The methods mentioned in this guide, might not apply to you directly or to a particular display or screen you have connected at a given point to your Mac computer with High Sierra or Mojave, but in most cases this is all you need to improve how these 2 operating systems handle font rendering and anti-aliasing. I have a 1920x1280 full HD ASUS Monitor and yes the same thing in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 for me, everything was very small, but changing the DPI settings to 125% from the native 100% made everything worse from desktop gadgets to certain programs that did not adjust well to higher then the native DPI … In 2015 I wrote this post, describing how to fix external monitor blurry fonts that occur when upgrading OS X to Yosemite or El Capitan.Here it is almost two years later, and when I upgraded to macOS Sierra, the same phenomena occurred again. Now, the apple has downgraded all these things, starting from El Capitan, you can no longer have the font-smoothing we had been having since the early days of macOS. With that in mind here are a couple tips to troubleshoot a Mac screen that appears blurry, and also how to optimize font smoothing in Mac OS X to make antialiased text look its best on your display. Run a system report from the apple menu About this mac. Learn about media apps on your Mac To explore the macOS User Guide, click Table of Contents at the top of the … You can also experiment with combinations of these settings and try to get a clearer display if needed. Finally something that does actually work. Also, a panel's coating can affect text clarity, which is why the photo above of the Acer Nitro XV273X looks a bit blurry, since it has a matte anti-reflective coating. However, when I set it to its native resolution, the text looks fuzzy and blurry. Finally, it’s a bit more advanced but there is a way to change the font smoothing settings with defaults write commands entered through the Terminal. I just recently bought a LG 55UB850T which has a native resolution of 3840x2160 and currently using it as a monitor. One thing you can be sure about, if by any chances while you are configuring or touching any specific Settings in your Mac computer and you make a mistake and delete any important files, you can use Disk Drill to recover your lost data. If you are still scratching your head on how to get a clearer text and font on your Mac display, then let’s move on to the next adjustment. change the font smoothing settings with defaults write commands, Fix & Troubleshoot macOS Big Sur Problems & Issues, How to Fix Blurry Fonts in MacOS Mojave for Non-Retina Displays, Make Incremental Brightness & Volume Adjustments in Mac OS and OS X, Open System Preferences from the  Apple menu and choose “Displays”, Under the “Display” tab, choose the highest resolution available in the list – for LCD displays that is the native resolution, Open System Preferences from the  Apple menu and click “General”, At the bottom of the preference panel, check the box next to “Use LCD font smoothing when available”, Consider adjusting the minimum font smoothing size, 8 is the default setting and tends to look best on most monitors. To some Mac users, this change might be too soft and they won’t even see a difference in the clarity of their text or font. Your email address will not be published. And for reference, I'm using the monitor with an AMD RX 480, set to full range RGB. We do not guarantee the compatibility in respective user environments and conditions may vary depending on the graphics board manufacturer. By default Macs always use the best optimal screen resolution, but it’s the kind of thing that could be changed accidentally or by a previous owner or user who forgot to change it back to the native resolution. Many users are having blurry text or fonts on Mac computers with external non-retina monitors. Open the settings menu on your monitor. defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 3, You can reverse any of these font smoothing adjustments with the following defaults command: Other types of sub-pixel layouts can also affect text clarity, such as RGBW, although it's a layout that we see more often on TVs than on monitors, which you can read about it here. Then select the Compatibility tab and enable ‘Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.’. © 2020 508 Software, LLC, its affiliates and licensors, Identifying Problems and Solutions with Apple Diagnostics, How to Change Your Login Screen Background on a Mac, Time Machine and System Integrity Protection (SIP), How to Run Disk Drill 4 in macOS Recovery Mode, The Updated Disk Drill 3.7.942: Continuous…, What You Need to Know About System Integrity Protection. Medium font smoothing: If just one app looks blurry, check the Mac App Store or developer’s website for any new versions of the app that might be Retina display display-compatible. I have an Asus VG248QE monitor. The cause can be traced back to the release of macOS Mojave. Example Below: Once in the Terminal, we will type the following commands: This command will remove any custom font smoothing setting from your Mac OS X: The next command will revert the changes done to the rendering font smoothing settings back to the defaults in Mac OS X Mojave: Once more you will need to restart your Mac for all the changes to take place. How do I change my display or monitor settings such that text does not appear blurry? The texts are blurry. I have not experienced blurry text. Adjust display settings: Open your display settings (Start Menu > Settings > System). Now in that case if you try to perform DPI Scaling in Windows 10 then it will usually lead to blurry fonts. Update 24 January 2018: The same exact process works for upgrade to High Sierra.. Some updates may disrupt your screen resolution, and changing it back to normal, should fix things up. Smaller text is especially painful to read. You can review our privacy policy for additional information. I don't recommend it though, there are too many drawbacks depending on the monitor. i thought my eyes were going bad on me! Everything will look blurry, this is because those texts are essentially displaying at 2x zoom level, as if it is running Windows 10 by turning on a magnify zoom all the time. (HiDPI display) These settings allow you to scale the size of text or icons to match the size displayed with other monitor resolutions. One example is having your Macbook Pro with retina display connected to an external display which may cause the text to be blurry on the latter. If you still feel that the text could look better, you will want to proceed with some extra adjustments. I read a lot about it, and but no where I could find a solution to this, and now I’m here, starting to get used to blurry fonts. This doesn't seem to carry over on every page or website though. For others, this change might be enough to stop seeing the blurry text on their screens. Wrong screen resolution is an issue in the most cases. The Crhoming version appears lighter and fuzzier while in the Classic Edge, the text is noticably sharper and the colors more bold. This website and third-party tools use cookies for functional, analytical, and advertising purposes. Required fields are marked *, June 9, 2012 • 6 comments. Open System Preferences from the  Apple menu and choose “Displays” 2. If your Mac computer has a retina display, this means that each user interface widget is doubled in width and height to compensate for the smaller pixels. Thanks to Pawel for the questions and tip idea. If you have any other tips, methods, or approaches to address font smoothing issues on the Mac, share in the comments! This information explains how to change the DPI scaling level. This makes a giant difference in how smooth onscreen fonts and items look, here is how to set the proper resolution for your Mac: 1. You can verify this by unplugging the external monitor from your Mac computer and looking at the native retina display that your Mac has. Hey, can you try something different? As per the issue description you are facing issue with the resolution. What a life-saver. A retina display is a IPS LCD and OLED displays that have a higher pixel density than traditional Apple displays. Your email address will not be published. Check if it says Television: Yes. This blurriness seems to be due to changes in the anti-aliasing in these particular macOS versions. By default Macs always use the best optimal screen resolution, but it’s the kind of thing that could be changed accidentally or by a previous owner or user who forgot to change it back to the native resolution. All icons and text are huge, blurry and pixelated. Then look for "Change the size of text, apps, and other items" and adjust it for each monitor so that all monitors use the same setting. Look for the monitor in Graphics/Displays. Looks like I wasn’t the only one with this problem because the great guys over at Mac OS X Hints just posted a hint that will fix this problem. But I can't even see that kind of resolution in my Windows display options. A very common issue many Mac users face is blurry fonts on their screens. If you see a big difference in the blurriness then for sure your external display is non-retina and may have the issue we are talking about. defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 1, Strong font smoothing: The goal of retina displays is to make textual elements and images extremely crisp, so pixels are not visible to the naked eye. A restart will be required to finish the process. :), When I enter commands in Terminal it says: “The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, AppleFontSmoothing) does not exist.”, You have to enter: The result of not have the settings properly configured are the blurry text you will find all over the place in Windows 10. To enable this option you can follow these steps: This is the simplest checkbox and when it’s enabled, you might see a difference almost immediately. If changing the settings in your General Preferences did not work and the fonts still feel blurry to you, we will need to continue with some more advanced methods and adjust font smoothing even deeper. The monitor was originally used for graphic design and gaming; I believe that is also it's intended use. This is likely 1920 x 1080 if it is relatively new. You will need to enter one and then hit the Return key, then restart your Mac computer to verify that the changes have taken place. If you think a Mac display looks fuzzy or blurry there are a few common solutions to check into before assuming the screen itself has a problem. To do this we will need to access the Terminal application again. This used to be available in the System Preferences but Apple has simplified the setting and chooses an option for you now. That can definitely cause problems if it is set to anything other than its native resolution. I'm not using any of the monitor's built in picture modes, either. Listed below you will find all smoothing default commands. From reading all the forums related to blurry text, it looks like there are several solutions that people try including: (1) switching to a different type cable (ex: from HDMI to DVI), (2) changing screen resolution, (3) switching display mode type (HiDPI), (4) turning off font smoothing, (5) factory resetting the monitor, etc. If only a few apps appear blurry in Windows 10, you … Check the monitor's menu for blurry text. If it does it is sending the color to your display … If you’re running the Windows 10 April 2018 Update or … This is great for Mac users with retina displays, but not so great for Mac users that do have a non-retina display. I use it mostly for basic MS Office programs (email, excel, powerpoint). Just got this Mac Mini a few weeks ago and I’ve been spinning my wheels trying to find a way to make the fonts sharper on my Samsung TV. This procedure will also need to be performed via Terminal on your Mac computer. This is turned on by default but it’s possible someone turned it off and is worse checking: For most users the above tips are enough, but you can go a bit further to tweak antialiasing if you’re comfortable using defaults write commands. Let Windows help out. Default gamma, and hardware-calibrated color, which looks beautiful and vibrant on this panel. In apps that support it, font smoothing reduces jagged edges so fonts appear smoother and clearer. If the change you see on the screen is good enough, you might not need to do anything else to get rid of the blurry text on your Mac computer. I have already set the sharpness but it had very little effect. THANK YOU! Your Mac makes it easy to be entertained—from watching the latest shows on Apple TV+ to playing groundbreaking new games in Apple Arcade. By continuing to browse the site, closing this banner, scrolling this webpage, or clicking a link, you agree to these cookies. Disk Drill is a free Mac application that will let you scan your Mac computer and retrieve your deleted files and folders at the highest data recovery rate possible. In the Terminal window type in the following command as shown below. On the parent nod, Uncheck "Inherit from parent", then uncheck "Scale docked remote desktop to fit window", uncheck "Scale undocked remote desktop to fit … Uncheck the box for “Use LCD font smoothing when available” at the bottom of the preference panel. It also set to "Inberit from parent". Note: This information is provided based on our in-house testing. The next step is a manual change, where you will try to change the strength of font smoothing settings or anti-aliasing in macOS. Likewise, if your screen text just doesn’t look right it may be due to a few settings within Mac OS X. This is a very common issue for macOS High Sierra and newly launched macOS Mojave. The problem is most likely the screen resolution of the external monitor. THANK YOU! One example is having your Macbook Pro with retina display connected to an external display which may cause the text to be blurry on the latter. This happens on any monitor I use. We’ll cover a few different tricks that can help you make your screen fonts no longer look fuzzy or blurry. If you are using macOS High Sierra or Mojave and have a non-retina display (like an external monitor that does not display ultra-high resolution) you already noticed that the fonts and texts on that screen might be blurry and difficult to read. So we will once again head to the Applications/Utilities and open the Terminal. You might want to try each of the described commands above to verify which one works best for you. Sometimes, some desktop apps will look blurry when you change scaling and display settings and adjust for DPI. Even though my monitor is capable of doing well over 60hz, the screen gets blurry when it set it to anything above 60. If this menu is blurry, visit our Support Center to … MacBook Pro :: Samsung Monitor - Text Looks Jagged / Blurry MacBook Pro :: Blurry Pixels With Multiple Colors Show Up On White Background MacBook Pro :: Samsung XL2370 Monitor To Hook Onto MBP 15 - Image Is Pixelated And Blurry Green Moving windows is always going to look a tiny bit blurry unless you use lightboost. You can see the blurriness in the text Identity and Detect. Apple calls this mode HiDPI mode. Many users are having blurry text or fonts on Mac computers with external non-retina monitors. However, when there is any scaling in place on the Mac (other than Native Resolution of 3840 x 2160 I get blurry text on the screen. defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2. Check the parent nod properties -> Display Settings. Text on your monitor should be clear and easy to read, but if it's not, various settings can help fix the problem, as well as reconnecting or replacing your video cables. If you have a full HD monitor or screen with 1920 X 1080 resolution or higher then you will observe that all the icons and texts become so small that they are really hard to read unless you scale them up. There are a couple of remedies to smoothen fonts or text on your Mac’s external monitor. If you do not like the way your fonts and texts are looking after this troubleshooting procedure, you can revert any and all changes that we have performed so far. Applications on your primary monitor should look crisp after logging back in. If text on your Mac screen looks blurry or jagged If fonts on the screen of your Mac look fuzzy, blurry, or jagged, turn on font smoothing to see if it helps. On the lower pictures, the text looks fine in both Chromium and Classic Edge, … My Mac's resolution is 2880*1800 (Intel Iris Pro graphics) and i thought if i change my Windows resolution to the same values, it would fix it. This makes a giant difference in how smooth onscreen fonts and items look, here is how to set the proper resolution for your Mac: Here is an example of the dramatic difference that using the proper screen resolution makes: The next thing you’ll want to do is to make sure you have antialiasing enabled. Sounds like there is a bug in Snow Leopard that turns off the font smoothing for some external monitors. Under the “Display” tab, … They may also look fuzzy or even extremely thin. As I run 4K monitors, I have the scaling on Mac set to emulate 'Looks like 3008 x 1692'. Everything looks nice and smooth at the monitor's default 50% sharpness. Change High DPI Settings of a Specific App. This blurriness seems to be due to changes in the anti-aliasing in these particular macOS versions. But do not worry and continue reading the article as this is something that can be fixed. defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2, Light font smoothing: defaults -currentHost delete -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing. Check the parent nod properties - > display settings and try to get a clearer display needed... Had very little effect picture modes, either is capable of doing well over 60hz, the text looks in! Best for you now ’ s external monitor drawbacks depending on the Mac, text looks blurry on monitor mac in the comments retina. Tab, … many users are having blurry text on your Mac computer blurry when change! And text are huge, blurry and pixelated via Terminal on your primary monitor should crisp. Jagged edges so fonts appear smoother and clearer fine in both Chromium Classic. Tv+ to playing groundbreaking new games in Apple Arcade check the parent nod properties - display. To make textual elements and images extremely crisp, so pixels are not visible to the naked.! Users with retina displays is to make textual elements and images extremely crisp, so pixels are not to! Article as this is something that can help you make your screen resolution, and hardware-calibrated color, looks. Playing groundbreaking new games in Apple Arcade even extremely thin option for now... Not using any of the described commands above to verify which one works for... Bit blurry unless you use lightboost for graphic design and gaming ; i believe that also. To anything above 60 display options back to the naked eye apps that support it, font settings. 2012 • 6 comments settings within Mac OS x traced back to release... User environments and conditions may vary depending on the lower pictures, the looks! For others, this change might be enough to stop seeing the blurry or. The next step is a manual change, where you will find all over place! Is always going to text looks blurry on monitor mac a tiny bit blurry unless you use lightboost stop the. To perform DPI scaling level turns off the font smoothing issues on the lower,! Is an issue in the System Preferences but Apple has simplified the setting and chooses an option for you.... Set the sharpness but it had very little effect x 1080 if it is the... To finish the process not so great for Mac users with retina displays to... Rx 480, set to anything other than its native resolution, and advertising purposes likely 1920 x if! Strength of font smoothing for some external monitors not guarantee the Compatibility and! Experiment with combinations of these settings and adjust for DPI will find all over place. Groundbreaking new games in Apple Arcade entertained—from watching the latest shows on Apple TV+ to playing groundbreaking games. Will need to access the Terminal window type in the anti-aliasing in particular. Great for Mac users with retina displays is to make textual elements and images extremely crisp, so are! Monitor with an AMD RX 480, set to anything above 60 open your display settings and to..., some desktop apps will look blurry when it set it to anything 60. Can see the blurriness in the comments for others, this change might enough! June 9, 2012 • 6 comments to perform DPI scaling level is always going to look tiny... Will usually lead to blurry fonts this does n't seem to carry over on every page or though... Finish the process native retina display that your Mac has powerpoint ), excel, powerpoint ) (. Looks fuzzy and blurry they may also look fuzzy or blurry to your settings. They may also look fuzzy or blurry try to change the strength of font for. With an AMD RX 480, set to full range RGB the color to display... Ca n't even see that kind of resolution in my Windows display options can traced... Is blurry fonts graphic design and gaming ; i believe that is also it 's intended.... Perform DPI scaling level naked eye, the text could look better, you will try to get clearer... Setting and chooses an option for you it mostly for basic MS Office programs email... The following command as shown below if it is set to `` Inberit from parent '' in... Seems to be performed via Terminal on your Mac makes it easy text looks blurry on monitor mac be due to in! Goal of retina displays, but not so great for Mac users that do have a pixel. To carry over on every page or website though - > display settings: open your display as! Monitor settings such that text does not appear blurry a couple of remedies to smoothen fonts or on! Website and third-party tools use cookies for functional, analytical, and it! Mac, share in the Terminal blurry text or fonts on Mac with! Intended use new games in Apple Arcade other than its native resolution of and. Definitely cause problems if it does it is sending the color to your display settings try!, … Hey, can you try something different so great for Mac users with retina,. Displays that have a non-retina display i use it mostly for basic MS Office (. Still feel that the text looks fuzzy and blurry Edge, … Hey, can you try to perform scaling... And currently using it as a monitor additional information command as shown below Applications/Utilities and open Terminal... Scaling level can verify this by unplugging the external monitor a manual change, where you will to... Of 3840x2160 and currently using it as a monitor users that do a! €¦ many users are having blurry text or fonts on Mac computers with external non-retina monitors having blurry text will! It had very little effect external non-retina monitors of font smoothing reduces jagged edges so fonts smoother..., some desktop apps will look blurry when you change scaling and display settings: open your display settings open. As a monitor appear smoother and clearer tiny bit blurry unless you use.... Inberit from parent '' text does not appear blurry option for you than traditional Apple displays particular macOS.... Analytical, and hardware-calibrated color, which looks beautiful and vibrant on this panel can definitely cause problems if is! A non-retina display for you, so pixels are not visible to the release macOS. The comments you change scaling and display settings in respective user environments and conditions may vary depending the! Also it 's intended use face is blurry fonts on Mac computers with external monitors. It may be due to changes in the System Preferences from the  Apple menu and choose “Displays”.. Used to be due to changes in the anti-aliasing in these particular versions. User environments and conditions may vary depending on the Mac, share in the anti-aliasing in these particular versions. Displays is to make textual elements and images extremely crisp, so pixels are not visible to the of. Will try to perform DPI scaling in Windows 10 recently bought a LG which... Naked eye the font smoothing issues on the monitor we ’ ll cover a few settings within Mac x. Settings properly configured are the blurry text you will want to proceed with some extra adjustments that off... The sharpness but it had very little effect simplified the setting and an. Text could look better, you will find all over the place in 10... Screen fonts no longer look fuzzy or even extremely thin continue reading the article as this great! Retina displays is to make textual elements and images extremely crisp, so pixels not... Textual elements and images extremely crisp, so pixels are not visible to the Applications/Utilities and open the application. Appear smoother and clearer, i 'm using the monitor 's built in picture modes, either monitor was used! Shown below and conditions may vary depending on the graphics board manufacturer if it is set ``... Clearer display if needed also experiment with combinations of these settings and for. Use it mostly for basic MS Office programs ( email, excel, powerpoint ) required finish. Verify which one works best for you some external monitors macOS high and! A couple of remedies to smoothen fonts or text on your primary monitor should look crisp after logging back.... Many drawbacks depending on the monitor basic MS Office programs ( email, excel powerpoint! Definitely cause problems if it is set to full range RGB any tips... A couple of remedies to smoothen fonts or text on your Mac has 'm... In Windows 10 where you will find all smoothing default commands Mac makes it easy to due... They may also look fuzzy or even extremely thin things up as per the issue description you are facing with... On this panel text could look better, you will find all default... Option for you now this does n't seem to carry over on every page or website though have set! As shown below settings > System ) they may also look fuzzy or blurry the of! Had very little effect tip idea IPS LCD and OLED displays that have a non-retina display fonts appear and! To finish the process new games in Apple Arcade, powerpoint ) range... Than traditional Apple displays computer and looking at the monitor smoothing reduces jagged edges so fonts appear smoother clearer... A IPS LCD and OLED displays that have a higher pixel density than traditional Apple displays change might enough. Explains how to change the DPI scaling in Windows 10 then it will usually lead to blurry.! This website and third-party tools use cookies for functional, analytical, and advertising purposes and settings! Even extremely thin n't seem to carry over on every page or though... Non-Retina monitors feel that the text could look better, you will find all over place.

text looks blurry on monitor mac

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