Mar 28, 2017 macOS Sierra: Adjust your display’s resolution. After the display is connected, choose Apple menu System Preferences, click Displays, then click Display. Press the Option key while you click Scaled to see additional resolutions for the second display. Then select a scaled resolution option for the second display. For example, the external monitor connected to our Mac in the screenshots is a 27-inch Dell P2715Q 4K monitor, with a native resolution of 3840×2160. OS X suggests a “default” resolution of a Retina-scaled 1920×1080 equivalent, and we have the choice to set other resolutions ranging from an equivalent of 1504×846 to the full 3840×2160. The MacBook Retina display on the MacBook Pro and the new MacBook with a 12-inch Retina Display looks beautiful. However, because of the way Apple designed them, the effective MacBook screen resolution doesn’t show as much on the screen as user might expect from a screen with a 2304×1440 resolution. Aug 27, 2015 Though it’s generally recommended to use the ‘Default for display’ screen resolution option, Mac users who connect their computer to an external display or TV may find it helpful to be able to see, access, and use all possible display resolutions for a particular screen. This can be particularly useful if a display is either showing at an incorrect screen resolution, or if you’d like. Learn here how to vary/ adjust Screen Resolution on Mac running on MacOS High Sierra, EI Capitan, Yosemite. Adjust resolution in 13-inch, 15-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac Pro, Mac Mini as well 5k 27 inch iMac resolution. May 28, 2019 You can change the display resolution of your Mac to make text larger or gain more space. There are some predefined scaled resolutions available, but you can get more granular control over your display’s resolution. Normally a Mac will run its display at the resolution Apple.
Your display’s resolution determines the size of text and objects on your screen. By default, the resolution on your display is set to show the sharpest text and the most detailed images. While it’s best to use the default resolution, you can manually set the resolution to make text and objects appear larger on your screen, or adjust it to make text and objects appear smaller so you have more space on your screen.
Set the resolution for your primary display
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Displays, then click Display.
Select Scaled, then select one of the options.
Virtualbox Display Resolution Mac Os
Set the resolution for a connected display
If you have more than one display, additional resolution options are available after the display is connected.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Displays, then click Display.
Press and hold the Option key while you click Scaled to see additional resolutions for the second display.
Select a scaled resolution option for the second display.
Depending on how you adjust the resolution, some app windows may not fit entirely on the screen. Using a scaled resolution may affect performance.
See alsoIf there’s no picture on your Mac after you change the resolutionUse multiple displays with your MacSet Accessibility preferences on MacApple Support article: Using a Retina displayApple Support article: Using brightness controls with vintage and obsolete displays
You can change the display resolution of your Mac to make text larger or gain more space. There are some predefined scaled resolutions available, but you can get more granular control over your display’s resolution.
Normally a Mac will run its display at the resolution Apple believes is best. There are also four or five different options—depending on your Mac and display and highlighted below—that provide different outcomes. They’re fine, but they’re options to make text bigger or your desktop larger without using the number-based resolutions we all understand. But if you do some digging, you can get some real control over your display by making actual resolutions available to you.
RELATED:How to Run Your Retina Display at its Native Resolution
Why is Display Resolution Important?
A display’s resolution is the number of pixels available both horizontally and vertically. A 4K display has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, or 3840 pixels horizontally, and 2160 pixels vertically.
How much information you can see on-screen at any given time is governed by its resolution. Higher resolutions mean that more things can be shown on-screen. Those things could be windows, icons, photos, or text in a document. Because of the larger resolution, however, that also means all on-screen elements are smaller, which is something else to consider.
Larger displays usually also have higher resolutions than smaller ones, especially if they are of good quality.
What Makes Retina, Retina?
The direct link between how many pixels a display has and how much space is available on-screen is broken by Apple’s use of Retina displays. Apple defines a Retina display as one whose pixel density is so high that your eyes can’t see individual pixels when you’re sitting at a reasonable viewing distance.
For you, that means a tack sharp image. And it’s also where scaling comes into effect.
An excellent example of how Retina displays change the way we think of resolutions is the 5K 27-inch iMac with a resolution of 5120 x 2880. You would expect everything to be tiny at that resolution, but because macOS scales everything up, it’s not. Everything looks great because of the high resolution, but because it’s scaled, you can still read it.
Scaling works by taking something that would typically use a single pixel and making it use multiples of two instead. That allows a larger display resolution to be used without shrinking on-screen items to the point of being difficult to see. It also gives you the flexibility of using a display’s native resolution at all times.
Some scaling options are made available by default, and they get the job done. But they’re vague, and there’s a way to select a more precise resolution.
Why Selecting a Resolution Might be Important
If you need to know precisely which resolution you are using, the scaled options won’t cut it. Some apps and games might need specific resolutions to be used, for example.
When selecting a precise resolution, there are more options available than the default ones your Mac shows you. That can be super useful if you have particular needs that aren’t catered for typically.
How to Select a Precise Resolution
There might be times where you want full control over the resolution of your Mac’s display. You can override macOS’s scaling and go back to the old resolution-to-size ratio instead.
Click the Apple logo at the top of the screen and then click “System Preferences.”
Click “Displays.”
The Displays preference panel shows the four scaled resolution options, but no actual resolutions. Hold the Option key and click “Scaled” to see them.
Click a resolution to apply it.
Your Mac’s display will refresh, and you can close System Preferences.
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