BootXChanger will allow you to change the boot image on Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6
This screenshot will explain how to use it:

• PowerPC or Intel-based Macintosh
• Mac OS X 10.4 or newer

BootXChanger will not change the background colour of the boot screen, you should use #BFBFBF unless you want a noticeable rectangle around your image.
If your image has too many colours, it will be reduced and probably look ugly. If this happens, you can try saving the image in GIF or PNG-8, making sure it uses 100 colours or less.
On Intel Macs, it's even worse: images have to be compressed to fit in the boot file. If your image is too complex and doesn't fit, BootXChanger will show a message and you won't be able to apply it. Note that the size of your image file is irrelevant (since it depends on the format you use), and the data to be compressed is always a 16384 byte list of pixels.
Simply put:

• The background colour is #BFBFBF
• Use less than 100 colours
• On Intel Macs, use simple images

To install BootXChanger, simply copy it to your Applications folder, or wherever you want it.
To set an image as a boot image, open BootXChanger and drag it to the image well, and click Apply. You will then be asked for an administrator password, as the boot image is stored in a system file.

• After updating Mac OS X, the current image may not show in BootXChanger. However, it will work correctly if it hasn't shown an error message on launch.

You can also download the latest source from the subversion repository:

svn checkout svn://vc.namedfork.net/namedfork/BootXChanger/trunk

• French localization, courtesy of Yann Ricquebourg
• Italian localization, courtesy of Simone Dall'Angelo
• Traditional Chinese localization, courtesy of Hung Ju Lu
• Dutch localization, courtesy of Huub Everstijn
• Swedish localization, courtesy of Henrik Engman
• Fixed bug that crashed the app on Snow Leopard

• Fixed problem on new penryn-based macs
• German localization, courtesy of Michael Fuchs
• Russian localization, courtesy of Arkady Vyrlan

• Compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5.2
• Sparkle framework for auto updating
• Hungarian localization, courtesy of András Bognár

• Initial release

• Why does BootXChanger keep saying 'This image cannot be used as a boot image.'?
  This is due to the way boot images are stored on Intel macs, and the only solution is to use a simpler image. As said above, the size of your image file isn't relevant.
• Why has my image changed back to the gray Apple logo?
  This will happen on some System updates, or sometimes when you change the startup disk.
• My Mac won't boot anymore after I used BootXChanger!
  If BootXChanger is somehow interrupted while writing the boot image (by a power failure, for example), you won't be able to boot from your startup disk anymore. This is easily fixed by booting from your installation media and selecting the startup disk again. However, I've never heard of it happening to anyone.

BootXChanger is localized in the following languages:

• English
• Spanish
• Hungarian
• German
• Russian
• French
• Italian
• Traditional Chinese
• Dutch
• Swedish

If you localize it in your language, you can send me the localization and I will put it available for download, and include it in the ntext version.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

• Henrik Engman, Swedish localization
• Huub Everstijn, Dutch localization
• Hung Ju Lu, Traditional Chinese localization
• Simone Dall'Angelo, Italian localization
• Yann Ricquebourg, French localization
• Arkady Vyrlan, Russian localization
• Michael Fuchs, German localization
• András Bognár, Hungarian localization
• Dave Dribin, Hacking the OS X Boot Image on an Intel Mac