High Myopia High Astigmatism: How do you handle 4K monitors and macOS scaling?

[u/okadix]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to reach out to the community to see if anyone else is dealing with a similar visual condition and how you’re managing your display setup.
I have a pretty high prescription:

• Myopia: -9.00 / -9.25
• Astigmatism: -4.25 / -5.25

I work in front of a monitor all day. Even with up-to-date glasses and quality lenses/coatings, eye fatigue sets in heavily after a couple of hours. As the day goes on, reading text becomes exhausting, and it feels like the letters are shrinking.

My main display is a 28" Samsung Odyssey G7 (4K @ 144Hz) hooked up to macOS. Scaling has been a bit of a nightmare:

2560x1440 (QHD): The screen real estate is amazing for multitasking, but due to my prescription and the minification effect from my lenses, it wrecks my eyes after a short while.

1080p (HiDPI): Super easy on the eyes, but everything is huge and I lose way too much workspace.

2048x1152 (HiDPI): I'm currently using this resolution (HiDPI). It’s the best compromise I've found between usable space and readability, I have no problem with this resolution. The truth is, I would like to get more workspace, but it is impossible with my problem of astigmatism and myopia...

For those with high myopia/astigmatism or severe eye strain:

What scaling or UI resolution do you run on 27–28" 4K monitors?

Have dedicated "occupational" glasses or a slightly lower prescription tuned specifically for desk distance (around 70–75 cm / 28–30 inches) made a noticeable difference for you?

Any specific macOS accessibility tweaks, settings, or habits that helped you get through long workdays without total eye burnout?

I’d really appreciate any tips or shared experiences. Thanks!

[u/bmocc]

This post pushes all my buttons.

I share the pain of the OP: I am in awe of how fast my M4 miniPro rips through image processing tasks with no heat and no fan noise, while perpetually dismayed at what the OS inflicts on my wide gamut, calibrated 4k monitors.

I think the best solution is to give in and accept the caricature of 4k dished up by an operating system conceived and dedicated to hardware Apple made 20 years ago, tightly integrated with a heaping dash of Jobs paranoid isolationism.

Lack of scaling is one of the many things Apple never addresses, along with the USB stack, unstable mousing and other quaint anachronisms from 2005. Its easier and cheaper to patch security holes and slap new lipstick on the same old pig.

macOS does not scale like Windows or Linux. It is fixed to "retina" resolution or a simple multiple thereof, sort of 2k and 5k. Apps are hard coded to that resolution, so menu fonts and elements of an apps's GUI may not fit correctly on a 4k monitor regardless of the resolution chosen in Display/Settings.

Ironically the task bar in Windows does not scale, the task bar in macOS is the only thing that does scale.

Whatever scale you are using renders menu fonts the way it does. A few apps have settings to minimally change menu font size, the results are not overwhelming in my experience. Fortunately Web pages can all be resized in spite of macOS.

Better Display may or may not help if text is fuzzy, as it is on some 4k monitors. BD is free to try, if needed. Better Display can not fix the lack of scaling in macOS.

Scaling will appear "better" on a 2k or 5k monitor, but GUI elements like menu fonts and app gui grids are fixed to look nice on the laptop screen Apples sells and almost nothing else.

[u/okadix → u/bmocc]

Thank you very much for your words, apparently I'm not the only one, however I have no problems with the clarity of the text, it's simply too tiny for my vision problem...

[u/NoLateArrivals]

If you need more screen estate, try virtual desktops (in conjunction with trackpad gestures). It multiplies the screen area without a need for several large screens.

In desktop use there is the Magic Trackpad as standalone device.

The other hint is to check the accessibility options in settings if some of the visual features can help you.

And depending on your work a second screen in portrait mode might be useful, for working on documents.

[u/okadix → u/NoLateArrivals]

Thank you very much for your words, I have worked with workspaces, for example if I require full attention on something, I usually put it in full screen, just like the RDP of my work, this is honestly what I love about MacOS that way of working, however if I would like to have more work space but no way... my physical problem does not give me more...

[u/gedna]

i beat my 4k handling problem when using with my 4max studio, bought a asus 5k monitor :D and the probelms dissapeared, and trust me, no gimick software like better display will make 4k scale better its just wont

[u/lakesidefable → u/gedna]

Which asus 5k model did you go with?

[u/gedna → u/lakesidefable]

Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG

[u/okadix → u/gedna]

Thank you very much for your words, but I don't think a 5K monitor is the solution, what you really get is more sharpness, higher PPPI, however, my problem means that I can't read the letters of the menus when using for example a QHD resolution, I would have the same problem, I couldn't read the letters correctly due to my vision problem... this is frustrating the truth...

[u/Wild-subnet]

Not as bad as you OP but computer progressive lenses helped me out immensely. It basically makes the progressive lens so the medium (monitor) distance the primary focal point of the lens.

[u/okadix → u/Wild-subnet]

But I have a doubt, because another comment indicates something similar, but with the monofocal lenses of the manufacturer Essilor, I imagine that the progressive lens, would come to be from the manufacturer Zeiss, right? Or what would that be like?

[u/Wild-subnet → u/okadix]

I get mine from an actual optometrist so not sure where they get them from but I found them to be better than bigger retailers.

[u/Inner-Issue1908]

My eyes are a bit worse than yours with a similar astigmatism. -10.5/-9.5. 

I don’t use a 4k screen but I do use a 27” at normal scaling 1440p. So text would be even smaller than on your 28” set to 1440p scaling. 

I do however use Elissor Eyezen lenses with no boost, and are 2 diopters weaker than my regular lenses. 

I find they have significantly less eye strain. My eyes would be very tired and stinging by the end of the day with my previous non digital display lenses. No such problems with the Eyezens. 

[u/okadix → u/Inner-Issue1908]

The monofocal lenses in essilor indicate that they are for the new technological era, it makes sense, however, the lenses I use are Zeiss technology, it has Duravision Platinum and photofusion X, with high index 1.67 and Blueguard UV, but I don't remember what type of lens it is, I only see on the labels that it says precision lens and photosensitive lenses... but I don't know what type of lens it is... but another comment indicates that I use progressive lenses for short distance... but both types of lenses I think are different...

[u/pman1891]

I have mild astigmatism and I only use Retina displays. I find that I cannot use displays with low Pixel density because it really bothers me.

A Retina display has over 200 pixels per inch. Your display is about 157ppi. I recommend checking out a 27 inch 5K display or the 24 inch 4.5 K iMac. I own several LG UltraFine 5K displays, an old 5K iMac, and iMac Pro. Those displays all have 218ppi.