Font Size on Mac When Using External or AirPlay Display

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Font Size on Mac When Using External or AirPlay Display

macOS has this nifty feature that lets you indirectly change the font sizes by using "scaled" display to "look like" different resolutions on a Retina Display even though everything is still rendered at crisp native resolution -- at least it looks to me like that is what it is doing.

When connecting an external display or when using an AirPlay display, however, it seems the only "scaled" options are to actually use lower resolution, that is, the UI elements are rendered over fewer pixels and the output resolution is lower, so the elements are less crisp. Is there any way to get the larger fonts and UI elements at native/optimal resolution (for example 1080p on my TV) on an external display via HDMI or using an AirPlay display via my Apple TV? At typical viewing distance the default is simply too small to read.

I'm using the 2017 12-inch Macbook with macOS Sierra. For HDMI I'm using the USB-C digital multiport AV adapter.

Posted on Aug 7, 2017 8:02 AM

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Answer 1

eonzuurmond Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 8, 2017 12:31 AM in response to eonzuurmond

Update: After some further online research, I'm starting to doubt the speculation in my original post on how "scaled" resolution works on a Retina Display. Reportedly, it works as with external displays, only with "looks like"-naming to compensate for the @2x nature of Retina and the slightly fuzzy non-native render is unnoticable because of the high native resolution on a Retina Display. To be sure, I will conduct some tests, but it now seems unlikely that the setting I'm inquiring about will exist.

Any clarification by an expert would be greatly appreciated!

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