Level 1

32 points

Blurry display in Big Sur, bad quality fonts.

I updated to Big Sur from Catalina. All the text seems far more blurry now. It's clear enough that I can make out the text, but almost all the text is a bit more of a struggle to read visually on my 2017 MacBook Air. Different background colors make it slightly better or worse. My 2015 Air on Catalina is much easier to read - they had the same desktop settings before I installed Big Sur. Are there settings to improve the font quality on Big Sur? I included a little screen capture of some tiny poor quality text within the Home.app, but the menu bar and other fonts are of poor quality.

MacBook Air

Posted on Nov 13, 2020 9:55 AM

Top-ranking reply

stradjr

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Dec 30, 2020 9:05 AM

Solution!

I had the same problem when I updated to big sur but I just fixed it! The code some people posted for terminal did nothing. Not only were most fonts blurry but my desktop background was too. This is what I did:

System preferences

Displays

Resolution

Choose "default for display"

It was on a scaled setting so everything was slightly enlarged. I don't understand why it couldn't still be good resolution but my screen went black and then came back crystal clear. It was like putting glasses on. Hope this helps!

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26 replies

cdubbs32

Level 1

19 points

Dec 5, 2020 8:17 PM in response to DenKyr

im not sure, it worked perfectly for me.

Dec 20, 2020 1:37 PM in response to DenKyr

I did the terminal fix for my machine and it worked. I'm not trying to be a smart-***, but I did have to reboot after I posted the line in terminal.

Erimuc

Level 1

4 points

Feb 21, 2021 10:26 PM in response to aviavi

I struggeld with a 2k monitor and now a 4k monitor is the sharp solution. Apple should announce that only 4k is possible.

DenKyr

Level 1

32 points

Feb 22, 2021 12:07 AM in response to Erimuc

Okay, but I have this problem with the buildin MacBook display

Mar 19, 2021 4:07 AM in response to Erimuc

Hi there, I'm in a similar situation to you. Did you ever solve this?

Erimuc

Level 1

4 points

Mar 19, 2021 4:50 AM in response to LukeChris1

Hi,

I bought a 4K, 2K not working in a sharp modus. 4K is excellent.

Best regards

aviavi

Level 1

33 points

Mar 19, 2021 7:39 AM in response to Erimuc

Same - bought a 4K 27" Philips monitor. It looks great.

May 11, 2021 4:15 AM in response to Erimuc

After giving all of my money to apple, the solution is to spend more money on another monitor. WTF.

eric3517

Level 1

4 points

Nov 16, 2020 4:06 PM in response to LanceAJ

I have the same problem on a Mac Mini (2018) using an external HP 227n display (2560x1440). All the text seems slightly foggy now. It's worst in places like the sidebar of the mail application, seems a little better when reading some pages in safari (but not all).

eric3517

Level 1

4 points

Dec 2, 2020 4:39 PM in response to DenKyr

I was able to test using my same 2018 Mac Mini and a 5k monitor, and the fonts seem clear on that. So it appears that older graphics cards will work fine with Big Sur, but maybe Apple is assuming everybody has retina displays?

DenKyr

Level 1

32 points

Nov 20, 2020 5:57 PM in response to LanceAJ

Have you found an solution yet? Still having this problem and it’s driving me insane

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Blurry display in Big Sur, bad quality fonts.