5K and 6K screen display resizing.

MonsieurLePrince wrote:

That is just the issue. I don't want to scale down and use my XDR 6k display for my project. The larger text option does not exist on Tahoe for Mac Pro 2019 and does not exist in accessibilty either. I called Apple Support nad they agreed with me.

Whether it is shown as "larger text", or a lower number, they are actually the same thing!

Depending on which display you have, these options may be presented in one way or the other (or you may have a choice, as I do in my MBP). These two are both for my internal display:

To see one version or the other, in System Settings->Displays, (scroll to the bottom if necessary,) click Advanced, and uncheck or check "Show resolutions as list".

The default in this case is a "retina" resolution: although it is nominally 1512x982, it uses the full resolution of the screen (which is double that on each direction) to display images or video - e.g. it displays a 1080p video with all the pixels. ALSO, whereas the text looks larger, it is also more accurately drawn on screen, using the full underlying resolution.

MonsieurLePrince wrote:

That is just the issue. I don't want to scale down and use my XDR 6k display for my project. The larger text option does not exist on Tahoe for Mac Pro 2019 and does not exist in accessibilty either. I called Apple Support nad they agreed with me.

You stated you want, “To increase the size of the windows and all the items displayed.” That means picking a lower resolution. As Luis Sequeira1 states, it doesn’t matter whether that’s done via the graphical ‘larger text’ option or picking a lower resolution from the list. With the graphical option enabled, the actual resolution is shown under the 'size label' when you hover the mouse over the button:

If you're issue here is, "I bought a 6K display and I don't want to scale it down because I want to use the 6K that I paid for," then I'm sorry to say that you either need to buy a bigger 6K display (like Dell's just-announced 52" 6K display) or you need to improve your vision to see the smaller pixels of Apple's 32" 6K display.

If the items displayed on your 6K display at 6K are too small, you need to decrease the resolution to something that works.

Apple has offered scaled resolutions in every version of macOS. System Settings > Displays, you can select a lower resolution.

If you hold the Option key and click one of the options, you get a more complete list of options.

This may depend on the display. If a “retina” resolution is supported then you’ll get precisely what you want: larger and more detailed text rendering AND full 4K video.

Try this: set the resolutions to show as list, and check “Show all resolutions”. There could be alternative options with the same number of pixels but one saying “(low resolution)”; if so, pick the other one.

MartinR wrote:

I actually agree with @MonsieurLePrince about this problem even though in my case it's about 4K not 6K - but the issue is the same.

That makes sense, especially for 4K since there's really not a significant amount of higher resolution content (though a case can certainly be made for those editing 6K/7K/8K/12K footage).

Personally, I consume most video content on a large 4K TV. The 4K video that I shoot, I typically convert to 1080p that I save locally to save space (I have 2 TB on my MBP, but 4K video will fill that quickly). I archive the 4K video to external storage.

I know I can increase the visual size of the icons & text by putting the display into 1080 resolution ... and that's fine at all viewing distances ... but then the videos are not displayed in 4K. There is no way (at least none that I have found) to increase the size of any elements (icons, text, app windows) in such a way that those elements appear at a readable size on a display that is being run at 4K. So I have given up running my display at 4K except when I "really want" to watch a 4K video and then I have to go into System Settings and change the resolution from 1080 to 4K before I can watch the video. And then I have to change it back to 1080 for 'regular' use ... and at 4K even the text in System Settings is so small it's difficult to read. It's a pain in the ***.

Apple has never offered UI scaling, except in the context of the Zoom feature in Accessibility. For the benefit of the OP, to have Apple consider feedback, submit it here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Switching to full display resolution and back are tasks that could easily be automated and linked to a key combination in the Shortcuts app.

Intro to Shortcuts on Mac - Apple Support

Doing so might make it less of a pain in the...derrière.

Change the resolution in System Settings > Displays to make the items appear larger.

MonsieurLePrince wrote:

I need 6K for a project and need to be able to read text in the windows.

What do you mean by “need 6K“?

Note that when you set the display resolution to something lower, it is only the display that is being scaled. If, for example, you are editing a piece of 6K video footage, the edits will be performed on the full video resolution regardless of how your display is scaled.

My stills cameras are 24 MP, the RAW image files are 6000 x 4000 pixels. Editing them on my 5K:2K display

set to 3360 x 1418 doesn’t change the pixel dimensions of the images. Same for 4K video.

I actually agree with @MonsieurLePrince about this problem even though in my case it's about 4K not 6K - but the issue is the same.

I would like to run the display connected to by Mac mini at 4K all the time ... the image is beautiful and I like to be able to watch movies & streaming video in 4K ... but the desktop icons and text in menus are so small as to be unusable. It's a 40" screen but even at 18" viewing distance the stuff is just too small.

I know I can increase the visual size of the icons & text by putting the display into 1080 resolution ... and that's fine at all viewing distances ... but then the videos are not displayed in 4K. There is no way (at least none that I have found) to increase the size of any elements (icons, text, app windows) in such a way that those elements appear at a readable size on a display that is being run at 4K. So I have given up running my display at 4K except when I "really want" to watch a 4K video and then I have to go into System Settings and change the resolution from 1080 to 4K before I can watch the video. And then I have to change it back to 1080 for 'regular' use ... and at 4K even the text in System Settings is so small it's difficult to read. It's a pain in the ***.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

This may depend on the display. If a “retina” resolution is supported then you’ll get precisely what you want: larger and more detailed text rendering AND full 4K video.

How? Would the video still not be scaled down to the selected display resolution? For example, my 5K:2K display

is set to 3360 x 1418.

If I play a 4K video, how will it play at 3840 x 2160 (4K resolution)? It will have to be downsampled to 2521 x 1418 based on the scaled resolution of my display (with black bars at the side because of the 21:9 aspect ratio). Yes, internally the Mac is rendering the display at 2x the linear resolution (6720 x 2836), you can see that a screenshot has those pixel dimensions.

So in a sense a 4K video is being internally rendered at higher than 4K (meaning the original video content is actually being upscaled), but when displayed on the screen it's then downscaled to 2521 x 1418, which is approximately QHD (1440p) video, not 4K video (2160p).

Oh, and one more question for both MonsieurLePrince and MartinR. Both of you have indicated that you cannot see the UI elements at full resolution (6K or 4K) because they are 'unreadable' or 'so small they are difficult to read'. Honestly, if your visual acuity is such that you are unable to resolve the UI elements at full display resolution and need to reduce the display resolution to resolve them, what makes you think you'll be able to resolve details in video content displayed at full resolution or discern a difference between full resolution and scaled resolution?

Thanks for the explanation. It makes sense in the simplified case of playing 4K video on a 4K display.

As you state, with a 5K:2K display, things get more complicated. When I open a video shot at 4K on my 5K:2K display scaled to 3360 x 1418, the default window at opening is smaller than my full display but QuickTime shows the current size as 4K:

However, when I make QuickTime full screen, it upscales it to 4935 x 2776, larger than 4K:

And, when I open a 1080p video in full screen QuickTime, it upscales it to the same 4935 x 2776 size:

You are not understanding what I said. In an XDR or Studio Display the retina resolution offers precisely what you want. Larger text while still rendering images and videoaf full resolution.

Exactly.