External monitor - fonts and icons fuzzy / blurry

[jcf75]

Hi,


I just received yesterday my new MacBook pro 16 M1 Max to replace my old MacBook pro 13 Intel i7.

I'm used to plug my laptop on ultrawide monitor LG 38wn75c-b.
With my old laptop everything was perfect and the resolution is sharp.
Also on my other laptop, Dell XPS running on Linux, everything is perfect.


But with the new MacBook m1, it looks really blurry and fuzzy, especially fonts and icons.
Of course I tried all settings but nothing to do.


Does someone have the same issue ? Any solution ?


It's really disappointing because it's not possible to work with.

Thank you for your help,

Regards

 

[jcf75]

I don't really want to change my monitor but in case it's the only one solution. Which one could fit ?
Maybe if problem is only for ultrawide, two 27" can be ok ?

 

[Slartibart]

How do you connect your monitor? you can try BetterDisplay (formerly BetterDummy) - it allows you to use HiDPI ("Retina") on sub-4K displays.

 

[QuietOC]

MacOS can only achieve one third the text resolution of Windows horizontally. I recommend finding a much higher resolution monitor.

 

[jcf75]

How do you connect your monitor? you can try BetterDisplay (formerly BetterDummy) - it allows you to use HiDPI ("Retina") on sub-4K displays.

Thank you for your response, I tried this workaround but it did not work

 

[jcf75]

MacOS can only achieve one third the text resolution of Windows horizontally. I recommend finding a much higher resolution monitor.

Damn, it's a good monitor actually and it works well with my old Macbook.
Which screen can you advice ? Something like 5k monitor ?

 

[QuietOC]

I had a 5k iMac for awhile--27" is too small.

The Pro Display XDR seems like the best option. Sure, it is expensive.

I've got a 32" 4k UHD Thunderbolt monitor and 27" QHD next to it. I mainly use the 32". A 34" 5k2k display might be good.

 

[JayKay514]

It ought to work fine. Have you tried setting the scaling to native (1:1, not HiDPI) to see if that is supported? In Display Preferences, hold Option while clicking the Scaled radio button to see a complete list of resolutions. If your LG's native resolution isn't there, you may be stuck with a scaled resolution.

 

[gaminos]

Same issue here with LG34WN80C

Text is really blurry.
Didn't find any solution yet, mitigation with higher sharpness and changing fonts in apps (when possible), but it's still far from crisp windows sharpness :/


Snapshot of preferences on MBP display:

Snapshot of preferences on LG34WN80C : blurryyy

 

[xraydoc]

It's how macOS handles fonts on non-high DPI displays. There's several threads here about it -- I recommend doing a search and reading them. Lots of good information in them. The bottom line is that a low-DPI display is working the way it's intended, though the sharpness of fonts can leave a little to be desired. macOS prioritizes shape and spacing of text at the expense of some potential blurriness, while Windows prioritizes sharpness at the expense of shape and spacing (which is why on Windows sometimes certain letters look like there's extra space or missing space between them).

However, gaminos, make sure you're using the display's native resolution. I can't tell from the screen shot (since it shows a scaled resolution) if you're using your display's native resolution or not. That will also help make things look better.

 

[gaminos]

3440x1400 is indeed the native resolution :/
Have to disable anti-aliasing in-app parameters whenever possible to make things crisp..

 

[MrGunny94]

3440x1400 is indeed the native resolution :/
Have to disable anti-aliasing in-app parameters whenever possible to make things crisp..

Yeah I have the same issue with my ultra wide. Have it only for gaming, bought an Apple Studio Display instead now.

 

[kasakka]

Same issue here with LG34WN80C

Text is really blurry.
Didn't find any solution yet, mitigation with higher sharpness and changing fonts in apps (when possible), but it's still far from crisp windows sharpness :/


Snapshot of preferences on MBP display:

View attachment 2044076
Snapshot of preferences on LG34WN80C : blurryyy
View attachment 2044077

There's nothing unusual at work here. You are comparing a massively high pixels per inch Macbook Pro display to a fairly low pixels per inch ultrawide.

The Macbook Pro display is already using a scaled resolution whereas your LG is not. Using scaled resolutions allows for better text by simply having more pixels to represent each letter, at the cost of desktop space and UI size. The MBP display resolution is chosen to work well at the scaling options it provides for its size.

Since the resolution on your display is fairly low for its size, scaling is not a viable option. So you just have to deal with the fact that MacOS will be much less sharp.

The issue with MacOS is that it often refuses to work as a HiDPI display for many external monitors, especially if they are 1440p or otherwise deviate from 16:9 4K+ screens. There is no reason why the OS couldn't also do doubled native resolution which might result in better text rendering. Apple just doesn't allow it and has rules in place to prevent HiDPI support for no good reason.

 

[bootz]

Thank you for your response, I tried this workaround but it did not work

What didn't work? The trial includes the Pro version, which allows you to use a plethora of HiDPI resolutions without much setup at all. I'm doing it using a U3415W from 2015 with a native resolution of 3440x1440. I believe all I had to do is enable Custom display configuration for the external monitor. Works beautifully.

 

[gaminos]

What didn't work? The trial includes the Pro version, which allows you to use a plethora of HiDPI resolutions without much setup at all. I'm doing it using a U3415W from 2015 with a native resolution of 3440x1440. I believe all I had to do is enable Custom display configuration for the external monitor. Works beautifully.

So, on your MBP with M1 chip, you have a working crispy option 3440x1440 HiDPI?

 

[xraydoc]

I thought the regular M1 couldn’t do high-DPI wider than 3008 pixels. The Pro/Max/Ultra can, however.

 

[bootz]

So, on your MBP with M1 chip, you have a working crispy option 3440x1440 HiDPI?

I mean, it is not crisp like a display that meets the true specifications of a Retina monitor. I would say it looks the best somewhere in the 1080p-1200p HiDPI mode. You can also run in 3440x1440 HiDPI (or even higher, if you wanted to). Those resolutions in HiDPI mode look much better than 3440x1440 native. I don't know the exact science as to why 1080p-1200p HiDPI looks better than 1440p HiDPI, but you can check on some discussions on it here.

I’m using the M1 Pro chip, and when using the Virtual Dummy Display method, the computer can generate resolutions up to 8176 x 4599 HiDPI or 16352 x 9198 standard resolution. Of course, this is scaled up or down to the native resolution of the monitor. You don't have to use the dummy display method if you buy the Pro version.