What size should an iPhone wallpaper be?
Why your wallpaper looks zoomed in
Two causes. The first is aspect ratio: an image that is not the same shape as the screen has to be cropped to fill it. The second is parallax — the subtle shift as you tilt the phone — which requires iOS to hold extra image beyond the visible edges.
Keep anything important away from the outer edges, or turn off Perspective Zoom when setting the wallpaper to get a one-to-one fit.
Where the focal point should go
Not the middle, and definitely not the top. The clock and date occupy the upper third of the lock screen, widgets sit beneath them, and the bottom holds shortcuts and the home indicator.
That leaves the lower-middle band as the safest area for a subject. Test on your actual lock screen before deciding — a composition that looks balanced in a photo app is often completely hidden behind the clock.
Why the clock is hard to read on some wallpapers
Because contrast varies across the image. iOS applies some automatic treatment, but white text over a busy mid-tone area will always be marginal.
Wallpapers that read well tend to be darker and lower in detail in the upper third. That is why gradients and abstract backgrounds outperform detailed photographs for daily use — not taste, just legibility.
Our iOS app for exactly this. Runs on your device — no account, no tracking.