Text Too Small or Too Big on Your Mac? Change the Resolution and Scaling

Text and icons on your Mac look too small (or too large), and you want to fit more on screen or make things easier to read.

Why: Your Mac picks a default resolution that balances sharpness and size. macOS lets you choose a scaled resolution instead — toward Larger Text to enlarge everything, or toward More Space to fit more on screen — without changing the physical screen.

Fix 1: Pick Larger Text or More Space

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Displays in the sidebar.
2. Under Resolution, you’ll see a row of preview options labeled roughly from Larger Text to More Space.
3. Click the option you want. Larger Text makes everything bigger; More Space fits more on screen but makes things smaller.
4. Hover over a preview to see its description; the change applies immediately.

For best sharpness, Apple recommends staying with the Default resolution when you can — the scaled options trade a little crispness for size.

Fix 2: See the resolution as a list (and show all resolutions)

If you’d rather pick an exact resolution like 1920 × 1080:

1. In Displays, Control-click the resolution previews and choose Show List — or click Advanced and turn on Show resolutions as list.
2. To reveal extra resolutions a display can technically run, turn on Show all resolutions (this appears mainly for external displays).
3. Click the resolution you want from the list.

Resolutions marked as not recommended can look soft or cause the external monitor to letterbox — try one, and back out if it looks wrong.

Fix 3: Reset to the recommended resolution

If a resolution made things blurry or the layout looks off:

1. System Settings > Displays.
2. Click the Default option (or the resolution labeled as recommended) to return to the best resolution for that screen.
3. If a wrong resolution left the screen unreadable, wait about 15 seconds without confirming and macOS reverts to the previous setting.

FAQ

What’s the difference between resolution and scaling? On a Retina Mac the “resolution” choices are really scaling presets — Larger Text vs More Space. They change how big things look, not the panel itself (Fix 1).

I only see a few options — where are the rest? Switch to list view and turn on Show all resolutions (Fix 2); some are hidden by default.

Everything got blurry after I changed it. A non-native scaled resolution can soften text — go back to Default (Fix 3).

Sources: Apple Support — Change your Mac display’s resolution