4 ms·

M1 Mac Atrocious External Display Text Blurriness

4 points by thorncorona 5y ago

I'm suffering from a really bad problem where the text on my M1Pro Mac is blurry when connected to any external display.24" 1080p monitors look blurry, and 1440 27" monitors also look blurry. This is particularly obvious when comparing the text quality of Windows to Mac side by side. For reference I've attached an image taken on a 1440p 27" screen running Windows inside a VM. The text quality of Windows is vastly clearer. [1] In VSCode it is absolutely atrocious despite looking great on Windows on the same display. [2] I'm at my wits end and have tried everything from running dummy displays with BetterDummy to messing around with DisplayLink adaptors to try and figure out what's wrong. Does anyone else have this issue or a solution? Is a new monitor the only solution? If so which monitors don't produce this blurriness? [1] https://i.imgur.com/cxQDMGT.png [2] https://i.imgur.com/xvryQUp.png

schappim 5y ago
Haev you tried disabling font smoothing?[1] I note that the displays you're referencing are pretty low resolution, and Apple is very much all in on Retina displays. [1] https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/disable-font-smoothing-in-macos-big-sur/ https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/disable-font-smoothing-in-m... [2] https://osxdaily.com/2018/09/26/fix-blurry-thin-fonts-text-macos-mojave/ https://osxdaily.com/2018/09/26/fix-blurry-thin-fonts-text-m...
dygd 5y ago
I had issues with an external display which were solved by using a USB-C to DisplayPort cable (supports 4K@60Hz). USB-C to HDMI in particular didn't work well.
- atian 5y ago
  Seconded, check for a better cable.
waldekm 5y ago
Could this help perhaps? https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2021/12/03/apple_m1_drivers/ https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2021/12/03/apple_m1_drivers/
- thorncorona 5y ago
  Tried it already, didn’t work :(
speedgoose 5y ago
In my opinion Windows ClearType produces sharper text. The only solution is a display with a higher pixels density because then the font aliasing algorithm isn’t important anymore.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

4 points by thorncorona 5y ago

schappim 5y ago

Haev you tried disabling font smoothing?[1] I note that the displays you're referencing are pretty low resolution, and Apple is very much all in on Retina displays. [1] https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/disable-font-smoothing-in-macos-big-sur/ https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/disable-font-smoothing-in-m... [2] https://osxdaily.com/2018/09/26/fix-blurry-thin-fonts-text-macos-mojave/ https://osxdaily.com/2018/09/26/fix-blurry-thin-fonts-text-m...

dygd 5y ago

I had issues with an external display which were solved by using a USB-C to DisplayPort cable (supports 4K@60Hz). USB-C to HDMI in particular didn't work well.

atian 5y ago
Seconded, check for a better cable.

waldekm 5y ago

Could this help perhaps? https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2021/12/03/apple_m1_drivers/ https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2021/12/03/apple_m1_drivers/

thorncorona 5y ago
Tried it already, didn’t work :(

speedgoose 5y ago

In my opinion Windows ClearType produces sharper text. The only solution is a display with a higher pixels density because then the font aliasing algorithm isn’t important anymore.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]