How To Enable HiDPI Mode

In MacOS
Jim Tanous

November 19, 2020

The magic of Appleʼs “Retina” displays is that macOS

(formally called Mac OS X) renders the user interface with
four times as many pixels (twice the vertical and twice the
horizontal resolutions) as it does on a traditional lower
resolution display, giving users the benefits of ultra-sharp
text and graphics without making the interface too small to
see.

This works great on high-resolution displays like 4K

monitors and the new 5K iMac, but what if you could have
the benefit of Retina-like sharpness on a non-Retina
monitor? Well, thanks to something called HiDPI mode in
macOS/OS X, you can, although thereʼs a pretty big caveat.

How to Enable HiDPI Mode

HiDPI mode was initially available as an option in Xcodeʼs
Quartz Debug utility, but since Mavericks has been
accessible via a Terminal command. If youʼre running
Mountain Lion or older, check out this article at OS X Daily
for instructions on how to enable HiDPI mode in OS X. I.

Note: If you’re using macOS Mojave, the Terminal

commands shown below won’t work, so you’ll want to skip
down to the part of this article that talks about “third-
party applications.”

If youʼre using macOS Mavericks or higher, then continue

with the steps below:

W. Fire up a new Terminal window and then copy and

paste the following command:
$ sudo defaults write
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.pli
st DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true
Y. Then press Return to execute the command and,
because this is a “sudo” command, enter your admin
password when prompted.

Z. Next, reboot your Mac and, upon logging back in, head
to System Preferences and click on Displays.
Here youʼll see the familiar preference window where
you can set your resolution and refresh rate.
Most users will likely have the “Default for Display” option
checked, which is typically your displayʼs native resolution.
Click Scaled to reveal additional resolutions and youʼll see
one or more options at the bottom of the list with “(HiDPI)”
appended to their resolutions. Click on one of the HiDPI
modes to enable it on your desired display.

Note: If youʼre not seeing the HiDPI resolutions listed in

System Preferences after using the Terminal command
above, try clicking on the “Scaled” radio button while
holding the Alt/Option key on your keyboard. This trick
reveals additional resolutions for all displays and should list
the HiDPI resolutions if they werenʼt already visible.

Youʼll instantly see everything appear much sharper, but

here comes the caveat: your effective resolution is much
lower. This works on high-resolution Retina displays
because macOS has millions of additional pixels to work
with.
If you want “Retina-quality” on a standard-resolution
display, youʼre going to end up with a much lower effective
resolution. For example, hereʼs what a native resolution of
1920×1200 looks like on a 20-inch iMac:
And hereʼs what HiDPI mode looks like with an effective
resolution of 960×600:

Although it may be difficult to discern on your own display

(you can click on each image to view them larger), the
HiDPI mode makes macOS and apps look much crisper, but
significantly reduces the working resolution of the system.

You therefore likely wonʼt want to work in HiDPI mode all

the time, but once youʼve enabled it with the Terminal
command, you can easily switch to it when you want to
view a particular app or document with Retina-like quality,
or if you want to temporarily make the UI easier to see from
a distance without the reduction in quality that
accompanies using a “normal” lower resolution, such as
when displaying OS X on an HDTV across the room.

When you want to switch back to the default native

resolution, just head back to System Preferences >
Displays and choose “Default for Display” or your
preferred resolution from the “Scaled” list. It doesnʼt hurt to
leave HiDPI mode enabled as an option in OS X when
youʼre not using it, but if you want to remove the HiDPI
mode resolutions from your “Scaled” resolutions list, just
run the following command in Terminal:
$ sudo defaults delete
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist
DisplayResolutionEnabled
Just as when you enabled HiDPI mode in macOS, youʼll
need to both enter your admin password and reboot your
Mac for the change to take effect.

Third-Party Applications
If youʼd rather not play around with Terminal commands,
there are third-party apps and utilities that can enable
HiDPI mode for you, in addition to other display-related
functionality.

Here are some examples of third-party software that can

enable HiDPI on macOS:

ResolutionTab ($1.99, Mac App Store) ResolutionTab is

a “menu bar app for fast switching between Standard
& HiDPI display modes.”
SwitchResX ($15, shareware). SwitchResX, in
particular, offers tons of additional functionality for
setting up custom resolutions and refresh rates, but
both of these apps can get you in and out of HiDPI
mode with just a click.

HiDPI mode certainly isnʼt a replacement for a true high-

resolution Retina display, but it serves a useful role for those
who occasionally need macOS/OS X to look sharper, such
as when taking high-quality screenshots, or for users who
want a larger and easier to read interface without the
blurriness of a standard lower resolution.

If you found this article useful, you might want to check out
other TechJunkie Mac articles, including How to Use Only a
Dark Menu Bar and Dock in macOS Mojave and How to
Edit the Hosts File on macOS (Mac OS X).

Do you have any tips or tricks for turning on HiDPI mode on

your Mac? Do you know of any good third party
applications other than the two listed above? If so, please
tell us about it in the comments below!

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