Phosphene — library candidates

Three shapes for the Library window. All three share the same five decisions below — the candidates differ only in where the detail and the hand-off to System Settings live.

Decisions shared by every candidate

Names, not slugs

mornye-galaxy-…s-moewalls-com → Mornye Galaxy Stars. Title-cased at import, site suffixes stripped, renamable inline. The slug never appears in UI.

In Use is the one state that matters

Accent ring + corner checkmark, exactly like the system Wallpaper pane marks the active wallpaper. Everything else on the card is just the picture and the name.

Metadata demoted

Every card saying "3,840×2,160 60fps" distinguishes nothing. Specs move to the detail surface; the grid carries name only. Optimization shows as a small progress pill on the card only while running.

The hand-off happens at the moment of intent

"Use as Wallpaper…" on the selected video opens Wallpaper Settings. The floating "To set a wallpaper, choose one in System Settings" footer disappears.

Cards play on hover

Hovering a card starts its loop, like the system wallpaper thumbnails — the looping preview player already exists. A library of live wallpapers should feel alive.

Candidates

A · Wallpaper pane — what Settings would do

Two sections, no chrome: In Use maps each display to its wallpaper (with the Wallpaper Settings link where it belongs), Library is a clean grid. Detail and actions live in a per-card ⓘ popover — shown open on the second card.

Phosphene Add Video
In Use Open Wallpaper Settings ↗
Built-in Display
Mornye Galaxy Stars
Studio Display
Takanashi Hoshino Sky
Library
Mornye Galaxy Stars
Takanashi Hoshino Sky
Takanashi Hoshino Sky
4K · 60 fps · 0:15 · 74 MB · H.264
Optimized ✓ (30/15 fps variants)
Use as Wallpaper…
Optimizing
Samurai Neon

B · Browser — grid plus a real inspector

The current window's skeleton, redesigned: clean cards, and an inspector that earns its column — editable name, an In-Use status card, one compact spec row, optimization as a tidy section, and the primary action at the bottom. Footer carries the library totals.

Phosphene Add Video
Mornye Galaxy Stars
Takanashi Hoshino Sky
Optimizing
Samurai Neon
Takanashi Hoshino Sky
4K60 fps0:1574 MBH.264
Optimization
30 fps3,840 × 2,160
15 fps3,840 × 2,160
Optimized ✓
Use as Wallpaper…
Show in Finder Delete…
3 videos · 210 MB Wallpapers apply in System Settings ↗

C · Theater — the video is the window

Finder's gallery view: the selected wallpaper plays big on a stage with its actions on glass, and the library is a filmstrip underneath. The most cinematic — and the least scalable: past a dozen videos the strip needs scrolling and scanning suffers.

Phosphene Add Video
Mornye Galaxy Stars
In use on Built-in Display · 4K · 60 fps · 0:15 · 74 MB
Optimize Use as Wallpaper…
Mornye Galaxy Stars
Takanashi Hoshino Sky
Optimizing
Samurai Neon

Recommendation

B, wearing A's In-Use treatment. B keeps the inspector — which the optimize workflow genuinely needs (progress, presets, variants) and which A's popover would cramp — while fixing everything that made the current one heavy: slugs become names, the spec table becomes one chip row, the System-Settings hint becomes the "Use as Wallpaper…" button and a footer whisper. From A it takes the accent-ring + checkmark in-use language (and A's In-Use display mapping slots into the inspector as the status card: "In use on Built-in Display").

C is the demo-reel version — worth stealing its stage idea later as the inspector's hover-to-play hero, but as the whole window it fights growth and hides the grid.

Implementation note: display names need a home — a displayName field in the library entry metadata, set at import by the prettifier (the gallery's prettyName(for:) already does this), editable via the inspector. The popover scrim then shows the same clean name.