HiDPI Scaling Stuff

4K notes

[ Updated 12-12-22 | Created 12-12-22 ]

Just got HiDPI/4K screen. Current adjustments:

• Scaling: 100% (native)
• Browser page zoom: 110%
• Terminal font: 14px

Small UI doesn’t bother me; I’m familiar anyways.

125% scaling (BetterDisplay for macOS) seems too large. Note that 13" MacBook Air internal display is set to “more space”, and this seems to line up almost identically with unscaled. Not sure I’d ever run 125%, but it isn’t the worst.

Quick math: 3840 x 2160 32" = 137.68 ppi 1680 x 1050? 13" (what neofetch reports) = 152.40 ppi

screen totally usable with no tweaks (native everything) with glasses on, but not comfortable without glasses. still use glasses when computing for general eye health, but it’s nice to have something useable without.

side note on glasses - the size is not the issue, rather that text in general is blurry for me (astigmatism), so text without glasses is just about as readable as I’d expect.

other notes:

• I now understand complaints about “window-screening” at lower ppi
• Text is much sharper like the “retina” macbook screen
• I have not tried anything out in Linux yet. May have to consult the sacred books (aka archwiki). HiDPI should work fine, but thankfully I don’t have different monitors with different PPI (single display only)

this is much better for writing too.

12-19-22

browser and text zoom need to be manually switched back when the internal laptop display is in use. this is inconveneint and I am not aware of any workarounds currently.

Tagged: Linux Macos Productivity