BetterDisplay

Unlock your displays on your Mac! Flexible HiDPI scaling, XDR/HDR extra brightness, virtual screens, DDC control, extra dimming, PIP/streaming, EDID override and lots more! (by waydabber)

BetterDisplay Alternatives

Similar projects and alternatives to BetterDisplay

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a better BetterDisplay alternative or higher similarity.

BetterDisplay reviews and mentions

Posts with mentions or reviews of BetterDisplay. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-02-08.
  • Ask HN: Best Hacks for a Ultrawide Monitor?
    4 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 8 Feb 2024
    2. "BetterDisplay" for better scaling quality on bigger screens, especially if you have a 4k ultrawide. https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay
  • Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
    3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 29 Dec 2023
    It isn't a device, it's a software tool. It doesn't make the monitor magically 2x the resolution; it can trick macos to render onto a 5k buffer and then downscale the output to the physical display so it looks not-broken.

    https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

    I'm not saying that it'll make 4k look good. I'm saying macOS is unusable on native resolutions - everything is either too small or too blurry, so a 4k display won't do me any good. 25x14 is the sweet spot for me, but I guess Apple decided I'm holding it wrong.

  • MacOS tools to make your life easier
    14 projects | /r/MacOS | 7 Dec 2023
  • Hacking the LG Monitor's EDID
    7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Aug 2023
  • Mac Mouse Fix: Do the things you do on a trackpad. Without a trackpad
    6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Jul 2023
    Totally unrelated, but since we are talking about QOL tools on macOS, i thoroughly recommend BetterDisplay[0]

    It enables reting scaling functionality on any external monitor, regardless of the resolution or the Apple compatibility.

    It's great for 2k monitors that are totally hiDPI but are not deemed enough by Apple, and even for FHD secondarh displays that don't need that much display real state so you can use that real state to scale everything nicely.

    [0]: https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

  • A collection of useful Mac Apps
    32 projects | /r/macapps | 13 Jul 2023
    Better Display is another I run on startup. I have a 1440p 144hz monitor and using the default options in the Display System Settings at native resolution it is too small, retina makes it 720p which makes everything too large, and scaled resolutions are fuzzy. This let me find the sweet spot for me which was 1600x900 - not too small or too big and also not fuzzy. It was not available as a selection using the standard Mac System Settings.
  • Can Dell’s 6K monitor beat their 8K monitor?
    3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 3 Jul 2023
    No, HDMI 2.1 doesn't matter (yet) because there are no 8K desktop monitors (meaning 32-inch size or similar) on the market that use HDMI.

    The only 8K monitor has for years been the Dell UP3218K, which uses DisplayPort -- and requires two DisplayPort cables, actually, to get 7680 × 4320 at 60Hz.

    Apple has never supported this on any of their machines -- they just couldn't drive the monitor. (It worked, but only in 4K mode.)

    They quietly changed this with the M2 machines. I had a MacBook Pro M1 Max that couldn't drive this monitor at 8K. Then I found this GitHub thread[1] where it was revealed that M2 Pro can drive up to one of these 8K displays over Thunderbolt (to DisplayPort). And the M2 Ultra on a Mac Pro or Mac Studio can drive 3 of them.

    I don't think it is scaling, per se, but rather that Apple has never supported the full DisplayPort spec. That 8K monitor apparently needs support for something called "dual SST" and Apple never supported that in their software. More details are in the linked GitHub discussion.

    So, I don't know why they didn't make this work on the M1 Ultra, too, but Apple gonna Apple. So I went down to the Apple Store and bought a Mac Studio M2 Ultra the day I read that. Now I can plug my Mac into my KVM switch and use this monitor on Mac just like I always could with Linux and Windows.

    [1]: https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/discussions/199#d...

    3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 3 Jul 2023
    OS X not only uses a lame hack to scale, it completely muddles the issue by introducing the concept of "HiDPI". Somehow I can set my 4K monitor to use "native resolution" at 3840 x 2160, and yet the UI and fonts look fuzzy! Absolutely terrible, and a complete embarrassment for Apple imo since they are supposedly the UI kings.

    For me, I only closed the book on the issue after finding BetterDisplay [0]. Basically a 3rd party program that gives you complete control over resolution, display density, and a ton of other options on MacOS. It has a trial mode but it is well well worth the money. With that + the CLI tweak to set font smoothing to 0, the 4K experience on MacOS looks decent. You can even decrease the effective scale of the native screen past "More Space", so those of us with good eyes can actually take advantage of the screen real estate.

    [0] https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

  • Monitor choices
    2 projects | /r/MacStudio | 29 Jun 2023
    Also for 4k and 5k2k Ultrawide’s Better Display is a great free enhancement. There’s also a paid version. Better Display
    2 projects | /r/MacStudio | 29 Jun 2023
    Theres also free apps that give you more scaling options, like BetterDisplay.
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