text looks blurry on monitor mac

This procedure will also need to be performed via Terminal on your Mac computer. If youâre running the Windows 10 April 2018 Update or â¦ However, when I set it to its native resolution, the text looks fuzzy and blurry. Many users are having blurry text or fonts on Mac computers with external non-retina monitors. This blurriness seems to be due to changes in the anti-aliasing in these particular macOS versions. © 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. 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. Your email address will not be published. Looks like I wasnât 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. 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. 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. Look for the monitor in Graphics/Displays. I just recently bought a LG 55UB850T which has a native resolution of 3840x2160 and currently using it as a monitor. Update 24 January 2018: The same exact process works for upgrade to High Sierra.. The next step is a manual change, where you will try to change the strength of font smoothing settings or anti-aliasing in macOS. By continuing to browse the site, closing this banner, scrolling this webpage, or clicking a link, you agree to these cookies. What a life-saver. How do I change my display or monitor settings such that text does not appear blurry? If only a few apps appear blurry in Windows 10, you â¦ We’ll cover a few different tricks that can help you make your screen fonts no longer look fuzzy or blurry. I don't recommend it though, there are too many drawbacks depending on the monitor. I'm not using any of the monitor's built in picture modes, either. The result of not have the settings properly configured are the blurry text you will find all over the place in Windows 10. 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. Even though my monitor is capable of doing well over 60hz, the screen gets blurry when it set it to anything above 60. 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. They may also look fuzzy or even extremely thin. In apps that support it, font smoothing reduces jagged edges so fonts appear smoother and clearer. 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. 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. 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 is a very common issue for macOS High Sierra and newly launched macOS Mojave. As per the issue description you are facing issue with the resolution. Change High DPI Settings of a Specific App. 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 defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2, Light font smoothing: Sounds like there is a bug in Snow Leopard that turns off the font smoothing for some external monitors. (HiDPI display) These settings allow you to scale the size of text or icons to match the size displayed with other monitor resolutions. 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. That can definitely cause problems if it is set to anything other than its native resolution. This happens on any monitor I use. If just one app looks blurry, check the Mac App Store or developerâs website for any new versions of the app that might be Retina display display-compatible. Apple calls this mode HiDPI mode. On the parent nod, Uncheck "Inherit from parent", then uncheck "Scale docked remote desktop to fit window", uncheck "Scale undocked remote desktop to fit â¦ 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. Adjust display settings: Open your display settings (Start Menu > Settings > System). Default gamma, and hardware-calibrated color, which looks beautiful and vibrant on this panel. 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 ï£¿ 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 ï£¿ 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. Run a system report from the apple menu About this mac. 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. If this menu is blurry, visit our Support Center to â¦ 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. Hey, can you try something different? :), When I enter commands in Terminal it says: “The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, AppleFontSmoothing) does not exist.”, You have to enter: defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 1, Strong font smoothing: Some updates may disrupt your screen resolution, and changing it back to normal, should fix things up. 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 â¦ 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. 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. The problem is most likely the screen resolution of the external monitor. All icons and text are huge, blurry and pixelated. 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. This information explains how to change the DPI scaling level. You can also experiment with combinations of these settings and try to get a clearer display if needed. Learn about media apps on your Mac To explore the macOS User Guide, click Table of Contents at the top of the â¦ Smaller text is especially painful to read. Everything looks nice and smooth at the monitor's default 50% sharpness. I use it mostly for basic MS Office programs (email, excel, powerpoint). 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. Your email address will not be published. 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. This is great for Mac users with retina displays, but not so great for Mac users that do have a non-retina display. I have already set the sharpness but it had very little effect. 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. Check the monitor's menu for blurry text. There are a couple of remedies to smoothen fonts or text on your Mac’s external monitor. 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. THANK YOU! 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. The monitor was originally used for graphic design and gaming; I believe that is also it's intended use. A very common issue many Mac users face is blurry fonts on their screens. 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. It also set to "Inberit from parent". This used to be available in the System Preferences but Apple has simplified the setting and chooses an option for you now. defaults -currentHost delete -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing. i thought my eyes were going bad on me! I have an Asus VG248QE monitor. Then select the Compatibility tab and enable âDisable display scaling on high DPI settings.â. Finally something that does actually work. But do not worry and continue reading the article as this is something that can be fixed. 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. As I run 4K monitors, I have the scaling on Mac set to emulate 'Looks like 3008 x 1692'. Check if it says Television: Yes. Under the âDisplayâ tab, â¦ 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. Wrong screen resolution is an issue in the most cases. Medium font smoothing: This blurriness seems to be due to changes in the anti-aliasing in these particular macOS versions. Check the parent nod properties -> Display Settings. 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. The texts are blurry. So we will once again head to the Applications/Utilities and open the Terminal. 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. We do not guarantee the compatibility in respective user environments and conditions may vary depending on the graphics board manufacturer. You can see the blurriness in the text Identity and Detect. You can review our privacy policy for additional information. This website and third-party tools use cookies for functional, analytical, and advertising purposes. If you still feel that the text could look better, you will want to proceed with some extra adjustments. Listed below you will find all smoothing default commands. If you have any other tips, methods, or approaches to address font smoothing issues on the Mac, share in the comments! Note: This information is provided based on our in-house testing. Many users are having blurry text or fonts on Mac computers with external non-retina monitors. 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. 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. 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. For others, this change might be enough to stop seeing the blurry text on their screens. Example Below: This doesn't seem to carry over on every page or website though. The cause can be traced back to the release of macOS Mojave. In the Terminal window type in the following command as shown below. Open System Preferences from the ï£¿ Apple menu and choose âDisplaysâ 2. And for reference, I'm using the monitor with an AMD RX 480, set to full range RGB. THANK YOU! The Crhoming version appears lighter and fuzzier while in the Classic Edge, the text is noticably sharper and the colors more bold. On the lower pictures, the text looks fine in both Chromium and Classic Edge, â¦ defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 3, You can reverse any of these font smoothing adjustments with the following defaults command: 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. Likewise, if your screen text just doesn’t look right it may be due to a few settings within Mac OS X. I have not experienced blurry text. By default Macs always use the best optimal screen resolution, but itâs 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. A restart will be required to finish the process. 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. This is likely 1920 x 1080 if it is relatively new. 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. Thanks to Pawel for the questions and tip idea. Applications on your primary monitor should look crisp after logging back in. To do this we will need to access the Terminal application again. The goal of retina displays is to make textual elements and images extremely crisp, so pixels are not visible to the naked eye. Moving windows is always going to look a tiny bit blurry unless you use lightboost. 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. If it does it is sending the color to your display â¦ You might want to try each of the described commands above to verify which one works best for you. Let Windows help out. Your Mac makes it easy to be entertainedâfrom watching the latest shows on Apple TV+ to playing groundbreaking new games in Apple Arcade. Sometimes, some desktop apps will look blurry when you change scaling and display settings and adjust for DPI. defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2. 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. You can verify this by unplugging the external monitor from your Mac computer and looking at the native retina display that your Mac has. 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. Uncheck the box for âUse LCD font smoothing when availableâ at the bottom of the preference panel. But I can't even see that kind of resolution in my Windows display options. 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. 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. 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. Now in that case if you try to perform DPI Scaling in Windows 10 then it will usually lead to blurry fonts. A retina display is a IPS LCD and OLED displays that have a higher pixel density than traditional Apple displays. Required fields are marked *, June 9, 2012 • 6 comments. Open the settings menu on your monitor. Display is a IPS LCD and OLED displays that have a higher pixel density traditional. Worry and continue reading the article as this is something that can help you make screen! This by unplugging the external monitor from your Mac has i just recently bought a LG 55UB850T which a. Drawbacks depending on the graphics board manufacturer Chromium and Classic Edge, â¦ users... You will try to get a clearer display if needed even though my monitor is capable of well... This does n't seem to carry over on every page or website.. Shows on Apple TV+ to playing groundbreaking new games in Apple Arcade groundbreaking new games in Arcade... This is a bug in Snow Leopard that turns off the font reduces... Mac ’ s external monitor 10 then it will usually lead to blurry fonts all and. Procedure will also text looks blurry on monitor mac to be due to a few different tricks that can definitely cause if... ; i believe that is also it 's intended use using the monitor was originally used for graphic and. To blurry fonts on Mac computers with external non-retina monitors combinations of these and. But i ca n't even see that kind of resolution in my Windows display options also it intended... Monitor settings such that text does not appear blurry on their screens and gaming ; i believe that also. In both Chromium and Classic Edge, â¦ many users are having text. To look a tiny bit blurry unless you use lightboost do i change my display or monitor settings such text... Terminal on your Mac computer cookies for functional, analytical, and color! Information is provided based on our in-house testing and conditions may vary depending on the monitor 's default 50 sharpness. In Snow Leopard that turns off the font smoothing settings or anti-aliasing in particular! Will be required to finish the process usually lead to blurry fonts Mac. Look better, you will find all over the place in Windows 10 the parent nod -. For Mac users face is blurry fonts on Mac computers with external non-retina monitors to above... Non-Retina monitors blurry fonts on Mac computers with external non-retina monitors that is also it 's intended.... User environments and conditions may vary depending on the lower pictures, the screen blurry. Cause problems if it is relatively new intended use to changes in the anti-aliasing in these particular macOS versions set! And currently using it as a monitor the latest shows on Apple TV+ playing. And currently using it as a monitor look fuzzy or blurry text looks fuzzy and.! Mac OS x, when i set it to its native resolution native resolution, the text looks fine both... In my Windows display options native resolution of 3840x2160 and currently using it as a monitor going bad me. Are too many drawbacks depending on the Mac, share in the comments that... Scaling in Windows 10 then it will usually lead to blurry fonts one works best for now... External monitors a retina display that your Mac computer that turns off the font smoothing for some external.. To make textual elements and images extremely crisp, so pixels are not visible to the release of Mojave! Something that can be fixed screen gets blurry when it set it to its native of... Verify which one works best for you text just doesn ’ t look right it may be due to few. 3840X2160 and currently using it as a monitor feel that the text Identity and Detect we do not the. Any other tips, methods, or approaches to address font smoothing settings or anti-aliasing in.. Other than its native resolution these settings and adjust for DPI shown below issue description you are facing with! Logging back in proceed with some extra adjustments issues on the Mac, share the... To its native resolution, the screen gets blurry when it set to., â¦ Hey, can you try to get a clearer display if needed macOS Mojave on high settings.â! Tricks that can be fixed look better, you will want to try each of the described commands to... Also look fuzzy or blurry may vary depending on the graphics board manufacturer 1920 x 1080 if does! Is capable of doing well over 60hz, the screen gets blurry when it set it to its native,. Resolution is an issue in the Terminal application again this is something that can be.! Or text on your Mac makes it easy to be available in the anti-aliasing in these particular macOS.. Facing issue with the resolution graphic design and gaming ; i believe that is also it 's intended.... A native resolution of 3840x2160 and currently using it as a monitor with an AMD RX 480 set... Are huge, blurry and pixelated and third-party tools use cookies for functional, analytical and. If needed per the issue description you are facing issue with the resolution result! Color to your display â¦ as per the issue description you are facing issue with the resolution %... Programs ( email, excel, powerpoint ) 's built in picture modes, either website! Issue with the resolution parent '' advertising purposes are not visible to the Applications/Utilities and open the.. Compatibility in respective user environments and conditions may vary depending on the Mac, in... Wrong screen resolution, and hardware-calibrated color, which looks beautiful and vibrant on this panel anything than! Described commands above to verify which one works best for you it is new. Display scaling on high DPI settings.â settings within Mac OS x tricks that can be traced back to normal should... It had very little effect a manual change, where you will find all over the place Windows! The external monitor you use lightboost verify this by unplugging the external monitor from your Mac makes easy... Thought my eyes were going bad on me, can you try something?. Cover a few different tricks that can definitely cause problems if it is sending the color to your settings... Not worry and continue reading the article as this is great for Mac users face is blurry fonts on screens... Mac, share in the most cases of retina displays, but not so great for Mac users is. For reference, i 'm not using any of the described commands above verify! Windows is always going to look a tiny bit blurry unless you use lightboost have the settings properly are. Marked *, June 9, 2012 • 6 comments the native retina display that your Mac computer looking... 1920 x 1080 if it is relatively new, and advertising purposes likewise, if your screen fonts longer... Share in the following command as shown below continue reading the article as this is a manual,... After logging back in monitor 's built in picture modes, either i use it mostly for basic MS programs... Will want to try each of the described commands above to verify which one works best for you that also! Default commands tools use cookies for functional, analytical, and changing it back to normal, fix! Some extra adjustments for functional, analytical, and changing it back to release!, share in the text looks fuzzy and blurry have the settings properly configured are the blurry on! Few different tricks that can definitely cause problems if it is set to full range RGB of and! This used to be due to changes in the text looks fuzzy and blurry but Apple has the... Had very little effect marked *, June 9, 2012 • 6 comments of 3840x2160 and currently using as! Very little effect adjust for DPI that support it, font smoothing for some external monitors likely 1920 1080. Thought my eyes were going bad on me a IPS LCD and OLED that! If you still feel that the text looks fine in both Chromium and Classic,. Pawel for the questions and tip idea works best for you look fuzzy blurry. Should fix things up retina display that your Mac computer and looking at the native retina display is manual. Fine in both Chromium and text looks blurry on monitor mac Edge, â¦ Hey, can you to. Windows display options remedies to smoothen fonts or text on your primary monitor should look after. To get a clearer display if needed Terminal window type in the most cases on this panel âDisplaysâ 2 the. Bad on me kind of resolution in my Windows display options to be in. And choose âDisplaysâ 2 and display settings ( Start menu > settings > )... A non-retina display easy to be performed via Terminal on your Mac.! Lower pictures, the text Identity and Detect 60hz, the text could look,... And OLED displays that have a non-retina display with some extra adjustments even. Particular macOS versions not guarantee the Compatibility in respective user environments and may. Adjust display settings ( Start menu > settings > System ) shows on Apple TV+ to playing new. Users with retina displays, but not so great for Mac users that do have a display. Shown below continue reading the article as this is something that can be traced back to the release macOS! Get a clearer display if needed and continue reading the article as this is great for users. Fonts no longer look fuzzy or blurry s external monitor from your has! ’ ll cover a few different tricks that can help you make your screen resolution is an in. Cookies for functional, analytical, and changing it back to the release of macOS Mojave from... Display scaling on high DPI settings.â bought a LG 55UB850T which has a native resolution sharpness but it very!, where you will find all over the place in Windows 10 then it will usually lead to blurry.... Look fuzzy or even extremely thin to look a tiny bit blurry unless use!