Download New Tab Background Images from Brave
A fresh install of the Brave internet browser reveals an assortment of stunning photography for its opening page and new tabs. The Brave browser can also display sponsored images which is part of their Brave Rewards program and can actually earn you their BAT cryptocurrency.
From time to time I personally find some of the photography displayed within the Brave browser to be desktop wallpaper worthy. But how do I capture this work of art for use as my desktop wallpaper? In this article I will show you how.
Sometimes a simple online search of the authors name (displayed on the lower left corner of the photograph) will reveal their personal website or social media accounts through which the photograph in question may be obtained along with their other work. But sometimes not. The good news is that the Brave internet browser is open source. Meaning we can head straight to the Brave GitHub code repository and obtain these photographs from the codebase.
Download Brave Background Images from Github
Once there, you will see a list of the current images in the source code. Simply click on the image name and select “View raw” (1) or “Download” (2). See image below.
Brave recently switched to using background photos with an extension of “.avif” which are higher quality images with better compression. Presently, Windows 10 cannot display these images natively nor can we use them in this format as our desktop background wallpaper. Not to worry, there is a work around.
Converting Brave AVIF New Tab Background Images
Once you’ve clicked on “View raw” or “Download” you will be prompted to download and save the image to your PC.
Once saved to your PC, you can drag it into your Brave browser which will display the image in a new tab. Right click on the image and select “Copy image” from the drop down menu. You can then open an image editor, such as Microsoft Paint, and paste the copied image (CTRL + V) then save it as a JPG or PNG image file.
Once saved, you can right click on the saved image and select “Set as desktop background” from the drop down.
Download Old, New Tab Background Images
The Brave browser updates regularly which may also include changes to their background image collection. If you miss seeing a particular image you can also obtain it from the Brave GitHub code repository. To view prior background images that are no longer available from the collection of new tab photographs, click on the commit history link (3). See image below.
From the commit history section you can scroll through the various changes and find the image that had been previously removed. Then just click the three horizontal dots (See #1 on image below) to the right and then “View file” (2). Repeat the steps from above to Download Brave Background Images from Github. Happy image hunting!
Download Brave New Tab Background Sponsored Images
The method for downloading one of the Brave Sponsored images is different but in some ways easier.
A quicker and even easier way, than the one I will show you below, of saving the background image was provided to me by a kind visitor named Sebastian. See his faster and easier solution (recommended).
Once the background Sponsored image appears for you in a new tab, access the developer tools (by pressing F12 or CTRL + Shift + I on your keyboard). Under the Elements tab, expand the BODY and first then go two DIV tags deep. Locate the DIV tag with the CLASS starting with “App–…” (as highlighted in the image below).
Then you’ll use the right column, under the Styles tab, search for the sponsored background image. The background image is probably down near the bottom of the rendered style sheet. Once found, hover over the background URL and simply click on the “Current source” from the pop-up that appears which will then open the sponsored background image in a new tab. Right click on that image and select Save image as.
Quicker & Easier New Tab Wallpaper Download Method
Sebastian’s solution was to press F12 and go to the “Sources” tab within the Developer Tools window that appears. Within the column to the left you will find a “background-wallpaper” element, simply double click on it to expand it which will reveal the background images used within. Select the image that you want which will make it appear in the preview pane to the right. Then right click on the image and select “Save image as…” from the drop down menu. This will save the image as a .webp to a directory of your preference. Thank you for this faster and better solution Sebastian.
Conclusion
I welcome your thoughts, questions or suggestions on my article on how to download new tab background images from Brave internet browser.
You may support my work by sending me a tip using your Brave browser or by sending me a one time donation using your credit card.
Let me know if you found any errors within my article or if I may further assist you by answering any additional questions you may have.
Editor Notes:
- This article was first published on March 14th, 2021 and was revised on March 10th, 2022 to include instructions for downloading brave new tab sponsored images.
Great post! Since I started using brave I struggled to find an easy way to do exactly this. Never thought about github…
Happy to hear Paolo. Thank you for letting me know this article helped you.
So… I want to get that picture of the three 3d origami’ish sharks swimming around a fish, or, you know, something like that. But when I go to the Brave GitHub code repository, how am I supposed to know what picture it was that I recently saw on brave. And they all say they “2021”, and it’s 2022. please contact me on email, I, really need some help.
Happy to help Samuel. That background new tab picture is for a sponsored ad which are not on GitHub (to my knowledge). However, using the developer tools within Brave one can go through the new tab code to locate the picture and download it. To save you a step, I went ahead and downloaded the requested sponsored photo and have attached it here for your benefit. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions that I may be able to assist you with. Thank you Samuel.
Thank you so much! Sharks are my favorite animal and I can finally have a cool couple of them as my background. Thanks!
A quick way of saving the background image of a new tab is to press f12 and go to the “sources” tab. On the left column you’ll find a “background-wallpaper” entry with the current background image listed. Right click to open on a new tab and you’ll be able to save the image as a .webp (which you’ll be able to convert later)
Thank you kindly for taking the time to share that solution with me Sebastien. It is much easier and in my opinion a better solution. I will update my article on downloading new tab background images with what you provided and credit you. Again, very much appreciated Sebastien.