You can either increase the font size in Safari, or just set the resolution to be a little bit lower, that's all.
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2560x1440 is a troublesome resolution....
- Thread starter WilliamG
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doesnt setting the resolution lower kind of defeat the purpose of getting the 27"?
Old thread I know....
I too found the native resolution resulted in too tiny characters for my poor eyesight. At first I tried increasing the minimum font sizes in browsers and other programs. I also needed to change to "large fonts" in Windows (running in Parallels) to make it usable, but that causes problems in GUI development when updates are done by different developers running different font sizes.
I finally decided the better solution was to leave all the individual programs the way they were and go into the Display Preferences and select a size of "1920 x 1080". Sure I loose some clarity, but bigger is more important for my eyes.
I too found the native resolution resulted in too tiny characters for my poor eyesight. At first I tried increasing the minimum font sizes in browsers and other programs. I also needed to change to "large fonts" in Windows (running in Parallels) to make it usable, but that causes problems in GUI development when updates are done by different developers running different font sizes.
I finally decided the better solution was to leave all the individual programs the way they were and go into the Display Preferences and select a size of "1920 x 1080". Sure I loose some clarity, but bigger is more important for my eyes.
Safari
The issue is the way that Safari scales websites, and some websites have certain "features" that can't be scaled properly, such as the price lookup on amazon, where the box and text inside of it do not scale the same way.
Also, some sites will not change font sizes to match the size chosen in Safari's preferences. The Safari zoom feature enlarges all unlocked webpage elements resulting in distorted/blurry images. Safari does not keep track of which sites to scale, a feature found in Firefox.
Resolution independence will be nice when it finally arrives.
Several people that I consult do not want to always use the zoom feature every time they open a new webpage. Their poor eye site, lack of resolution independence, high dpi of Macbooks and iMacs, are some of the reasons that they have put off Mac purchases.
Someone who has difficulty reading text on a 14" 1024x768 LCD does not want a 1200x800 LCD without any resolution independence. They dont like the 1920x1080 dpi on the 21.5" iMac either. The workarounds are too frustrating for many users.
The issue is the way that Safari scales websites, and some websites have certain "features" that can't be scaled properly, such as the price lookup on amazon, where the box and text inside of it do not scale the same way.
Also, some sites will not change font sizes to match the size chosen in Safari's preferences. The Safari zoom feature enlarges all unlocked webpage elements resulting in distorted/blurry images. Safari does not keep track of which sites to scale, a feature found in Firefox.
Resolution independence will be nice when it finally arrives.
Several people that I consult do not want to always use the zoom feature every time they open a new webpage. Their poor eye site, lack of resolution independence, high dpi of Macbooks and iMacs, are some of the reasons that they have put off Mac purchases.
Someone who has difficulty reading text on a 14" 1024x768 LCD does not want a 1200x800 LCD without any resolution independence. They dont like the 1920x1080 dpi on the 21.5" iMac either. The workarounds are too frustrating for many users.
There's no denying that 2560x1440/27" is a relatively high PPI for a desktop monitor. Its 109 PPI. To compare, 1920x1200/24" is 94 PPI. 2560x1600/30" is 101 PPI. So yeah, to get the most out of your resolution you probably don't want to lean back far from the screen, but on the other hand you can always increase icon sizes and text sizes in OS X settings and it still will look very good.
That's all well and good. The problem I also have is that Youtube videos etc show up really tiny on the screen.
hmmm
According to one Apple floor person (not sure if he was managerial or higher) I spoke to at an Apple store last Thursday, I asked about resolution and if he thinks the Retina Displays will eventually transfer over to Macs themselves.
This fellow did not mention resolution independence but did point out changing the background colors from white to black and the text from black to white making things easier to read. On the retina display end, he speculated the iphone might be the test run for this display. Oh and he sort of pointed a finger at consumers who want HD resolution LoL. I just want to be able to read clearly at a distance many of you have mentioned...
this myopic gal can dream I suppose...but like the OP, I am not fond of resolution higher than 1920...
According to one Apple floor person (not sure if he was managerial or higher) I spoke to at an Apple store last Thursday, I asked about resolution and if he thinks the Retina Displays will eventually transfer over to Macs themselves.
This fellow did not mention resolution independence but did point out changing the background colors from white to black and the text from black to white making things easier to read. On the retina display end, he speculated the iphone might be the test run for this display. Oh and he sort of pointed a finger at consumers who want HD resolution LoL. I just want to be able to read clearly at a distance many of you have mentioned...
this myopic gal can dream I suppose...but like the OP, I am not fond of resolution higher than 1920...
Erm. What you're talking about has NOTHING to do with what we're talking about. Retina Display is MARKETING. There's nothing special or magnificent about it except that it's high resolution.
If we put a higher resolution display in the 27" iMac, it would just make the problem some of us are having - worse. We need resolution independence to solve this problem.
I don't see why a retina display wouldn't help solving the problem of hard to read text. Due to the nature of how osx renders text, it produces a lot of off-black colors to smooth the letters out, thus they're not as crisp as could be. A higher resolution display would allow for crisper text-- as Steve Jobs would like to put it, it's like reading a finely printed book.
Because we're not talking about the same problem! On actual Macs (not iPads and iPhones etc), more resolution equals smaller text to read. On the iPads, iPhones, more pixels works a lot better.
Of course I know that. The other poster above knew that as well. OSX would have to come up with a system of rendering their text at higher resolutions to keep the text at a manageable size. With that said, a 326dpi screen would be great for rendering text.
Oh OF COURSE! Dude, give me more resolution, always! My argument is that the current way OS X renders text would make a 326dpi screen unreadable, where it would be no issue on Windows-based systems. If Apple can make this work on the iPhone, it boggles my mind that they didn't make it work on the iMacs. I'm tired of tiny Youtube videos that I have to scroll-zoom to see because it's either that or blowing them up full screen.
I think the issue is that OS X hasn't been programmed well to remember zoom and text size preferences and to extrapolate them across all programs. There's nothing you need that OS X doesn't do at some level (ie zoom levels, text sizes, icon sizes, etc), but OS X apparently doesn't remember your settings or apply your settings in an effective way across multiple programs.
"Resolution independence" just means that you can take a single image (such as an icon) and make it relatively small or very big and it will remain sharp and clear. OS X already approximates this by, for example, having drawn the icons for all the applications at very large sizes. The OS just scales them down for your dock, and then when you hover your cursor over icons and they blow up, or when you bring up the command-tab applications switcher, which also uses relatively large-sized icons, they display the image at a higher size, but since its from yet a still larger raw image, it still looks sharp. The downside to this is that they have to use the large image files which take up more space, even when the icon is just tiny in the dock. I imagine that when people are talking about "true resolution independence" they would be talking about using vector images which have much smaller file sizes but they require more CPU processing to render.
i'm glad someone finally said that...it's a **** decision.the 27'' is clearly WAY too big and the 21.5'' is fine but you could use much bigger.
..and yes i agree with the OP about the web pages looking bad on the 27'' that's why i avoided it.
i also agree that the 21.5" is a bit too small and the 27" is too big. i have a mac mini now but will be upgrading soon. the 21.5" is gonna be a bit too small considering i have a 24" right now, but at the same time i don't have room for a 27".
like another said, i think the best idea is to have a MB or MBP hooked up to an external monitor.
although, i am getting a bit off topic.
Hi there,
I know this is several years old post, but maybe my comment will help!
I have a 27'' Non-retina iMac, with native 2560x1440
27'' seems like a good idea, but in the end, I think that the 24'' iMacs where perfect (apple not selling any longer)
If I was buying today, I would rather have an 21'' with an external monitor.
Anyway - 2560x1440 is IMPOSSIBLE to work with. You just have to be so close to the screen to read the top menu, that you have to move your head to see the entire screen.
Only solution I found was to use 1920x1080. The image quality is ... mediocre... (not smooth like you would expect on a mac...)
For some applications you can use 1220x720 HiDPI - You fool Mac OS into believing that it's a retina display - 1220x720 times 2 = 2560x1440
Image is gorgeous but huge! Nevertheless it may be very useful on some cases - for instance working very far from the screen.
In the end, I use a free app to bring back the monitor icon to the Mac OS top menu bar, so that I can keep changing resolution with a couple of clicks:
DISPLAY MENU
https://itunes.apple.com/pt/app/display-menu/id549083868?mt=12
HiDPI
HERE you can learn how to trick mac os into believing you have a retina display:
http://cocoamanifest.net/articles/2013/01/turn-on-hidpi-retina-mode-on-an-ordinary-mac.html
Hope this has been useful, because... I understand your pain...
I know this is several years old post, but maybe my comment will help!
I have a 27'' Non-retina iMac, with native 2560x1440
27'' seems like a good idea, but in the end, I think that the 24'' iMacs where perfect (apple not selling any longer)
If I was buying today, I would rather have an 21'' with an external monitor.
Anyway - 2560x1440 is IMPOSSIBLE to work with. You just have to be so close to the screen to read the top menu, that you have to move your head to see the entire screen.
Only solution I found was to use 1920x1080. The image quality is ... mediocre... (not smooth like you would expect on a mac...)
For some applications you can use 1220x720 HiDPI - You fool Mac OS into believing that it's a retina display - 1220x720 times 2 = 2560x1440
Image is gorgeous but huge! Nevertheless it may be very useful on some cases - for instance working very far from the screen.
In the end, I use a free app to bring back the monitor icon to the Mac OS top menu bar, so that I can keep changing resolution with a couple of clicks:
DISPLAY MENU
https://itunes.apple.com/pt/app/display-menu/id549083868?mt=12
HiDPI
HERE you can learn how to trick mac os into believing you have a retina display:
http://cocoamanifest.net/articles/2013/01/turn-on-hidpi-retina-mode-on-an-ordinary-mac.html
Hope this has been useful, because... I understand your pain...
Thanks for the post. Interestingly, this issue still isn't solved. I now have a 5K iMac, and I still have to zoom in (CTRL+/CTRL-) using Safari because Safari STILL doesn't remember zoom levels. I've now actually bound the zoom in/out buttons to my Logitech G700 mouse because I use them so often in new tabs etc..
I'm not going to give up 2560x1440 effective res (from 5120x2880 native) Retina mode, because I need the real-estate for photography. Just bizarre that Apple hasn't given us more adjustability here..
I'm not going to give up 2560x1440 effective res (from 5120x2880 native) Retina mode, because I need the real-estate for photography. Just bizarre that Apple hasn't given us more adjustability here..