Terrible font rendering on external screen?

[sanderbjerkevoll]

Greetings from Norway.

I have the 13" MBP w/ touch bar. I went for a screen with 2560x1440 resolution and USB-C connectivity. The problem is, that when I am using the screen, the text is so pixelated and jagged. And the weird thing is that it doesn't even work changing resolution/scale or using the Zoom function in Accessibility. The text remains jagged and pixelated even when it is bigger. This means that the text is not vector based like it should be.

I have returned the monitor and received a new one, I also tested the monitor on one generation older MacBook Pro connected with HDMI and the problem still remains. The monitor works perfectly on Windows.

I have this monitor: http://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/258B6QUEB_00/brilliance-lcd-monitor-with-usb-c-dock/overview

So, what is wrong and how do I fix it?

You can see how pixelated the text is here: http://imgur.com/JZxjf2D

 

[DeltaMac]

Jaggy text can look pretty bad. Depends on if the display output is provided as graphics, where the text is considered part of the the image - or the text is font-driven.
Windows displays text that can be very hardware-agnostic, and the text is drawn in a very different method from macOS.
macOS is pretty much graphics oriented.
You can try one of the methods that forces the video to RGB mode. That may fix your issue completely.

Is there a menu in the internal adjustments on the display itself, that will change how video is displayed such as a setting for showing Movies, or Text, or some other setting that "optimizes" the display for different uses?
You may find that one of those settings will help, too.

 

[MC6800]

Could this be a problem with subpixel rendering? This solution might still work.

 

[sanderbjerkevoll]

Thanks for answering, but none of the solutions works. I have spent hours looking for a solution on the web, but it seems like it doesn't exist. Do I really need to spend even more money on a 4K-monitor to eliminate the issue?

 

[DeltaMac]

Have you tried any of the other video inputs on your monitor?
I would try a USB 3.1 to DisplayPort.
Here's one like that - https://www.amazon.com/Thunderbolt-DisplayPort-Benfei-Display-Gold-Plated/dp/B06XFG1YKT

 

[sanderbjerkevoll]

I have tried with HDMI on another MacBook Pro, but that MacBook had the same issue as well.

 

[DeltaMac]

hmm...
I wouldn't expect that HDMI would make a significant difference, and I wouldn't suggest that you purchase an unusual cable, if I didn't think it might help.
There's no setting on the display itself, where there are stored color configurations, like movie, or text, or photo, or game settings that you can try? I had the same issue on my Dell, and the internal settings smoothed the text completely for me.

 

[MC6800]

Thanks for answering, but none of the solutions works. I have spent hours looking for a solution on the web, but it seems like it doesn't exist. Do I really need to spend even more money on a 4K-monitor to eliminate the issue?

Do you see subpixel rendering on that monitor if you look at text with a magnifying glass? It will appear as colored edges on text, as you should see on your MPB's display when magnified. I don't see it in your photo.

 

[MC6800]

It seems you don't need a magnifying glass-- just zoom in the display (check System Preferences>Accessability>Zoom, then repeated Cmd-Opt-+). Subpixel rendering no longer works when it's zoomed in since the zoomed pixels don't align with the physical pixels, but it lets you see which fonts are subpixeled. You can also check/uncheck "System Preferences>General>Use LCD font smoothing when available" and see how it changes this (you have to scroll the screen first so it has to redraw it). If your external display is supixel rendered the fonts (system fonts, at least) will have reddish and bluish left and right edges. If not, they have grayscale edges.

Which side is red depends on the arrangement of red/green/blue subpixels within each pixel, so I assume the system needs to interrogate the monitor, and if that fails, no subpixel rendering.

 

[littlej2]

I have the same issue with the MBPro 15" 512GB with touch bar. I purchased a high quality USBC to HDMI dongle which supports 4K at 60Hz, and have it connected to my 32" £1200 dell monitor which has 2560x1600. I can see that it has the correct resolution and fequency, but the text looks exactly like someone took a screen shot, then converted it to a very lossy jpeg. The text is not only spidery, but blurred. Text on a grey background looks like it has a white halo, a typical compression effect. It is not usable. Images, as far as I can tell, look good.

The HDMI cable I am using is a 4K one which looks great when I connect it to my Windows laptop and the same monitor.

Trying the "use LCD font smoothing...." makes no difference on or off.

Have apple crippled all non-apple monitors?

 

[DeltaMac]

I don't know which Dell monitor you have.
Are there internal screen settings that you can try to change?

Windoze uses a very different method of displaying screen fonts, and typically will have much clearer fonts on screen than a macOS system using the same monitor.

 

[MC6800]

I have the same issue with the MBPro 15" 512GB with touch bar. I purchased a high quality USBC to HDMI dongle which supports 4K at 60Hz, and have it connected to my 32" £1200 dell monitor which has 2560x1600. I can see that it has the correct resolution and fequency, but the text looks exactly like someone took a screen shot, then converted it to a very lossy jpeg. The text is not only spidery, but blurred. Text on a grey background looks like it has a white halo, a typical compression effect. It is not usable. Images, as far as I can tell, look good.

The HDMI cable I am using is a 4K one which looks great when I connect it to my Windows laptop and the same monitor.

Trying the "use LCD font smoothing...." makes no difference on or off.

Have apple crippled all non-apple monitors?

Could be, but since Apple doesn't make external monitors anymore that would be all of them.

Can you try the zoom test I suggested in post #9?

 

[littlej2]

I don't know which Dell monitor you have.
Are there internal screen settings that you can try to change?
/QUOTE]

Its a Dell U3014. I have 2 of them. When connected to Win10, they are glorious - text is razor sharp, incredible detail and colour. If I then plug them into mac, its truly horrible to a level I just cant comprehend.

In terms of settings on the Dell U3014, there is not much to play with. I have them set on sRGB, no enhancements. I tried playing with the sharpness, this made no visible difference.

I would splash out on a Thunderbolt3 to displayport if I thought it would fix it, but I don't want to throw good money after bad.

 

[DeltaMac]

hmm...
http://www.ispcolohost.com/2013/07/11/connecting-a-dell-ultrasharp-u3014-to-a-mac-ugh/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5049049

 

[ressac]

I have 27" fullhd monitor with mbp 15" (2016) connected via hdmi + apple official usb-c dongle.

I did run all those fancy scripts, I did every F... thing to make those fonts look smoother and there is no way to do it on 1080 screen with macos. I even tried usb-c -> hdmi -> dvi with old samsung 23" fullhd and it's looks same way as with my new monitor 27".

I also tried with live ubuntu usb on the same mbp, and fonts were awesome!

is anyone having same problems but with 1440p monitors?

 

[vbaksys]

Hello, any updated solutions here? MBP2018 macOS Mojave with LG38WK95C 21:9 75Hz thru USB-C, horrible text rendering experience
Macbook Pro 2018 Built-In Retina Display vs External 75Hz LG38WK95C Monitor https://imgur.com/a/tQFnFkA

 

[Leo Gonzalez]

Jaggy text can look pretty bad. Depends on if the display output is provided as graphics, where the text is considered part of the the image - or the text is font-driven.
Windows displays text that can be very hardware-agnostic, and the text is drawn in a very different method from macOS.
macOS is pretty much graphics oriented.
You can try one of the methods that forces the video to RGB mode. That may fix your issue completely.

Is there a menu in the internal adjustments on the display itself, that will change how video is displayed such as a setting for showing Movies, or Text, or some other setting that "optimizes" the display for different uses?
You may find that one of those settings will help, too.

This solution worked for me.

I have a MBP 13" 2017 and I just bought this monitor https://www.samsung.com/de/monitors/curved-h892/ (probably only sold in Germany)

 

[drsruli]

It seems you don't need a magnifying glass-- just zoom in the display (check System Preferences>Accessability>Zoom, then repeated Cmd-Opt-+). Subpixel rendering no longer works when it's zoomed in since the zoomed pixels don't align with the physical pixels, but it lets you see which fonts are subpixeled. You can also check/uncheck "System Preferences>General>Use LCD font smoothing when available" and see how it changes this (you have to scroll the screen first so it has to redraw it). If your external display is supixel rendered the fonts (system fonts, at least) will have reddish and bluish left and right edges. If not, they have grayscale edges.

Which side is red depends on the arrangement of red/green/blue subpixels within each pixel, so I assume the system needs to interrogate the monitor, and if that fails, no subpixel rendering.

I have been having exactly this issue with a nice external monitor attached in 10.12. Simply unchecking LCD font smoothing, fixed immediately (as soon as unchecked the fonts all smoothed up) and rechecking it did not remove the improvement, the system retains the cleaner fonts.

Thank you so much, so easy.

 

[MrMoodle]

For anyone having this problem, I found a fix not mentioned above, and created an account just to share this. I got a new monitor, and the fonts were displaying jagged on it, and I couldn't figure it out. Tried the solution above that forces RGB, and no dice. I finally talked to my dad who's a video engineer, and he told me to try adjusting the phase on the monitor (in the monitor menu) and it worked like a charm. There's a sweet spot in the middle – not too high, not too low – that gets the fonts nice looking again. Figured I'd save someone else the hours of researching and trying different things I did. Best of luck.