Phil2003

Q: External monitor = blurry fonts

Hi,

 

Im quite satisfied with my first OSX product, a macbook pro 13". But i want to use it mainly with my 27" external Samsung LCD, which is

quite frustrating as the fonts are totaly blurry compared to Win7.

 

Things of interest:

 

Macbook Pro 13" Mid 2012

OSX = Montain Lion 10.8.2

Adapter: Official Apple Adapter mini-dvi -> HDMI

Ext.Monitor resolution: 1920x1080 native

Tried changing the fonts with Tinkertool

Tried changing the font smoothing via System settings and Tinkertool

Tried changing my monitors settings (AV/PC, sharpness, etc)

 

On the macbook everything looks fine.

 

Any hint?

 

Thanks

Phil

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Sep 20, 2012 6:21 AM

Close

Q: External monitor = blurry fonts

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Page 1 of 4 last Next
  • by sal_manilla,

    sal_manilla sal_manilla Sep 23, 2012 3:06 PM in response to Phil2003
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2012 3:06 PM in response to Phil2003

    Hi,

    I'm facing the same problem. The fonts on an external monitor are very blurry. Graphics and icons are displayed crystal sharp. I can rule out any issue with the monitor or cable (mini DisplayPort to DVI) whatsoever, because if I run Ubuntu in VirtualBox, then within the VM the fonts are displayed sharp. Also no font issues on the notebook display itself.

    So it all comes down to a font issue on external displays, as can be read in several forums. The font smoothing tweaks didn't show an effect.

     

    Macbook Air 13" mid-2012

    OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion (10.8 pre-installed)

    External Display: Benq G2222HDL connected via miniDisplayPort to DVI Adapter on the Thunderbolt connection

     

     

    Can anyone reproduce the correct font display in a virtual machine?

     

     

    Thanks,

    sal_manilla

  • by bigawplano,

    bigawplano bigawplano Oct 3, 2012 12:22 PM in response to Phil2003
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 3, 2012 12:22 PM in response to Phil2003

    I too am having this same issue with my new Macbook Air 13".  My external monitor via HDMI can't handle the fonts but it can handle media/graphics.

     

    I hope someone has insight into this.

  • by bibu100,

    bibu100 bibu100 Oct 8, 2012 1:03 AM in response to Phil2003
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 8, 2012 1:03 AM in response to Phil2003

    i am having the exact problem. i tried a few differnet cables as well. bought the original thunderbolt to hdmi from apple store and still the same issue. the fonts are pretty blurred and i have do have a professional grade monitor.  the Asus Proart. Incidentally the windows laptop which i used previously gave crisper fonts. anyone who has same problem please help. This is on a macbok air 13" bought 2 weeks back.

  • by Michael Guntsche,

    Michael Guntsche Michael Guntsche Oct 8, 2012 1:31 AM in response to Phil2003
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 8, 2012 1:31 AM in response to Phil2003

    Hello,

     

    This could be an issue with font anti-aliasing and external third party displays. To get good results with my external monitor I had to set the correct AA setting. Pre Snow Leopard you could do this via preferences but Apple "simplified" it. They try to detect it automatically but this apparently only works with Apple displays.

     

    Open a terminal and C&P

     

    defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2

     

    Then logout of your account and back in. The fonts should look less fuzzy now.

  • by BigTrouble,

    BigTrouble BigTrouble Oct 21, 2012 11:59 PM in response to Michael Guntsche
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2012 11:59 PM in response to Michael Guntsche

    System: MacBook Air

    Display: Asus PA248q

    Connection: Mini DisplayPort HDMI female adapter to HDMI

     

    Thanks for the tip, Michael.  It's helped make the fonts on my new display look better.  However, it's still slightly off (no matter what level of font smoothing) when you do a side by side comparison with my MacBook Air screen.

     

    Is there anyway to make it more seamless?  

  • by Michael Guntsche,

    Michael Guntsche Michael Guntsche Oct 25, 2012 2:54 PM in response to BigTrouble
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 25, 2012 2:54 PM in response to BigTrouble

    Hi,

     

    Well looking at my two displays they are also not completely the same but I think this is more or less because they are two different displays.

  • by BigTrouble,

    BigTrouble BigTrouble Oct 25, 2012 3:05 PM in response to Michael Guntsche
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2012 3:05 PM in response to Michael Guntsche

    So I (finally) got my monitor to look great.  It seams like HDMI was the culprit.  I bout a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable and fonts and colors look great.

     

    J

  • by katndmouse,

    katndmouse katndmouse Oct 29, 2012 12:21 PM in response to Phil2003
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2012 12:21 PM in response to Phil2003

    Same problem here and there are 27 pages someplace here of other people reporting the issue. Please report a bug fix. What people have discovered is that it's probably an OS issue because someone said when they booted in Windows, it was fine. I bought 2 new monitors, 2 different brands, same problem. I tried HDMI and DVI cables. Same problem. @BigTrouble, by DispalyPort cable, do you mean DVI??

     

    My fonts look as if they were written in fuzzy chalk. It's really bad.

     

    Is this Apple's way of forcing us to buy their monitors? If they were affordable I would.

  • by BigTrouble,

    BigTrouble BigTrouble Oct 29, 2012 12:29 PM in response to katndmouse
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2012 12:29 PM in response to katndmouse

    @katndmouse - By DisplayPort I mean DisplayPort.  DVI is a totally separate thing. 

     

    My Asus PA248Q supports both DVI and DisplayPort inputs.  Here's the cable that I bought.  It supports both audio and video.  So I'm able to connect my speakers to my monitor and get audio from one cable.

     

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TSTDI0/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

  • by sal_manilla,

    sal_manilla sal_manilla Nov 7, 2012 12:41 PM in response to sal_manilla
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2012 12:41 PM in response to sal_manilla

    I've tried it now on a Dell U2412M with DisplayPort cable and with DVI+Adapter and still the same blurry text - unbearable for reading more than a couple of minutes.

    Absolutely annoying that there is still no fix and workaround whatsoever for a show stopper like this!

  • by Piers Beckley,

    Piers Beckley Piers Beckley Jan 3, 2013 4:21 AM in response to Phil2003
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jan 3, 2013 4:21 AM in response to Phil2003

    I had this problem on a Dell Ultrasharp U2312HM 23 inch IPS LED with  DVI <-> DVI.

     

    Showstopper, monitor returned. I want to recommend a Mac Mini to people, but can't unless I know they're going to be able to use it without blurry fonts!

  • by The King of Limbs,

    The King of Limbs The King of Limbs Jan 6, 2013 4:39 PM in response to Phil2003
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 6, 2013 4:39 PM in response to Phil2003

    I have the same problem with a 2012 retina MBP. I wasted 2 weeks trying to fix Apple's Mountain Lion OSX. The display on external monitors is pathetic, and Mountain Lion won't let the user change the settings to something that might work.  Apple Support even suggested I spring for SwitchResX ($20) to "patch" the problem until Apple fixes it. What?!

     

    I returned the nice new retina MBP for a refund. No way am I going to shell out over $3K for a computer that can't even play nice with external monitors. And don't even get me started on the whole "wake from sleep" issue!

  • by Johnny-BG,

    Johnny-BG Johnny-BG Jan 30, 2013 7:46 AM in response to Phil2003
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 30, 2013 7:46 AM in response to Phil2003

    Possible resolution for some users:

     

    I running Lion on my MBP and have run into the same issue described here with an external Samsung monitor.

    Adapter is a thunderbolt-HDMI (I did not have an issue with the thunderbolt-DVI)

     

    To resolve the blurry font issue I had to change the video mode from 1080p to the max available resolution setting which for me was 1680 x 1050 (60Hz)

    I know this isn't ideal but it fixes the blurry text issue nicely.

  • by aron77,Helpful

    aron77 aron77 Mar 9, 2013 3:27 AM in response to Phil2003
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 9, 2013 3:27 AM in response to Phil2003
Page 1 of 4 last Next