Hello Ubuntu Budgies, it is that time, every two years, when we sound the call of the artist! That’s right! 
Sharpen your pencils and clean those brushes, the Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 wallpaper competition is live, right now! 
Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 LTS Resolute Raccoon is looking for your submissions!
First place winner of the contest will get $50 worth of merchandise from our new Ubuntu Budgie shop 
. All other winners that get a wallpaper selected for 26.04 LTS will receive an Ubuntu Budgie sticker pack.
Rules
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Our Discourse accepts larger images without resizing them, so this time around things will be fairly simple: Reply to this thread and upload your image(s).
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Our target resolution is 3840 x 2160 (4K) - so please don’t submit images that are less than the target - don’t worry if it is more though!
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If the wallpaper is NOT your own work we need the link to the original source together with the Authors name - the license for images that are not yours MUST be CC0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0
Timeline
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Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 wallpaper contest opens on November 21, 2025.
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Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 wallpaper contest closes on February 28, 2026.
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Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 wallpaper contest winners will be made on UI Freeze, the week of 12 March 2026.
To AI or not AI 
We’ve made the decision to disallow the entry of AI generated artwork for this competition. Here’s a few reasons why we’ve made that choice:
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Many popular AI art generation tools use a license that does not align with those that we have chosen for our competition.
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There are active legal debates on the ownership of AI generated artwork and whether it can or can’t be copyrighted.
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Many popular AI models have been shown to include artwork from artists without their consent. We do not believe this aligns with our community’s values and stated mission.
If your submission displays hallmarks of AI generation, you may be asked to provide proof of human creation, which may include a request for source project files.
Guidelines for desktop wallpaper images:
• If in doubt what images to submit - have a look at our 20.04, 22.04, or 24.04 default wallpapers (packages budgie-wallpapers-focal, budgie-wallpapers-jammy, budgie-wallpapers-noble)
• Images shouldn’t be too busy and filled with too many shapes and colors, a similar tone throughout is a good rule of thumb.
• A single point of focus, a single area that draws the eye into the image, can also help you avoid something too cluttered.
• Try your image at different aspect ratios to make sure something important isn’t cropped out on smaller/ larger screens at different resolutions.
• No brand names or trademarks of any kind.
• No branding assets like ubuntu-budgie or text in order to permit use by derivative distributions.
• No version numbers as some may prefer to continue to use your theme with an older version of Ubuntu.
• No illustrations some may consider inappropriate, offensive, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or libellous.
• No sexually explicit or provocative images.
• No images of weapons or violence.
• No alcohol, tobacco, or drug use imagery.
• No designs which promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against groups or individuals; or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
• No religious, political, or nationalist imagery.
• Use PNG & JPG formats
Licenses
All submissions must adhere to one of the following:
• Submissions must adhere to the Creative Commons ShareAlike 4.0 to be considered for use in ubuntu-budgie
• Submissions must adhere to the Creative Commons With Attribution License v3 or v4 to be considered for use in ubuntu-budgie
• Submissions can use the Creative Commons Zero Waiver (CC0) - the original author if its not you must be specified.
Also, submitting your wallpaper confirms to us you are willing to share your submission with with one of these licenses, have understood the license terms and that it is your work (or correctly attributed). If the license is not as specified above we will assume CC-BY-SA 4.0
Special thanks to @GrindamN for the wallpaper contest image, and the Ubuntu community for leading the way on the AI-generated artwork debate.
