William Tucker

Q: Help with Yosemite Retina Display

Hello,

 

I will first say that I don't want to offend anyone here, but I am terribly frustrated having wasted a day trying to setup this new machine for development.

 

I have just been forced to switch to Yosemite by receiving a brand new Retina 15" Macbook Pro for work as a developer.  You would think I would be elated, getting such an upgrade from my old 17", but after a day of googling around, calling Apple Care, etc., this machine is useless to me.  I like to have lots of windows open while I am working: terminal windows, browser windows, email, IM, etc.  In this fashion, I can watch everything that goes on while I change the code and modify things.

 

With the new Yosemite, EVERYTHING is huge on the screen.  I see that I have a resolution of 2880x1800.  That's a little larger than my 17" and on a smaller screen.  When I logged in, there terminal windows are so large, that they take up nearly half the width.  I can resize them manually, but there is no way to save these as default settings that I see.  Web pages that used to be able to be shunted to the side now take up nearly the entire screen.

 

I thought I was crazy and just couldn't find the magic settings I needed to adjust things until I called Apple Care and they confirmed that I couldn't change things.  The only offer they had for me was to use scaling to scale the screen differently, rather than using the native resolution on the screen and not forcing the OS to work at interpolating images and text, which we all know results in a terrible look on the screen.

 

To prove my point, I downloaded a fixed image, 1440x900 and opened it in Preview.  When I go to View->Actual Size, it takes up the ENTIRE screen.  How is that even possible if I am viewing a 1440x900 image on a 2880x1800 screen?  It should be exactly half the size.  I'm no spring chicken, but I am not losing my eyesight.  Why is everything so BIG?

 

Someone please help me figure out how to set this OS to display pixel for pixel before I go insane, or before I have to pack this up, go back to my 17" Pro, and wait for Apple to obsolete it in favor of this terrible step back that is Yosemite.

 

Frustrated and wasting time,

Todd

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Jun 6, 2015 4:57 PM

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Q: Help with Yosemite Retina Display

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  • by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jun 6, 2015 5:36 PM in response to William Tucker
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Jun 6, 2015 5:36 PM in response to William Tucker
    I can resize them manually, but there is no way to save these as default settings that I see.

    Shell > Use Settings as Default

     

    Frequently asked questions about using a Retina display - Apple Support

  • by cdhw,

    cdhw cdhw Jun 6, 2015 5:46 PM in response to William Tucker
    Level 4 (2,623 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jun 6, 2015 5:46 PM in response to William Tucker

    You say you use the machine for development? Your description is remarkably like what happens when you activate the Retina simulation tool that comes with Xcode. This draws everything at 2x size to enable developers without Retina screens to debug @2x graphics:

     

         http://mackuba.eu/2015/04/02/testing-retina-images-older-mac/

     

    You get similar effect if the Accessibility panel 'Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom' setting has been unintentionally set. Scrolling with the command key down zooms the whole screen too in some circumstances.

     

    There are other less likely causes, but those are my first guesses.

     

    C.

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Jun 6, 2015 6:01 PM in response to William Tucker
    Level 7 (29,051 points)
    Jun 6, 2015 6:01 PM in response to William Tucker

    Hello Todd,

    What settings are you using for System Preferences > Display?

    This is what mine looks like, along with my desktop in Retina mode. Does yours look different?

     

    Screen Shot 2015-06-06 at 8.59.31 PM.png

  • by William Tucker,

    William Tucker William Tucker Jun 6, 2015 6:52 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2015 6:52 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Thanks, Linc, that at least helped me to have terminals pop up the same way.  Still can't make it fit three across and still be legible, but I can work on that.

  • by William Tucker,

    William Tucker William Tucker Jun 6, 2015 6:57 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2015 6:57 PM in response to etresoft

    Hello, être,

     

    I have the same settings it appears:

     

    display_shot.png

  • by William Tucker,

    William Tucker William Tucker Jun 6, 2015 7:11 PM in response to cdhw
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2015 7:11 PM in response to cdhw

    Thanks for the reply cdhw.  I do not yet have Xcode installed.  I haven't gotten that far yet.  Checked the "Use keyboard shortcuts" and it is not on.

     

    Any other suggestions, I would be happy to try.  You guys have been better than Apple Care so far.

  • by William Tucker,

    William Tucker William Tucker Jun 6, 2015 7:17 PM in response to William Tucker
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2015 7:17 PM in response to William Tucker

    Am I just being crazy here?  So, if I download this picture:

     

         http://www.bestfreejpg.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/siberian_husky_wildlife_wa llpaper.jpg

     

    It is 1440x900 pixels.  It takes up the whole screen when I open it in Preview and choose Actual Size.  Shouldn't it be half the size of the screen if the screen is 2880x1800?

  • by cdhw,

    cdhw cdhw Jun 7, 2015 2:54 AM in response to William Tucker
    Level 4 (2,623 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jun 7, 2015 2:54 AM in response to William Tucker

    William Tucker wrote:

    Am I just being crazy here?  So, if I download this picture:

     

    Quite possibly, developers often are .

    rather than using the native resolution on the screen and not forcing the OS to work at interpolating images and text, which we all know results in a terrible look on the screen.

     

    Yosemite + Retina moves everything into a new world of resolution-independent graphics. The idea is that the screen resolution is so high you can no longer perceive individual pixels and the 'native resolution' of such displays is abstracted away from both users and developers. It's actually quite a game to get a graphics context that corresponds 1:1 to the hardware pixels.

     

    Etresoft has provided you with a screen shot showing his whole desktop with a standard panel displayed. Please provide a similar screen grab showing yours.

     

    I suspect that your system is misidentifying the display hardware for some reason, but based on your qualitative description of what you are seeing it is difficult to be sure. Have you attached a second monitor in the past, perhaps its profile is still around somewhere? Is it possible to manually chose a scaling that gets the sizes of things correct?

     

    C.

  • by William Tucker,

    William Tucker William Tucker Jun 7, 2015 5:27 AM in response to cdhw
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 7, 2015 5:27 AM in response to cdhw

    Quite possibly, developers often are .

    Heh.  You are right about that.

     

    I'm happy to take any screenshots anyone would like to see.  Here is one from my beloved 17" with Mavericks:

     

    screen_capture_Macbook_Pro_17.png

     

    And here is one from the new 15" Retina with Yosemite:

     

    screen_capture_Macbook_Pro_15_Retina.png

    I reduced the width of the Apple page in Safari until it started cutting off and scrolling.  As you can see, the 17" with a resolution of 1920x1080 can neatly fit MUCH more on the screen than can the 15" with a resolution of 2880x1800.  I have reduced the terminal windows on the 15" with Linc's tip from earlier to allow me to save them, but I still lose real estate everywhere.

     

    The new machine seems to recognize that the screen is proper:

     

    display.png

     

    Is there something else I should check to see if it is properly recognizing the screen?

     

    Thanks,

    Todd

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Jun 7, 2015 6:24 AM in response to William Tucker
    Level 7 (29,051 points)
    Jun 7, 2015 6:24 AM in response to William Tucker

    Hello again Todd,

    That all looks normal. cdhw is right about Apple's approach to pixels these days. They do not correspond to display resolution anymore. You can change your Display preferences to use a scaled resolution.

  • by cdhw,

    cdhw cdhw Jun 7, 2015 7:27 AM in response to William Tucker
    Level 4 (2,623 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jun 7, 2015 7:27 AM in response to William Tucker

    It seems to me that the 15" Retina is calibrated correctly and is displaying with Apple's standard dimensions for the main menu and its fonts. The 17" screenshot, however, appears to be from a 100dpi device that is being fed a 72dpi 'signal' so everything is scaled by ca 72%. Plenty of people like this particular scaling, particularly if they are a bit short-sighted, but it ain't right.

     

    C.


  • by William Tucker,

    William Tucker William Tucker Jun 7, 2015 11:17 AM in response to William Tucker
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 7, 2015 11:17 AM in response to William Tucker

    Hmmm.  How do you design any images if they do not display pixel for pixel on the screen like they will on someone else's, non-brand-new-mac, screen?

     

    cdhw, the 17" shot is from the original calibration that came on the screen.  It is set for the standard screen resolution as can be seen here:

     

    17_Display_Properties.png

     

    If I download a 1920x1080 image:

     

         http://i.imgur.com/lCdba13.jpg

     

    it takes up the full screen in Preview without scrolling (give or take a tiny bit for menus) as it should on a 1920x1080 screen.  To me, from a computer design perspective, this seems absolutely "right."  I want a screen that displays each pixel as it is designed.  If I want to change the pixel density on a printed page to fit a proper layout, then so be it, but pixel density is fixed on a computer screen.  You can't adjust the density and produce more or less pixels-per-inch  on a fixed screen.

     

    Oh well, I guess my conundrum is answered.  I have to decide if I want to run a scaled resolution to get back my real estate or take this thing back and move on.  It's been a good, nearly fifteen year run, Mac.  I hardly knew ye.

     

    Thanks, everyone, for your input.

     

    Todd

  • by William Tucker,

    William Tucker William Tucker Jun 7, 2015 11:29 AM in response to William Tucker
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 7, 2015 11:29 AM in response to William Tucker

    Gaaaahhhh!!!!  If I try to accept my fate and use a scaled resolution, it says "Looks like" to the left and another resolution.  BUT, 1920x1200 is the highest, not 2880x1800.  I know you can't see it from the image because the "resolution" only comes up when you roll over the selection.  But, if you are going to say that "scaled" "looks like" another resolution, then why is "Default for display" NOT the actual default resolution of the display?  This makes absolutely no logical sense.

     

    Scaled_Resolution_15.png

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Jun 7, 2015 11:50 AM in response to William Tucker
    Level 7 (29,051 points)
    Jun 7, 2015 11:50 AM in response to William Tucker

    Hello again Todd,

    The reason is text and images. 12 point text should be the same size regardless of what resolution you are using. Images should be the same size too. When all displays scaled with resolution and most displays were the same size, it wasn't that big of a deal. But with retina quality 15" display and 4K 27" displays, that just isn't possible anymore.