free Promo Code AtlasCoffeeDay20

Update: Readers are telling us that the script doesn't quite work in a default Mac installation. Luckily,reader Daniel re-wrote them for basic Mac use and sent them along. Thanks Daniel! Find the scripts below, and use them just like the Linux scripts above (though substituting chmod +x if a+x doesn't fly).

The 2008 wallpapers have variable resolutions you can grab, while 2009 comes in at 1600 pixels wide. For details on customizing the scripts to grab different resolutions, hit the Web Upd8 link. Windows users can still pull off this script by installing and setting up Cygwin.


Automatically Download All The Wallpapers From National Geographic (Almost 500 Wallpapers) [Web Upd8]