Enable HiDPI Display Modes in Mac OS X Lion with Quartz Debug
In what is some of the strongest evidence that Apple is working towards bringing higher resolution retina style displays to Macs, a series of hidden HiDPI resolutions can be enabled in OS X Lion.
Much like how iPhone UI elements handles it’s retina screen, the HiDPI modes in Mac OS X double the resolution of many onscreen elements, which would make the elements look sharper on very high resolution displays. Unfortunately, these aren’t particularly useful at the moment because no Mac screen currently supports a ‘retina’ resolution, and for now, using HiDPI basically just loads 2x sprites as shown in the screenshot up top. Regardless, this does provide some favorable support to recent rumors of retina Macs and it can be fun to to use, so here is how to enable these HiDPI display modes:
- Download and install XCode (free on the Mac App Store)
- Launch the “Quartz Debug” app, located in /Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/
- Pull down the “Window” menu and select “UI Resolution”
- Check the box for “Enable HiDPI display modes”
- Click “Logout” to log out and back into the user account
- Open “System Preferences” and click on “Displays” to see the HiDPI modes, shown with (HiDPI) next to them
As previously mentioned, using a HiDPI display mode has no practical purpose at the moment until a screen appears that can support the resolutions these modes are intended for.
There are also other bits of evidence scattered about in OS X Lion that suggest higher resolution displays are a work in progress, but when we’ll see such a screen on a Mac is anyones guess.
Cool article:
Please explain “using HiDPI basically just loads 2x sprites as shown in the screenshot up top” further.
[...] | OSXDaily [...]
No practical purpose? Seems like this would be pretty cool for old people and the vision-impaired when used on a standard screen.
Did you bother to try it? It’s not very practical at the moment.
I would have saved that post for when Retina displays are available.
I mean, “go here, download that, input this. It won’t do anything until you buy a Retina display, but it’s there all right.”
It won’t be necessary when retina displays are available, the HiDPI mode will be enabled by default. I think these HiDPI options are going to be left for developers who don’t yet have a retina display but need to test their graphics on the HiDPI mode.
Looking forward the new retina iMacs. Agreed, this is not useful at the moment and more than likely HiDPI will be enabled by default. Cheers for the heads up.
The strong rumours suggest that Apple are going to significantly update all of their hardware this year, so I would guess very soon…
How much extra load will enabling this put on the graphics hardware even if the screen can’t handle it?? The practical reason for enabling it at the moment (if it works like this) is when you use the OSX zoom to zoom in on an area it should be less pixelated and easier to read / see. It could also mean screen shots are captured at a higher res.
Just came across this post and check out Quartz Debug. HiDPI was enabled already on my 15in MacBook Pro with the high-res BTO screen option from June 2011. (1680 x 1050) It isn’t doing anything different from what I could tell from zooming in and comparing the shots with my menubar but maybe some update in the future will change it. I ended up just leaving the setting on as it was.
[...] terms – is happening right now. The iPhone got it in 2010, the iPad in March 2012, and Macs are around the corner. Rather than introducing resolution independence, Apple changes the ratio between logical pixel and [...]