Betterdisplay pro12/11/2023 ![]() In this case, macOS renders the screen at 5120 x 2880 to a virtual buffer, then scales it down by 2 x to achieve 2560 x 1440.ĭisplay scaling - this method of rendering the screen at a higher resolution and then scaling down by 2 x - is how macOS can render smoothly at many different display resolutions. However, if you reduce it to the equivalent of 2560 x 1440 on a 4K monitor, macOS calculates scaling differently because 3840 x 2160 divided by 2560 x 1440 is 1.5, not 2. If you go to System Settings -> Displays, you can change the scaling factor. The difference between native scaling and display scaling on a 4K monitor. For many, this makes for uncomfortably large viewing. Since both 5K and 4K screens are physically the same size with the same scaling factor, the lower pixel density of the 4K one means that everything will appear bigger. ![]() This has a resolution of 3840 x 2160, so the same 2 x scaling factor will result in an interface size the equivalent of 1920 x 1080. Then consider connecting a 27-inch 4K monitor to the same Mac. Since macOS has been designed for this, everything appears at its intended size. It has a resolution of 5120 x 2880, so macOS will double the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the UI, thus rendering your desktop at the equivalent of 2560 x 1440. And if you deviate from this, you run into compromises.įor example, take the Apple Studio Display, which is 27 inches in size. The result is that macOS is designed for a pixel density of 218 ppi, which Apple's Retina monitors provide. So, when Apple introduced the Retina standard, it also scaled up the user interface by four times. This makes for uncomfortably tiny viewing. Increasing a display's pixel density by four times presents a problem: if you don't adjust anything, all of the elements in the user interface will be four times smaller. However, now Apple has re-entered the external monitor market, and you have to decide whether to pair your Mac with either a Retina display, such as the Pro Display XDR or Studio Display, or some other non-Retina option.Īnd part of that decision depends on whether you're concerned about matching macOS's resolution standard. So, if you needed a standalone or a second monitor, going officially Retina wasn't an option. This was great, but it appeared Apple had abandoned making its standalone monitors, leaving that task to LG in 2016. From that point onward, Apple gradually brought the Retina display to all its Macs with integrated screens. ![]() ![]() In a world where Apple's idea of display resolution is different from that of the PC monitor industry, it's time to make sense of how these two standards meet and meld on your Mac's desktop.Īpple introduced the Retina display to the Mac with the 13-inch MacBook Pro on the 23rd of October 2012, packing in four times the pixel density. A MacBook connected to an external monitor. ![]()
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