Why are text and graphics in pixelated in Numbers and iBooks applications, to name two, on the MacBook Pro Retina? All updates have been downloaded.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
I also had this problem, so what I did was went into settings then clicked on displays and the resolution had two options. Marked already was 'scaled' option so I clicked on default for display and it fixed the blurriness in my macbook pro.
Hi HaiTech- Text and graphics are pixelated in Numbers, Pages, and probably other older Apple apps, because Apple has not updated them for the retina display. iWork is so due for an update that I'm guessing they are waiting to release a new version soon with the retina graphics rather than update the 2011 version.
Bryan
Thanks. Any info on other apps, such as Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 or Adobe CS 5.5? It seems like most of the applications I use on my MacBook Pro have this problem.
What resolution are you using?
Clinton
The default resolution for "Best for Retina display".
OK, you should be able to see what the actual res is by selecting "Scaled" - I'm not sure what the "Best Resolution for Retina Display" actually is! (Nope, I don't have one myself - I purchased my 'new' MBP 3 months before the Retina came out!).
Clinton
With the Retina display, the Systems Preferences>Display window doesn't show the resolution. Even if you choose Scaled instead of Best for Retina, you get five options. The middle one is Best for Retina under Scaled as well.
It doesn't show a number? Like 1440xwhatever? That's odd... I would want to know what res I'm running! Anyway, if you're under "Best Resolution for Retina Display," I think that it should be 1440xwhatever. You shouldn't show any pixelazation under that resolution. What does TextEdit look like? I believe that it has been optimized for Retina displays...
Clinton
TextEdit looks just fine. But when you're using everyday applications like MS Word, Excel, Numbers, Adobe, etc., it's annoying that everything is pixelated. All other applications that comes with Lion, including the iLife suite, look just fine.
Yeah, it's my understanding that Apple app's (and not all of them, only some) are optimized for Retina displays. But I'm still curious - can you post screenshots of both, for example, Word and Photoshop? I'm sure that others are working around and/or not having this problem or there would have been a flood of threads posted on the issue.
Curious,
Clinton
I thought about posting screenshots, but it wouldn't reveal anything useful. Any image would be compressed for upload and seeing it on a non-Retina display could'nt provide an accurate assessment. So my question goes back to: Why do applications, those that didn't come part of Lion OS, show pixelated text and graphics, including Numbers, iBooks Author, Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, etc.?
Screen shots actually show up full-screen if you click on them and I don't think you'd have to have a Retina display to actually see what you're describing. As I said, I've only seen maybe one other thread describing te symptom that you're mentioning and I don't recall what the outcome was.
Best thing may be to take it back to your local Apple Store so that they can actually see what you're describing. There may be an easy 'fix' or it may be a problem with the display/GPU.
That's the best advice that I can offer without actually seeing the problem. It sounds somewhat unique because, as I've said, I've only read about it in (maybe - I could be mistaken) one thread here.
Good luck,
Clinton
The Retina Display is brand new technology, and it's going to take a while for some software developers to develop "Retina-Friendly" features for their applications. Apple knows more about the technology and how it's supposed to work, so of course many of their applications are ready for Retina, and look great on it.
Clinton makes a good point about adjusting the resolution to fix the problems with MS Office, Photoshop, etc.. You would want to use a more standard screen resolution while using those apps, at least for now. Adobe and Microsoft will catch up eventually... it will just take some time.
Clinton- The problem is that the way things are setup is a bit confusing. Apple doesn't let us use the actual full resolution of 2880 x 1800, in relateive size. There is a hack to see the screen at full native resolution, and it's unbelievably small. So what they do is use the pixels, but use 4 vs 1, and thus they make the UI look like it would look as standard 1440 x 900 display. I have an old 15" and looking at both, the UI is the same relative size on the screen. However the retina is using more pixels to make the same physical size.
Now, Apple also lets apps use 1:1 within their "working area." For instance, if you view a graphic on a web page, it shows it doubled, and pixelated. But if you drag that image to the desktop then open in Preview, preview will show it half size of Safari, but in actual resolution. it's sharp, but half the size of Safari, as Safari is doubling it. So apps can take advantage of that but will have to be updated. Pixelmator isn't updated, and graphics/text/vectors are blurry in their work area, but once you save/export, and view in preview, they are perfect.
So there is going to be a lot of strange stuff going on until everyone gets on the same page.
I did find you can view Pages/Numbers with better resolution (just not icons) by right-clicking "get info" and unchecking open in low resolution. But Pages acts weird. I will post a screenshot in a minute about what I mentioend about apps using the native resolution within work spaces.
Bryan
So the first shot shows Safari, rendering the logo "securePixels." Notice the image is blurry around the edges. It's just doubled, but the same relative size as a non-retina display.
The second is in preview, after I dragged the image to the desktop and opened in Preview. Notice Preview shows the actual resolution in pixels, and is half the size of Safari's rendering.
So apps can use 1:1 pixels if they want. The example Apple gave at WWDC is to view the full 1080P video in a smaller window within the app, but all the other UI elements using the 2x option.
Pixelated text and graphics in MacBook Pro Retina
