Public Domain Wallpapers

Lightweight wallpaper assets and metadata sourced from public domain and CC0 collections. The npm package ships ready-to-use, compressed WebP files together with structured JSON metadata so you can bundle or pre-render wallpapers without doing the crawling and optimisation work yourself.

Installation

npm install public-domain-wallpapers

Package Contents

• images-eink/: Grayscale/e-ink friendly WebP wallpapers created with npm run optimize:eink (these are the only image assets shipped to npm).
• metadata/: Per wallpaper JSON records (id, title, author, description, year, originalImageUrl, sourcePage, license, etc.).
  If the source text is non-English, the original fields are additionally stored as titleOriginal / authorOriginal.
• index.js: Placeholder module for future aggregated exports (today you consume the metadata files directly).

Only the optimised asset folders listed above are included when you install the package. Colour masters that live under images/ in the git repository are treated as working files and are excluded from the published tarball via the files allowlist in package.json.

Usage

1. Node.js / Web

Load metadata

Each wallpaper's metadata ships as a standalone JSON file. With Node.js 18+ (ES modules) you can import what you need using JSON import assertions:

import hokusai from "public-domain-wallpapers/metadata/met/met-featured-collection/met-436839.json" assert { type: "json" };

console.log(hokusai.title); // "The Penitent Magdalen"
console.log(hokusai.license); // "Public Domain (The Met Open Access)"

If you prefer CommonJS, use createRequire to load the same JSON files.

When you need to enumerate many records at once, the package ships programmatic helpers:

import {
  getSources,
  getSource,
  getCollections,
  getWallpapers,
  getAllWallpapers,
  getRandomWallpaper,
} from "public-domain-wallpapers";

// Get all sources
const sources = getSources();
// [{ id: "met", name: "The Met Museum", collections: {...} }, ...]

// Get specific source
const metSource = getSource("met");
console.log(metSource.name); // "The Met Museum"

// Get collections from a source
const metCollections = getCollections("met");
// [{ id: "met-floral-collection", name: "...", wallpapers: [...] }, ...]

// Get wallpapers from a collection
const floralWallpapers = getWallpapers("met-floral-collection");

// Get all wallpapers
const allWallpapers = getAllWallpapers();

// Get random wallpaper
const randomMet = getRandomWallpaper({ sourceId: "met" });
const randomFloral = getRandomWallpaper({
  collectionId: "met-floral-collection",
});
const anyRandom = getRandomWallpaper();

All wallpapers include: { id, title, author, year, source, collection, imagePath, image, ... }. The imagePath always points to the optimised WebP file found under images-eink/.

2. React Native

React Native는 Metro bundler의 동적 require 제한으로 인해, 모든 이미지를 정적으로 import합니다. 패키지는 이미 최적화되어 있어 즉시 사용 가능합니다.

import {
  WALLPAPER_SOURCES,
  getWallpapers,
  getRandomWallpaper
} from "public-domain-wallpapers";
import { Image, FlatList, StyleSheet } from "react-native";

// 소스별로 컬렉션 탐색
const metCollections = Object.values(WALLPAPER_SOURCES.met.collections);
console.log(metCollections[0].name); // "Floral & Botanical Collection"

// 특정 컬렉션의 wallpaper들
const floralWallpapers = getWallpapers("met-floral-collection");

// Image 컴포넌트에서 사용
<Image source={floralWallpapers[0].image} style={styles.wallpaper} />

// 랜덤 wallpaper
const randomMet = getRandomWallpaper({ sourceId: "met" });
const randomNasa = getRandomWallpaper({ sourceId: "nasa" });
const anyRandom = getRandomWallpaper();

<Image source={randomMet.image} style={styles.wallpaper} />

// FlatList에서 사용
<FlatList
  data={floralWallpapers}
  renderItem={({ item }) => (
    <Image source={item.image} style={styles.thumbnail} />
  )}
  keyExtractor={(item) => item.id}
/>

모든 이미지는 index.js에서 정적으로 require되어 Metro bundler와 완벽하게 호환됩니다.

TypeScript 지원: 완전한 타입 정의가 포함되어 있어 자동완성과 타입 체크를 지원합니다.

패키지 관리자를 위한 참고사항: 새로운 에셋을 추가한 후에는 npm run generate:index를 실행하여 최신 메타데이터로 index.js를 재생성해주세요.

3. Serve the optimised images (Node.js/Web only)

Published image assets live under images-eink/ and are already WebP compressed. A simple Node script can copy them into your own static directory:

import { copyFile } from "node:fs/promises";
import { createRequire } from "node:module";
import path from "node:path";

const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
const pkgRoot = path.dirname(
  require.resolve("public-domain-wallpapers/package.json")
);

const imageFile = path.join(
  pkgRoot,
  "images-eink",
  "met",
  "met-featured-collection",
  "met-436839.webp"
);
await copyFile(imageFile, path.join("public", "wallpapers", "met-436839.webp"));

For bundlers (Vite, webpack, etc.) you can import the asset and let the bundler emit it:

import hokusaiImageUrl from "public-domain-wallpapers/images-eink/met/met-featured-collection/met-436839.webp?url";

document.querySelector("img").src = hokusaiImageUrl;

4. Generate e-ink variants (optional)

Use the included Sharp-based tooling when you need e-ink/e-paper friendly assets:

npm run optimize:eink -- --input images --output images-eink --grayscale --maxWidth 1448 --maxHeight 1072

This script only re-exports the already-downloaded images, so the npm package still ships with compressed WebP files.

Included Content

• Only CC0 or unambiguously public domain works make it into the package.
• Metadata tracks the source, licence statement, and collection category for every image.
• Curated sets (e.g. “featured collections”) are stored under dedicated folders for straightforward subset selection.

Contributing & Tooling

• npm run fetch:assets: Fetches new assets according to config/*.json, optimises them, and writes metadata.
• npm run optimize:eink: Creates e-ink/grayscale derivatives with consistent sizing and compression.
• npm run generate:index: Generates index.js for React Native compatibility.
• See docs/QUALITY-GUIDE.md for asset preparation guidelines.

Quality Guidelines

• Resolution targets: 4K, QHD, and mobile variants whenever possible.
• File size budgets: 4K ≤ 3 MB, mobile ≤ 500 KB.
• Supported formats: JPG or WEBP (published package currently ships WEBP).
• Filename format: {source}-{id}-{slug}-{size}.webp.

License

• Images: Public Domain or CC0 (verify licence details in each metadata file).
• Code, scripts, and documentation: MIT.

Example Sources

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Open Access)
• Cleveland Museum of Art (Open Access)
• Smithsonian Open Access
• NASA Image and Video Library

Commercial use is permitted, but always verify the license and source listed in each metadata entry.