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How do you even use 5k resolution? No zoom?
- Thread starter restock3eee
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If you have a 5k iMac….
Apple have marketed their monitors/iMacs as 4k/5k, but in reality they are not.
Yes you can run a 24” at 4k or a 27” at 5k, but everything is microscopic.
Natively they all run in highDPI or retina mode, like an iPhone/ipad.
Which means a 4k is 1920x1080 and a 5k is 2560x1440 (half of 4 or 5k).
It will be on a 24” screen….
Post in thread 'More screen real estate with a 4.5K iMac over a standard 24" screen?'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...er-a-standard-24-screen.2296691/post-30546036
Yes, they are: Apple have just chosen a very confusing way of describing the user interface scaling.
Nope - it's the other way around. Unless you've jumped through hoops to enable "low resolution" modes, what Apple calls "2560x1440" is actually 5210x2880, but with with fonts, icons, vector graphics etc. drawn using double the number of pixels so that they are the same physical size on a 27" 5k screen as they were on an old 27" 2560x1440 screen. Unless you're using ancient, pre-retina software that doesn't understand retina mode, those pixels are used to add detail and 5k mode shows far more detail than you'd get on an actual 2560x1440 screen.
Just take a screen shot, count the pixels and zoom into some text or graphics to see that all of those pixels are being put to good use.
Sounds like you've selected "5120x2880" mode thinking that you need that to get 5k resolution. You don't. Apple, in their infinite wisdom, decided to use names like "2560x1440" to mean different UI scales.
Go into display settings and set the screen mode to "larger text". Ignore the stupid pop-up that says "2560x1440" - you're still getting the benefits of 5k/220ppi resolution.
Its only the system/menu/dialogue fonts and buttons that get affected by this - within any application you can use the zoom or font size settings to cram in as much or as little text as you like.
Just like this:
That's with a pair of 5K displays, Studio Display from Apple and the LG Ultrafine 5K both 5120x2880 on Mac Pro 7,1.
Of course everything is small, it's only half the size (a quarter of the area) of what it's designed for!
I appreciate your correct explanation….. 👍
Being ‘old-school’ though I prefer more screen real estate with a higher resolution, so I wouldn’t feel I was getting anything more than my QHD displays, except a sharper image…🥴
There are 5k worth of pixels on an Apple 5k display.
HOWEVER...
Apple DOES NOT want you to look at the display in "full 5k mode".
(even though you can set it that way if you wish)
Rather, they intend for you to view it in "HiDPI" mode. This "halves" the resolution in both directions (width and height), so the "working resolution" is a display that "looks like 1440p".
In fact, I believe the "default" resolution in the displays settings pane will be 2560x1440.
(again, "looks like 1440p")...
HOWEVER...
Apple DOES NOT want you to look at the display in "full 5k mode".
(even though you can set it that way if you wish)
Rather, they intend for you to view it in "HiDPI" mode. This "halves" the resolution in both directions (width and height), so the "working resolution" is a display that "looks like 1440p".
In fact, I believe the "default" resolution in the displays settings pane will be 2560x1440.
(again, "looks like 1440p")...
There are a range of intermediate scales between "looks like 5120x2880" and "looks like 2560x1440" that will give you a smaller UI with more "real estate" without becoming totally unreadable - they're slightly fuzzy because they've been rendered at twice the "looks like" resolution and downsampled to 5k, but they're still more detailed than you'd get on a standard def monitor and most people won't see the fuzz unless they climb on the desk with a magnifier.
...but don't forget that all this only affects the user interface elements (which, frankly, don't need to get any smaller than they are in "looks like 2560x1440" mode) the actual content of your windows can be zoomed out further - or the font size can be set smaller - than it could on a standard def screen without loosing detail. So you can get more real estate on a 5k screen than 1440p.
No. it doesn't.
The resolution of Apple's "looks like 2560x1440" mode on a 5k,27" screen is 5120x2880 (~220ppi on a 27").
It's pretty easy to check - take a full-screen grab and notice that you get a 5120x2880 image - then zoom in and see the detail.
Or, go to Display Settings, option-click on a screen mode, select "show all resolutions" and you can toggle between "2560x1440" (which is the HiDPI mode) and "2560x1440 (low resolution)" (Or the corresponding two "1920x1080" modes on a 4k display - same principle) so you can see what 2560x1440 resolution actually looks like, vs. HiDPI "looks like 2560x1440" (it really doesn't).
Or just load up a graphics program and make some 5120x2880 grids with 1-pixel gaps, set the zoom to "actual pixels" scale (or display the image full screen) and you'll see that the resolution is 5k.
"looks like 2560x1440" is Apple's (confusing) way of saying "it's 5120x2880 but with UI elements the same size as they would be on an old 2560x1440 iMac/Cinema Display"
(Then there are the fractionally scaled modes which are even more confusing but still render more detail than would be possible at the true "looks like" resolution).
Unless you're running ancient, pre-retina software, HiDPI mode doesn't halve the resolution - it doubles the numbers of pixels (in each direction) used by fonts, icons, line plotting etc. so they are the same physical size as they would be on a 2560x1440/110ppi screen, but they can still have 220ppi worth of detail and the actual content is still rendered at 5k...
Sigh. It's been 10 years since Apple sold a non-retina screen, about time they stopped using it as the "reference" for screen scaling. Instead, a few versions ago, they dropped the "looks like" just to make the mode names more misleading...
You two appear to be actually in agreement, just using different words. Although, I guess you can argue about which words to use, I suppose.
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I run 100% native 5k and even game in native 5k (cyberpunk 2077 looks great on the M4 Max studio).
What is microscopic for you = tons of space for me to have windows everywhere. On my laptop I use "More Space" same with my iPad Pro
What is microscopic for you = tons of space for me to have windows everywhere. On my laptop I use "More Space" same with my iPad Pro
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