BetterDisplay

<img src=".github/Icon-1024.png" width="230" alt="App icon" align="left"/> <div> <h2>BetterDisplay</h2> <p>Display Management, Custom Resolutions, Brightness Adjustment and Dummy Displays for Macs - a menubar app from one of the makers of <a href="https://github.com/MonitorControl/MonitorControl">MonitorControl</a>.<p> <a href="https://github.com/AikoCute-Offical/BetterDisplay/releases/download/v0.0.7/BetterDisplay.dmg"><img src=".github/macos_badge_noborder.png" width="175" alt="Download for macOS"/></a> </div> <br /> <div align="center"> <!-- shields --> <!-- downloads --> <a href="https://github.com/AikoCute-Offical/BetterDisplay/releases"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/AikoCute-Offical/BetterDisplay/total.svg?style=flat" alt="downloads"/> </a> <!-- version --> <a href="https://github.com/AikoCute-Offical/BetterDisplay/releases"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/github/release/AikoCute-Offical/BetterDisplay.svg?include_prereleases&style=flat" alt="latest version"/> </a> <!-- platform --> <a href="https://github.com/AikoCute-Offical/BetterDisplay"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/platform-macOS-lightgrey.svg?style=flat" alt="platform"/> </a> </div> <hr>

About

BetterDisplay is a truly wonderful tool! It let's you convert your displays to fully scalable screens, allows brightness control, provides XDR/HDR upscaling (extra brightness beyond 100% on compatible displays), full dimming to black, helps you create and manage virtual displays (dummies) for your Mac, create Picture in Picture windows of your displays and gives you a host of other features to manage your display's settings easily from the menu bar.

<div align="center"> <img width="600" alt="screenshot" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/37590873/174477337-745a7bb5-dd07-4c3f-bacf-dee7224cdcdc.png"> </div>

Features

• NEW! Convert your internal and natively connected external displays to smoothly-scaled HiDPI displays on Apple Silicon - now even without mirroring a dummy (displays with notch, HDR, HDCP, high refresh rate fully supported)! *
• NEW! Reach the full brightness potential of your XDR or HDR display - XDR brightness upscale to 1600 nits, external HDR brightness upscale! *
• NEW! Change the display's brightness, volume and colors via software and hardware (DDC) control via sliders and native or custom keyboard shortcuts!
• NEW! Create custom HiDPI resolutions for real displays manually and redefine certain system display parameters!
• NEW! Enable Night Shift for your TV!
• Create any number of dummies (virtual screens) with varying aspect ratios.
• Use headless Macs (servers) with any resolution and HiDPI mode for remote access.
• Create Picture in Picture window for any real or dummy displays. *
• Redirect your display's contents (real or dummy) to an other screen via streaming. *
• If you are using a big TV up close, use the bottom half of your TV as a wide screen display (off-center streaming). *
• Scale Sidecar resolutions. *
• Portrait SideCar support. *
• Better quality zooming (System Preferences»Accessibility»Zoom) or High Quality screenshots even on 1080p displays
• Easily change the resolution of your real and dummy displays via a slider (or submenu) from the menubar.
• Quickly accessible refresh rate and screen rotation menu.
• Simplify creating mirrored sets. *
• Easily move around displays relative to each other using the app menu.
• Quickly designate a display to be main display.
• Associate dummies with displays for auto connect/disconnect.
• Keyboard shortcuts for basic operations.
• Advanced keyboard shortcuts support. *
• Custom dummies (resolution, orientation, naming). *
• Create a dummy optimized for a real display. *

... and more is coming! :)

Note: featues marked with an asterisk (*) require a Pro license.

<details> <summary><b>For a more detailed list and comparison with some popular alternatives, click here...</b></summary>

Feature comparison

| | BetterDisplay | MonitorControl | Lunar | SwitchResX | Vivid | DisplayBuddy | | --- | :-: | :-: | :-: | :-: | :-: | :-: | | Custom scaled resolution editing | :white_check_mark::free: | | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | Native smooth scaling | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | | | Night Shift for TVs | :white_check_mark::free: | | | | | | | Display name override | :white_check_mark::free: | | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | Native, default resolution editing | :white_check_mark::free: | | | | | | | Dummy display creation | :white_check_mark::free: | | | | | | | Dummy-display association | :white_check_mark::free: | | | | | | | Display mode selector menu | :white_check_mark::free: | | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | Resolution slider | :white_check_mark::free: | | | | | | | Picture in Picture | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | | | Custom dummies | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | | | Full screen streaming | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | | | Stream/PIP, stretching, off-centering | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | | | Stream/PIP rotation, portrait Sidecar | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | | | Teleprompter mode (stream flipping) | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | | | Mirror configuration | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | | | DDC brightness control | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::exclamation: | | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | DDC volume control | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::exclamation: | | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | Native brightnesss and volume keys | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | | | | | Basic custom keyboard shortcuts | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | Advanced custom keyboard shortcuts | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | :white_check_mark::exclamation: | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | Basic native OSD support | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | Combined native OSD support | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | | | | | | Software dimming (color table) | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::exclamation: | | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | Software dimming (overlay) | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::exclamation: | | | | | Combined dimming | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::exclamation: | | | | | Dimming to black | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | Color adjustments | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | Color temperature control | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | XDR extra brightness (advanced) | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | XDR extra brightness (overlay) | | | | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | Third party HDR extra brightness | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | Custom display timings for Intel Macs | | | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | DDC input switching | :hourglass::free: | | :white_check_mark::free: | | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | Command Line Integration | :hourglass::free: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | DIY hardware integration | | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | Advanced Brightness syncing | :hourglass::free: | :white_check_mark::free: | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | Presets | :hourglass::moneybag: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | Schedule based settings | :hourglass::moneybag: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | App specific settings | :hourglass::moneybag: | | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | :white_check_mark::moneybag: | | | | | | | | | | | | Price | $15 | $0 | $23 | $15 | € 14 | $13 | | Trial days | 14 | - | 14 | 10 | - | - |

:white_check_mark: - Feature is available

:free: - Feature is completely free without limitation, even after trial

:exclamation: - Feature is free with limitations imposed after trial (for Lunar: 100 adjustments per day)

:moneybag: - Feature is a paid/pro feature and is not available after a trial (for apps with trial)

:hourglass: - Feature is planned

<i>Please note that this comparison is only meant to give you a big picture, does not contain all secondary and derived functionalities (free or paid) for each software and might not be a fair representation in every respect as I am not an expert on the alternative apps. I am pretty sure the devs of respective alternatives would feel the comparison is skewed in some way or I did miss an important aspect or unique advantage of the competing solution. For an educated decision you might want to try all apps that offer some sort of trial. If you feel the comparison is not fair, drop me a note a the BetterDisplay Discord channel!</i>

</details>

Installation

1. Download the latest version
2. Open the DMG file and move the app to Applications folder on your Mac as instructed.
3. Start the app.
4. Use the app menu bar item to interact with the app.

Fully scalable HiDPI desktop with BetterDisplay

Some Macs tend to have issues with custom resolutions. Apple Silicon Macs notoriously don't allow sub-4K resolution displays to have HiDPI ("Retina") resolutions even though most 1440p display would greatly benefit from having a HiDPI "Retina" mode. On other Macs the resolution options for wide displays are too constrained.

BetterDisplay solves the problem by **unlocking