Headaches using an external monitor with my 2023 Macbook Air--fuzzy texts, etc.

This seems to be a problem with external monitors for the mac mini as well! I have a 4k monitor and the text is still blurry. Some sites recommended specific models to adjust the resolution, but overall it seems like Apple wants you to buy their super expensive monitors, to align with their beautiful HiDPI - but if you alter the res to that on a non mac system, everything goes too big too use- but its finally really crisp again?

External apps like EasyRes may help. Apple also eliminated the option to smooth fonts in the display- so fingers crossed that will change back.

best of luck!

jdeblanc11 wrote:

Pretty irritated that my upgrade to a new Macbook may lead to me having to spend more money on a 4K monitor (if it's true that older monitors are not compatible with M2 Macbooks.

Older monitors are compatible with M2 MacBooks. Your M2 MacBook displays output on your older monitor.

However, the quality of text on standard-PPI monitors may not be as great as it used to be, say, back in the macOS High Sierra days. My understanding (from third-party sites) is that Apple removed the support they had in macOS for sub-pixel anti-aliasing – something that made text look better on standard-PPI monitors … but also would have introduced horribly non-modular dependencies within the operating system code.

When they removed it, they were shipping Retina displays on 21.5" iMacs and 27" iMacs and most notebooks. On a Retina display, there's enough resolution to draw letter shapes in good detail without sub-pixel anti-aliasing.

The resolution of that monitor is horrible — much less than what your Mac is capable of delivering, and even less than its built-in display.

After investigating this topic online, it looks like I may have to get a 4K external monitor in order to avoid the horrific blurry fonts--can this be right?

If you are going to use an external monitor, it seems to me you ought to use one capable of at least the same resolution as the Mac you're using. Otherwise I don't understand the point of using one.

Have you played with the resolution? My MBA works fine with my old TB display (2k resolution) and my LG 5K display.

How are you connecting the monitors, HDMI or VGA?

Depending on the monitor, you may find you get a better defined display with VGA than you do with HDMI.

dizzie23 wrote:

This seems to be a problem with external monitors for the mac mini as well! I have a 4k monitor and the text is still blurry. Some sites recommended specific models to adjust the resolution, but overall it seems like Apple wants you to buy their super expensive monitors, to align with their beautiful HiDPI - but if you alter the res to that on a non mac system, everything goes too big too use- but its finally really crisp again?

I'm using a 27" 4K monitor with a Mac Studio.

The text seems to be nearly as crisp in Retina "UI looks like 2560x1440" mode (non-integer scaling) as it is in Retina "UI looks like 1920x1080" mode (perfect integer scaling).

Your response is not helpful and pretty irrelevant. An external monitor having a lower resolution than the internal monitor has nothing to do with fuzzy fonts. Yeah the fonts would be less crisp, but 1080p monitor shouldn't show "font in Word that is so pixelated that it gives the OP a headache to look at it for even a few minutes". So obviously something is wrong with the OP's situation, I recommend you to try to be more helpful (or do not respond at all) next time.

This will be addressed in my upcoming performance assessment.

John Galt wrote:

This will be addressed in my upcoming performance assessment.

😂😂