Mac os display scaling

Question: Q: DPI scaling options missing

My Mac Mini late 2014 won’t show the DPI scaling options in the display preferences panel. The monitor is a Samsung 4k UE590 connected with HDMI.

Posted on Aug 15, 2017 7:07 PM

Helpful answers

I can select resolutions all the way up to 4k. That’s not the problem. The DPI scaling options are missing. The Dock and menus are tiny at 4k resolution. So the scaling lets you blow up the UI to compensate. And that option is missing int he Display preference panel.

Aug 16, 2017 8:23 AM

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Select Default for the display, then hold the Alt (option) key and select Scaled. Keep in mind that the HDMI port may only support a max of 1080p (1920×1080).

If that does not get the full resolution, then you will need to connect it to one of your Mac Mini’s Thunderbolt ports using a MiniDisplay Port to Display Port cable. for example: > https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Mini-DisplayPort-Adapter-Cable/dp/B002XVYZ82

Aug 15, 2017 8:34 PM

I can select resolutions all the way up to 4k. That’s not the problem. The DPI scaling options are missing. The Dock and menus are tiny at 4k resolution. So the scaling lets you blow up the UI to compensate. And that option is missing int he Display preference panel.

Aug 16, 2017 8:23 AM

Aug 16, 2017 12:35 PM

You know I saw that. But it’s a bit of a hack. And I don’t think there is a way select a scaling size. Could the Mac have trouble identifying my monitor’s capabilities somehow? It does think the «Default for your display» is 1080p. System information lists it as 1920×1080. Could that be why the scaling options are missing?

Aug 17, 2017 6:39 PM

Could the Mac have trouble identifying my monitor’s capabilities somehow? It does think the «Default for your display» is 1080p. System information lists it as 1920×1080. Could that be why the scaling options are missing?

Yes and yes, that is what I was trying to telling you.

You should be using a higher resolution Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable with that monitor.

Aug 17, 2017 9:44 PM

No. Nothing you have said helped all that much. The answer is that it’s either a bug or a poorly implemented feature depending on what Mac you have. And that’s okay. People shouldn’t expect so much from something still under development. It’s the best thing or I wouldn’t be using it. Mic drop.

My education had to start here though. I did not understand how OS X scales the GUI elements for higher resolutions. I assumed the resolution was picked from one screen. But the slider panel «larger text to more space» was for setting the GUI scaling resolution. But this is not the case. The (retina?) slider, selects a predetermined set of resolution and % of GUI size scaling up or down. It’s a combo slider. Not unlike shifting gears.

The reasons why you may or may not get the slider depend on a variety of things. And I know some of them are good reasons. And for the others you can point to reasonable technical explanations why this is. But for most customers I can think of for Macs, it’s not going to be believed that the Mac they resize text and graphics on all day. can’t resize text and graphics? It’s immaterial what the technical reason is. The technical reason is the detailed explanation of the bug, not the feature.

But even when you do get the slider it’s a rudimentary implementation of scaling when compared to other offerings. And that can’t be unnoticed by graphics professionals. Actually it probably doesn’t go unnoticed in the dorm room with parents comparing the two most popular offerings. I might not mind. It’s a fun puzzle to solve. But it’s the consumer that might not want to edit some «wackidy file» that is undoubtedly in my future.

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Mac os display scaling

A Guide To Creating Scaled Resolutions in MacOS

WARNING: Try this at your own risk. I am not an expert in display hardware and am not responsible for any damage to components or system files. Additionally, this may place a greater burden on your graphics card.

Update: This process still works for Big Sur, albiet with a small modification. Apple Silicon support is still uncertain as I do not have a platform to test on.

Despite being an Apple fanatic and avid Mac user, something has always frustrated me about MacOS. Unlike Windows, MacOS is unable to natively create custom scaled resolutions without losing pixel density. However, there is a catch: If Apple deems the display to be “Retina” then you get a different resolution selector with options for “More Space” and “Less Space” that is effectively scaling the display without losing pixel density.

This can be frustrating when MacOS arbitrarily decides that a high-resolution monitor is not classified as “Retina” and cannot therefore have scaled resolutions. I have a 25” Acer G257HU monitor with a resolution 2560×1440. Running at 1440p, items along the menu bar appear too small and are hardly readable from a significant distance. However, since it is not deemed a “Retina” monitor the only true resolution-preserving options that appear are 2x, 3x, etc. zoom. This would leave me with a scaled resolution of 720p which is too large. What I want is a scaled resolution of around 125% that would give me the scale of 1080p.

I knew this had to be possible since Apple’s own ancient thunderbolt display can do it. It runs at a resolution of 1440p yet has the Retina scaling options of “More Space” or “Less Space” that allow it to preserve resolution. Thus began my hunt off-and-on for over a year that resulted in me reading many articles and corrupting many system files in my computer to no avail until I finally figured it out. Because of the time and effort I went through to get this working, I wanted to share the process for any other curious individuals interested in creating scaled resolutions. The steps are actually relatively straightforward although somewhat finnicky.

Step 1: Disable SIP

In order to complete this process, you will need to have full Administrative access to your computer. iMore has a helpful article detailing the steps to disable System Integrity Protection which is necessary to modify system files.

Additionally, if you are running MacOS 10.15 Catalina or newer, system files are not modifiable by the user for safety. To bypass this, open terminal and type the following commands:

Now the system hard drive partition should be modifiable by the user.

Step 2: Download RDM

Sometimes System Preferences does not show all of the resolutions possible with your monitor. To bypass this, there are several free utilities that can be used. One I have found to work well is RDM.

Once you have downloaded and installed RDM, it will run as a menu bar application. It allows you to see all the options for your screen resolution.

Here’s what RDM looks like on my system running a 1440p monitor with some custom HiDPI resolutions I’ve created:

Step 3: Enable HiDPI

In order for your Mac to support scaling, it must have the option for HiDPI (a.k.a. scaled) resolutions turned on. Most newer Macs will have it turned on as default.

If HiDPI is enabled you will see lightning bolt emojis next to resolutions in RDM as can be seen in my screenshot from above. This means that these resolutions are full-quality scaled Hi-DPI resolutions.

Another option to check if HiDPI is enabled is under Displays in System Preferences. Under the Display tab, hold the Option key while selecting Scaled. It will show several resolution options that MacOS suggests for your monitor. If HiDPI is enabled on your system, you will likely see a resolution that is ½ the size of your monitor’s native resolution that has “(HiDPI)” next to the resolution.

The largest HiDPI option for a 1440p monitor will likely be 720p which is a 2x scale. In order to add different resolutions, we will need to modify the file that contains these values.

If HiDPI is not enabled, you can run:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true

Restart the system to enable.

Step 4: Determine Your Display

There are two methods: downloading Hackintool or manually locating the display information. Manually locating the information may not work for some monitors where color profile information is missing.

Open Hackintool and select the Displays tab. Under this tab, all of the displays connected to the computer will be listed with their Vendor and Product IDs. Remember these values for your external monitor. They will be used for locating your display file.

Under Displays in System Preferences, select the tab Color. Select the default color profile for your computer (usually called “Color LCD” or the name of your monitor) and click Open Profile.

A ColorSync Utility window opens with the selected profile. Scroll to the last line in the file which should have a description of “Apple display make and model information.”

The pieces of information we want from this screen are the Manufacturer and Model tags. This will allow us to find in the system what file is being used to supply the resolutions.

Record the non-zero values in the Manufacturer and Model fields. For example, my Acer monitor with my Hackintosh is 472 and 416 or my monitor with my MacBook Pro is 620 and A022.

Step 5: Locate Your Display File

Big Sur 11.0 and above: Navigate to /Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/ Catalina 10.15 and below: Navigate to /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/

Navigate to the folder that is DisplayVendorID- with the Manufacturer number of your color profile on the end. Inside this folder should be a file that is DisplayProductID- with the Model number of your color profile on the end. This file will contain the resolutions that your computer can display.

However, a file with the specified name may not exist. In this case, you will have to create the file. Thankfully, someone has made a website for this.

Step 6: Generate Resolutions

Here’s the most important part that was hindering me for a long time because I couldn’t seem to find it posted anywhere. You need to create BOTH the scaled HiDPI resolution that you want and DOUBLE that resolution.

For instance, I wanted my 1440p monitor to scale to 1080p so I needed to create entries for 1920x1080p HiDPI as well as for 3840x2160p HiDPI. Without the 2160p entry, my monitor would not accept 1080p as a HiDPI option. This had me stuck for an obnoxiously long time. Weird. I suspect this tricks MacOS into believing it is a true 2x scaling and thus is allowed instead of a weird scaling value.

Type the color profile model that we found earlier under the DisplayProductID field and the color profile manufacturer under the DisplayVendorID field. Next add desired resolutions. Make sure all resolutions have HiDPI selected.

Here’s what I generated for my system based on my monitor and the resolutions I desired:

If your system already has the file for your display, I recommend creating only the new resolutions you want and copying those lines into the existing file. Otherwise, click the button in the bottom right to download the file. Save it somewhere memorable. Do not change the name, as the generator creates the correct name for your monitor.

Step 7: Change Display File

If the file already exists:

Before you change the display file, make sure to create a copy. Create a copy on your desktop of the original file in case something goes wrong and you needed to reset to the original. Duplicate this newly created copy. This will be the file to change.

If the file does not already exist:

Copy the downloaded file into the system folder we found in Step 4 that should contain the file. If the information is put into the website correctly, the downloaded file will be readable by the computer and no editing is necessary.

Reboot the machine for the changes to take effect. If the file’s name and location are correct for your system, then MacOS should automatically recognize the file and see the new resolutions. Open RDM and select the resolution you wish to use. And voila! Now you can use scaled resolutions.

After a reboot the system files are no longer modifiable. You will need to run the terminal command from Step 1 after each reboot if you would like to modify the file. System Integrity Protection (SIP) will likely stay disabled until the next MacOS update modifies the recovery partition. If you would like to reenable SIP, the link from Step 1 details the process to reenable SIP.

Feel free to contact me if you find this helpful or have more questions. I’d love to hear your feedback!

One huge shout-out to this article:

This developer created the tool to generate the scaled resolutions. Their knowledge helped me immensely when getting this working.

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How to Increase All System Font Size in Mac OS X

Mac OS X defaults to a predefined set system font size for all onscreen text and user interface elements, and while many users will find the default text size to be sufficient, some users may wish the system font size was larger, and some may wish the Mac system text size was smaller. It turns out that Mac OS may not offer a method of directly changing all system fonts, but instead Mac users can adjust their screen to increase or decrease the size of the system font, onscreen text, and everything else seen on screen as well.

To change the system text size this way, we’ll be changing the screen resolution of the Mac display itself. In some cases, this may mean running on a non-native scaled resolution, which tends to look best on Retina displays. There’s a trade-off with this approach in that you lose or gain screen real estate (space for windows and stuff on the display) in order to increase or decrease the size of text and interface elements. The example images below will help to show this, but it’s better experienced yourself on your own Mac and display.

How to Increase Screen Element & Text Size in Mac OS X

This will increase the size of all onscreen fonts and interface elements by using a different display resolution, it’s slightly different for Retina displays and non-Retina displays, we’ll cover both:

1. Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”
2. Go to the “Display” preference panel, then to the “Display” tab
   • For Retina Display Macs:
     1. Next to the “Resolution” section, choose “Scaled”
     2. Select “Larger Text” from the options available, you will see a pop-up message saying “Are you sure you want to switch to this scaled resolution? When using this scaled resolution, some applications may not fit entirely on screen.” so choose “OK” to confirm that you wish to use the larger text size scaled resolution

     

   • For Non-Retina Macs & External Displays:
     1. Next to the “Resolution” section, choose “Scaled”
     2. Select a smaller screen resolution from the list of available resolutions, this may include 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, or direct resolutions like 1600 x 900, 1024 x 768, 800 x 600, 640 x 480 – to make the onscreen text size and other onscreen elements larger aim for a smaller number, such as 720p or 1024×768

     

3. When satisfied with the size of the onscreen element size, font size, and text size, close out of System Preferences and use the Mac as usual

The “Larger Text” option for Retina displays is similar to 1024×768 on a non-Retina display, and will dramatically increase the size of onscreen text and interface elements for most Mac laptops like the MacBook and MacBook Pro, as well as iMac and other high resolution displays. Setting the screen resolution to 1024×768 or larger on a non-Retina display will also dramatically increase the size of onscreen fonts and interface elements.

The animated GIF below demonstrates the four Retina settings being cycled between, with Larger Text being the first and displaying as the biggest of the group.

The Larger Text scaled display resolution option is great for users who have difficulty reading or interacting with onscreen elements with MacBook Pro and iMac displays, but it’s also incredibly helpful to use when any Mac is connected to a TV screen and viewed at a distance, since elements and interactions will be larger and easier to read at the larger size.

The other sizes, such as “More Space”, allow for considerably more screen real estate but at the expense of much smaller fonts and interactive interface elements. This trade-off largely depends on the user.

What do the Scaled Display Sizes Look Like?

You really need to use the different resolutions on the individual Mac yourself to get the best idea possible of how things will look on the individual screen, but the images below will give you a general idea of how large or small various items will appear on a display. As you can see, the font and text sizes change as well as the size of everything else on screen, including buttons, icons, windows, menu bars, title bars, literally the size of everything on screen is impacted by adjusting and scaling resolutions this way:

Mac OS X set to display “Larger Text”

Mac OS X set to display size “Default”

Mac OS X set to display in-between scale size of text / space

Mac OS X set to display as “More Space”

For Macs with secondary screens or an external display, you can show all possible display resolutions for an external screen to reveal other screen resolutions which may otherwise be hidden from the Mac OS X default options.

Some may consider this a workaround, but aside from individually adjusting the font size in various applications, this is the only way to universally impact all onscreen text and font sizes on the Mac. It’s possible Apple will introduce greater text size and font size controls in future versions of Mac OS X, but in the meantime, adjusting the screen resolution is the only way to universally change the size of things seen on the display of any Mac.

Changing Font Size of Individual Apps in Mac OS X

We have shown how to change the text and font sizes in many other Mac apps before, if you want to set individual application font sizes the following articles may be helpful to improve readability:

There are also similar options for iOS devices, but we’re focusing primarily on the Mac here. If you’re interested in finding adjustments for text items on an iPhone or iPad, use our search bar to locate tutorials for individual apps.

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