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Dealing with Poor Text Rendering on Mac Mini M4 (2560x1440)

Z

zterm

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 1, 2018
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I just received my Mac Mini M4, and when I connected it via HDMI to my old Dell U2713H (2560 x 1440), I was extremely disappointed. Coming from Mojave, I hadn’t considered that the lack of text smoothing, and the somewhat unnatural sharpening would affect me so much.

Two questions for those who have suffered or are suffering from this problem:

  1. It seems that the option to enable text smoothing via the terminal no longer works. Is there any software solution that can effectively address this issue? I am trying Better Display but could not find a satisfying setting.
  2. What 27-inch or 32-inch matte display monitors suitable for graphic design and 3D work would you recommend? Please keep in mind that I’m nearly 60 years old, and my vision isn’t what it used to be.

Thanks in advance.
 
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I'm thinking that to overcome the problems you described above, you will need either:
- a 27" 4k display, but running in "looks like 1080p" (1920x1080)
OR
- a 27" 5k display, running in "looks like 1440p" (2560x1440).

What WON'T work satisfactorily:
- a 27" display that is "native" 1440p

Uncertain:
- a 27" 4k display running in "scaled" "looks like 1440p"
OR
- a 32" 4k display running in "scaled" "looks like 1440p"

There are some other threads that get into this in more detail.

I'm in my 70's, and I've found that a 27" 4k display @ "looks like 1080p" works for me (even though others might complain)...
 
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The best you can try with your current display is using BetterDisplay and enabling the HiDPI option from the menu for your native resolution. It can look a bit better.

The better solution is to upgrade your monitor to at least 4K res.
 
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I gave Better Display a shot, but honestly, I wasn’t impressed with the results—and it seems to be a bit of a memory hog, too.
Since I work with design, I really need 2560 x 1440 and that UI is sharp and small text clear. 1920 x 1080 is not enough for Cinema4D, Blender, etc.
So, like you suggested, going for a 5K monitor is probably my best bet. Just waiting on BenQ, Asus, or Dell to release their new models in the EU..
The Asus one’s already out in the US, and BenQ recently announced another one that will be available after CES 2025.
 
Here is a great article I read regarding this.

Monitor Resolution Guide for macOS

Seeing as Apple just released a great monitor-less Mac, in the new M4 Mac Mini1, it makes sense that there’s more external display discussions surrounding Macs. After answering a couple of questions on Reddit here, I thought I’d try to write a guide. Because, if you don’t use a screen made by...
havn.blog havn.blog
 
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How far do you sit from the monitor? That affects what is "Retina" for you.

218 ppi - Retina at >16" seating distance - 27" 5K - 27" iMac or Studio Display
184 ppi - Retina at >19" seating distance - 24" 4K - This looks very good, but 24" is too small for some people
163 ppi - Retina at >21" seating distance - 27" 4K - Very common and relatively inexpensive monitor class
138 ppi - Retina at >25" seating distance - 32" 4K - Very popular with Windows users, but I'm not a fan on macOS
109 ppi - Retina at >32" seating distance - 27" 2560 x 1440 - Looks bad on macOS, as you've discovered

My eyes are ~22-25" from my screen. I find 163 ppi quite good, but not quite as crisp as the 218 ppi 27" iMac. Some ergonomists suggest sitting >20" from a desktop screen.

I suggest you try a 163 ppi 27" 4K screen and see if it works for you. It should be relatively decent unless you sit really close to the screen.

P.S. It's not that macOS Sequoia unnaturally sharpens the text. It's the exact opposite. The text is left untouched so you are seeing its true jaggedness, whereas in older versions of macOS, the text was artificially softened up with sub-pixel anti-aliasing to make the edges look less jagged.
 
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I have a 23 inch Apple Studio display that I was planning on using with my new mini, but when I was at micro center I saw they had the Dell 4k 27 inch model for $199.99 and I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did. It looks very good in "looks like 1080p" as well as in the higher scaled resolutions. In contrast, the studio display (1920 x 1200) looks worse than it did when connected to my old 27 inch iMac. I would have been pretty disappointed using that as my main display (but it's fine as a second). The dell is not as nice as the iMac was, but it's more than good enough for now. Well worth the cost.
 
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DerKommissar said:
I have a 23 inch Apple Studio display that I was planning on using with my new mini, but when I was at micro center I saw they had the Dell 4k 27 inch model for $199.99 and I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did. It looks very good in "looks like 1080p" as well as in the higher scaled resolutions. In contrast, the studio display (1920 x 1200) looks worse than it did when connected to my old 27 inch iMac. I would have been pretty disappointed using that as my main display (but it's fine as a second). The dell is not as nice as the iMac was, but it's more than good enough for now. Well worth the cost.
Click to expand...
Do you mean Cinema HD Display?

BTW, it's too bad the resolution is so low, because the design looks great with the M4 Mac mini.

IMG_5810.jpeg
 
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EugW said:
Do you mean
EugW said:
Do you mean Cinema HD Display?

BTW, it's too bad the resolution is so low, because the design looks great with the M4 Mac mini.
Click to expand...
Cinema HD Display?

BTW, it's too bad the resolution is so low, because the design looks great with the M4 Mac mini.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's the one. I still love it, but the lack of sub pixel rendering in the current OS makes it chunky at times. I actually have two, but one is the 1st revision and it's a bit less bright and has a bit worse contrast.
 
I have no idea if this still works in Sequoia, but you used to be able to turn the old font smoothing on with some combination of
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 1
defaults write -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool NO
Change to -int 0 and YES to turn it off. You can try 2 or 3 instead of 1 for stronger smoothing.
As always, do research before running command line stuff from random strangers on the Internet.
 
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Beau Slim said:
I have no idea if this still works in Sequoia, but you used to be able to turn the old font smoothing on with some combination of
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 1
defaults write -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool NO
Change to -int 0 and YES to turn it off. You can try 2 or 3 instead of 1 for stronger smoothing.
As always, do research before running command line stuff from random strangers on the Internet.
Click to expand...
Hasn’t worked for the last several generations of macOS unfortunately.
 
After almost giving up and thinking I’d need to buy a new monitor ASAP, I decided to try a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter yesterday. I unplugged the HDMI, hooked up the MacMini via DisplayPort, and the image quality instantly improved. The resolution is the same, but the picture looks way better. I’ve never used HDMI to connect a monitor before, but I always figured, being digital, it’d have the same quality as DisplayPort. Turns out I was totally wrong.
 
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zterm said:
After almost giving up and thinking I’d need to buy a new monitor ASAP, I decided to try a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter yesterday. I unplugged the HDMI, hooked up the MacMini via DisplayPort, and the image quality instantly improved. The resolution is the same, but the picture looks way better. I’ve never used HDMI to connect a monitor before, but I always figured, being digital, it’d have the same quality as DisplayPort. Turns out I was totally wrong.
Click to expand...
If there is any difference between HDMI and DP, then it might be a monitor specific quirk or it defaulted to a lower resolution over HDMI.

There should be no difference in image quality between the different output types.
 
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The resolution’s the same, I checked, but the quality’s totally different. It’s like HDMI turned off font smoothing or something.
 
zterm said:
The resolution’s the same, I checked, but the quality’s totally different. It’s like HDMI turned off font smoothing or something.
Click to expand...
Could it select a different picture preset on the display for different ports? Check the display OSD.

I currently have one very large superultrawide connected to my M2 Max MBP via both USB-C to DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1, no difference in image quality so this is likely a monitor specific issue.
 
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In the other thread they are suggesting DP *does* change the rendering available.

The thinking is the HDMI port is low performance or saps resources vs. DP running over Thunderbolt which offers "full-fat" display options.

My opinion is the HDMI is being deprecated.
 
On my M1, 4K looked identical on HDMI and USB-C / DisplayPort, as it should. I haven’t tried with my M4.

blufrog said:
My opinion is the HDMI is being deprecated.
Click to expand...
What thread? Rather than deprecating HDMI, they just upgraded it in M4.
 
EdwardC said:
- a 27" 4k display, but running in "looks like 1080p" (1920x1080)".........I use this and the results look really good!
Click to expand...
This thread inspired me to look, and that's the setting MacOS selected as the default when I connected my mini to my LG 27" 4k, and I also think it looks really good.
 
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A 4k monitor scaled to look like 1080p is ideal IF you don't mind the larger size of the UI. It's nice and crisp and a perfect 2x scaling factor. Changing it to look like 1440p (or any other non-integer scaled resolution) gives you more real estate but introduces potential issues with blurriness and visual artifacts like shimmering.

A 1440p monitor displayed at its native resolution is perfect UI wise but obviously not as crisp due to the lower PPI. 27" is probably fine. 32" I imagine doesn't look particularly good.
 
This evening, once again, I tested HDMI versus DisplayPort using a 4K/8K USB/DP converter, and the difference was striking. The screen size is identical, but fonts through HDMI look pixelated—almost like they’ve been scaled down and then up again, with some sharpening added. It seems to be an issue with how HDMI handles font and thin lines rendering.

Interestingly, when I took screen captures, they looked identical. My HDMI cable is 1 meter long and 4K-compatible, so that shouldn’t be the problem. I also snapped some photos with my phone, and the difference can be seen. I’ll upload those later.

If anyone can test an M4 setup with HDMI versus USB/TB on a 1440p monitor, I’m pretty sure you’ll see the same difference. Let me know if you try it!
 
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zterm said:
This evening, once again, I tested HDMI versus DisplayPort using a 4K/8K USB/DP converter, and the difference was striking. The screen size is identical, but fonts through HDMI look pixelated—almost like they’ve been scaled down and then up again, with some sharpening added. It seems to be an issue with how HDMI handles font and thin lines rendering.
Click to expand...
Your HDMI cable might have been the culprit. There are levels of quality to HDMI cables, which determines how much data they can carry.
 
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