the amount of dots in the screen
The only problem with most pictures is that they are not the size most moniters are on, ie 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x1024. If a picture is any of thes resolutions, and you put it as background, you will get a well proportioned, non-distorted photo, even if it could be a bit blocky if its a smaller res, say a 640x480 photo on a 1280x1024 desktop. All of the XCF photos are 640x500 (along those lines), these produce horribly distorted photos as a background[&o]