Do you suffer with a blurry MacBook screen? Solve it!

The screen is the one thing on your MacBook or iMac that you use the most and if the display is perfect you will suffer irritation, eyestrain and maybe headaches. Fix it with these tweaks.

If your MacBook display has deteriorated recently or perhaps is not as good as you think it should be, if it exhibits lighting and banding issues, and other problems, it could be a hardware fault and the display might need repairing by Apple. However, the problem could be caused by wrong settings, maybe not wrong, but certainly not the best settings.

Some MacBooks are known to have problems with the screen and Apple has a 13-in MacBook Pro Display Backlight Service Program. Apparently there are issues with some 13in MacBook Pro's from 2016. Even if you do not have that particular model, it might be worth getting Apple to look at your faulty screen if none of the tips below work. It may have a known fault that qualifies for a free or discounted repair.

Font smoothing

Problems with the display are most noticeable when looking at the text and there is a lot of it - menus, apps, documents, web pages and so on. A lot of your time is spent looking at text on the screen so it had better be good.

Go to the Apple menu and select System Preferences. Click the General icon and down at the bottom of the window is Use LCD font smoothing. It can be on or it can be off and there is no right or wrong setting because it is down to whatever suits you best.

It used to be that you did not see anything when turning this option on or off because you had to log out of your account and log back in or restart the Mac to see the change. However, if you a running the latest version of macOS, the change is instantaneous.

It depends on your Mac and what type of display you have, but on my MacBook it makes text extra bold. This looks good when the Light theme is selected (System Preferences > General), but it looks different when the Dark theme is selected and I prefer LCD font smoothing off. Try light and dark themes with font smoothing on and off to see which best suits your eyes.

Normal on the left, LCD smoothing on the right. The difference is greater in real life

Try logging in and out, which can sometimes make a difference after changing settings.

Reduce transparency

I cannot see the advantage of transparency effects in macOS and to my eyes it just makes things harder to see, especially text. Turn it off and everything is easier to see and text is more readable. Of course, it is down to personal preference, so try it both ways.

Go to System preferences and click the Accessibility icon. Select Display on the left and tick the Reduce transparency box on the right. If the effect is not immediately seen, log out and log back in to your account.

Increase contrast

Also in Accessibility is Increase contrast. Many pale greys and whites are used in the Mac user interface when the light theme is selected and this option turns up the contrast making darker greys even darker. It also adds dark borders around some items. For example, compare this screenshot to the one above. Tick the box and the effect is instantaneous.

Try the Increase contrast setting

If you have poor vision it might help you to see interface elements. I find it a bit too strong and wish there was a milder, more subtle increase in contrast. Try the Mac with this setting and off and see which you prefer.

Also in this section of System Preferences there is a Display contrast slider. The normal default setting is all the way to the left, but try dragging it a little to the right and see if it is easier on your eyes.

Get a bigger mouse

Back in the early days of laptops and LCD screens the mouse would become invisible whenever you moved it. These days laptop screens are much better, but there may still be times when you cannot find the mouse. Sometimes it just seems to disappear for a few seconds and you wiggle your finger over the trackpad to try and find it.

A bigger mouse pointer can help make the cursor more easily seen and less likely to hide. In the Accessibility settings again, select the Cursor tab and drag the Cursor size slider to the right to increase the mouse pointer size. The effect is instantaneous.

Here is an odd thing. The mouse cursor grows as the slider is dragged to the right, but the screenshot shows a normal size cursor.

Use color filters

If you have problems with distinguishing colours, such as red-green, select the Color Filters tab and choose one of the options from the menu. The intensity of the effect can be adjusted using the slider.

Don't enable this if you don't have a problem - it switches some colors to make them easier to see for people with color difficulties.

Change the screen resolution

The screen resolution can be selected in System Preferences > Display and there are several options that depend on the MacBook. An old Air (pre-retina display) and a new Pro (retina display) have different options for example. You could make text larger to make it easier to read or smaller to fit more on the screen. The default is usually the best, but try all the options and see which one works best for you.

Clean and test

It may be obvious, but has to be said, could it be your eyes? Have you had an eyesight test recently? You might need glasses and if you already have them, you might need new lenses. Our eyes change as we grow older and they become less good, so it may be worth a checkup.

Another obvious tip is to clean the screen. It is a bit of a magnet for dust and it builds up over time. Use a soft dry cloth to wipe the dust from the screen. If the screen it touched with a finger, it can get greasy smudges. Rub it with a clean dry cloth. Do not press on the screen with any force whatsoever! Use the lightest of touches or you could create screen problems instead of solving them.

Using a very, very, slightly damp cloth is better for cleaning than a dry one. However, you must take great care not to let water drip down the screen where it enters the bezel at the bottom. Just one drop of water can ruin a display.

MacBook black screen

If the screen goes black, but the MacBook is otherwise working, which can happen when waking it from sleep mode, what can you do? Well of you cannot see the screen, your options are limited. Press the spacebar to try to wake it. Tap the power button and wait a minute and see if anything happens.

If the MacBook does not shut down, press and hold the power button. After about five seconds, the power is cut. It can then be started by pressing the power button. It usually starts normally afterwards.

Final thoughts

With these tweaks you Mac’s screen should be easier on the eyes and they will not get as tired when working for long periods at the computer. Breaks are still important though, so look out of the window every now and then, get up and walk around and stretch your legs.