Using external 4k displays is tough.... advice?

[rawdawg]

Hi, I have a 2017 MBP as my main computer. I used to use two external 1920x1200 displays but wanted to upgrade to 4k. I shoot high end video work and take photos professionally so I would benefit from a 4k or higher display. I only upgraded one of them due to budget reasons.

(Let's not get distracted by the "video" work, I have a separate workflow regarding properly viewing footage using a dedicated I/O box)

My issue is, and I've talked to Apple about this, when I scale my display so that I can actually see the icons without squinting my setup doesn't know to display video or photo content at it's higher available resolution. I.E. When I scale my monitor my photos/videos will also be displayed at that lower resolution.

When I want/need to view something at the higher available resolutions I need to go into preferences and scale to the the highest resolution. But then my icons are tiny, and my arrangement (of monitors) gets messed up and I need to rearrange. (In fairness I keep my dual displays about 2 feet away so maybe others work with their higher res displays closer to their face?)

It's not that big of a deal. But I'm curious what others do. Do you keep your 4k/5k external monitors on the highest resolution but then pull it closer to your face for viewing?

 

[Aea]

I use a 4K monitor at work and don't have any problems with small text or icons.

However, you can scale finder font sizes and finder icon sizes (i.e. on desktop) independently. Apple - J is the shortcut.

 

[rawdawg]

I use a 4K monitor at work and don't have any problems with small text or icons.

However, you can scale finder font sizes and finder icon sizes (i.e. on desktop) independently. Apple - J is the shortcut.

Hi, thanks for your reply. I'm in Denver too! How far away do you sit from your 4k monitor? I have great eyesight but those icons/letters are tiny. Do you know if your monitor is set to the 4k resolution in preferences? Because originally mine was scaled and I realized I wasn't getting true 4k when I played some 4k Quicktime files and noticed they were oversized--when I fit to screen it was less then 4k.

I tried Apple-J but nothing happens on my end!?

 

[gigapocket1]

You can increase the size of the icons.

 

[Aea]

Hi, thanks for your reply. I'm in Denver too! How far away do you sit from your 4k monitor? I have great eyesight but those icons/letters are tiny. Do you know if your monitor is set to the 4k resolution in preferences? Because originally mine was scaled and I realized I wasn't getting true 4k when I played some 4k Quicktime files and noticed they were oversized--when I fit to screen it was less then 4k.

I tried Apple-J but nothing happens on my end!?

About 2.5 feet. If Apple - J isn't working when you're in **Finder** (or on your Desktop) you can go into View -> Show View Options (near the bottom).

Then you should get a dialog like this:

If you do this from the desktop you get different options (i.e. icon size, spacing, etc.):

 

[rawdawg]

I appreciate the step by step.. thanks!

 

[TheralSadurns]

I know... this won't really help NOW that you already got one other display. But please refer to THIS article:

https://bjango.com/articles/macexternaldisplays/

Basically... if you want a 4k display to work with your Mac flawlessly... it needs to be between 21-24". 27" would STILL somewhat work... but I personally think this is horrible already.

You should generally treat a 4k display as a FullHD one. Meaning... if you wouldn't buy a 27" 1920x1080 display... because things are too big on screen... then DON'T buy a 4k one at 27".

For best image quality macOS doubles the pixels it uses to display... so the available space... and how big everything looks is the same for 4k and 1080p.

 

[pubmsu]

I know... this won't really help NOW that you already got one other display. But please refer to THIS article:

https://bjango.com/articles/macexternaldisplays/

Basically... if you want a 4k display to work with your Mac flawlessly... it needs to be between 21-24". 27" would STILL somewhat work... but I personally think this is horrible already.

You should generally treat a 4k display as a FullHD one. Meaning... if you wouldn't buy a 27" 1920x1080 display... because things are too big on screen... then DON'T buy a 4k one at 27".

For best image quality macOS doubles the pixels it uses to display... so the available space... and how big everything looks is the same for 4k and 1080p.

What about 2560x1440 HiDPI option for the 27-inch 4K monitors? Isn't that a good option?