[Macworld]

Post your comments for How to change a Mac's screen resolution here

[leicaman]

Well, I suppose that's useful when hooked up to a projector, but it should be noted that LCD monitors are not so friendly to changing the resolution as CRT monitors were. They have one native resolution and should always be kept at that resolution whenever possible for the best clarity.

[flybynight]

Agreed with leicaman. Drives me nuts when I have to help someone and they have their screen resolution crippled. Yes, it makes things bigger, but it also makes them fuzzier. There are other ways to accomplish that same task. Unfortunately, until we get a truly resolution independent OS, you can't change everything, but for most people, showing them how to increase the font size in their web browser and email is sufficient... and keeps it crisp.

[Maxer]

What about troubleshooting? What to do when the resolution is stuck at 640 x 480 and there is no way to change it?

[tee1up]

Stuck at 640x480? I would wonder if there was a secondary cable problem or if the display itself was failing. never seen or heard of that before.

[TheHeeNow]

When I'm in a meeting and have to look near and far at the same time, I use Command+ to bump the size of my MacBook Pro's screen. I'm well over 60.

I realize this isn't the same thing as changing Settings, but what's the difference?

Should I use that instead?

[sjsw]

Another consequence of changing your resolution is it's effect on your ease of browsing. Many more websites these days are designed to take advantage of wider screen resolutions. I've seen a lot of 1200+ pixel wide sites over the last year and so reducing the resolution to a smaller width (than the 1280 standard on many current laptops) to make things larger will have you scrolling horizontally on those sites. Stick to the native resolution and use command + only if you absolutely have to. With more monitors supporting wider pixels widths this problem will only get worse.

[OolyAmmoth]

Is there a way to specify a smaller effective screen size without stretching the image to fit the monitor's actual size? This would be useful when sharing my screen (via iChat or Skype) with someone who has a smaller monitor. That way we would both see an image with the same native pixel dimensions, no stretching or shrinking. In other words, I want a black border around the image on my screen. Thanks!

[lichinho]

I prefer to stick with the native resolution of my MacBook Pro, which gives a much crisper image.

Often when I find the text (on a web page, say) too small for my eyes, I just hit Cmd-plus. One other little trick that is sometimes useful: one can zoom in the contents of the screen: just keep the control key down and use any "scroll up" method (I use two fingers on the trackpad; someone with a mouse may use the little scroll ball for the same effect); then just do ctrl-scroll down to get back to normal size. One can set this in the Trackpad (or mouse) area in System Preferences.

Also, lots of different possibilities exist under "Universal Access" - including something I just found out: you can use a larger cursor, if needed.

[Martian]

Windows XP (and I suspect newer Windows) has a setting that reduces the apparent or effective resolution to 4/5 of the real hardware resolution setting without reducing LCD image quality. This is a an “Advanced” setting marked DPI, not to be confused with the regular driver setting for resolution. This feature is totally software, uses “sub-pixels”, and is completely independent of the display hardware.

I can’t believe Apple still hasn’t built this into Mac OS,. Does anyone know if there is some 3rd party software that can do this on a Mac?

People who find the DPI too high on the 17” Macbook Pro would love this ability.

[MacManizry]

One thing NOT covered here is HOW DO I GET EXACTLY THE SAME COLOUR BRIGHTNESS WHITENESS ON A DUAL 30 INCH ACDs not as easy as i first though, all work around comments welcome.mac man

[railwaystationmaster]

One thing NOT covered here is HOW DO I GET EXACTLY THE SAME COLOUR BRIGHTNESS WHITENESS ON A DUAL 30 INCH ACDs not as easy as i first though, all work around comments welcome.mac man

[eddiedial]

I like it.

[jefoley]

Maybe this isn't the place but I'm trying to change something on my screen, don't even know what to call it, and can't find any instructions on how to do it. Basically last night I inadvertantly hit some combination of commands I guess and now everything is too big. The fonts are big, the windows are big. I have a 13 inch air and even the header at the very top and dock on the left stretch about 1.5 times the total size of my screen. I tried the preferences resolution but that's apparently not the problem. Help- the computer really isn't even useable like this.