I've been playing around with a few things, trying to figure out if there's an easy/safe way to artificially fake a higher resolution.

Background:
In OS X, using Core Image, it's possible to provide real-time sub-pixel rendering (not really, but for heaven's sake let's keep it simple). The best example of this is using Expose/Spaces. The application windows will be scaled down yet provide live updates - try watching a movie in Quicktime, for example - the movie will continue playing in a miniaturized version. Additionally, windows that are larger than the screen (i.e. some preference panes that are taller than 600 pixels) will be visible. Additionally, Leopard is supposed to have (some) support for Resolution Independence (super quick explanation: you can use any "size" windows/objects for any application).

So, it would seem that the OS itself should be able to support some kind of "scaling" factor. Turns out, there is.

Open a terminal window. On the command line, type:

defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor 0.5
(edited because I forgot the "-g" flag)

What we're doing is (temporarily) changing the scaling factor for the creation of new windows to be half the size they would normally be (that's what the 0.5 is for). To see how this works, open an application that is not already open (or quit/restart one) - I used TextEdit, for example.

You'll notice that the window is half the size! Additionally, the menubar at the top will shrink to half the size (to accommodate the "smaller" application) but other menubar items to the right (the time, wifi, battery, etc.) will still be "big."

Of course 0.5x the screen is not that usable (think about it - it means that you've faked the OS into thinking you have a screen of 2048 by 1200 pixels). A ratio of something like 0.8 (1280 by 750) should be alright - it's the closest we can get to the MacBook's resolution (which is the smallest "standard" widescreen resolution). I wouldn't recommend doing things like 0.75, which will start getting into "sub-pixels" (1024 / 0.75 = 1365 and 1/3).

Now, there's a way to make this "permanent" - in terminal, type:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleDisplayScaleFactor 0.8

Then restart (or log out/in, but hell might as well, kill off everything just to be sure).

After logging in (the login screen will be the "normal" size), your desktop, Finder, etc., should all load up - but check out the menubar. Everything should be smaller!

While this does sound pretty damn cool, I do have to warn you that it's not perfect. For example, not everything plays nicely at a smaller scaling factor.

Firefox and Camino don't look right. Finder windows will "flash" big then small. Because we're technically rendering the screen at sub-pixels, things like scrollbars, sliders, buttons, all may look funny. Time Machine does not look right in the menubar at all. Fonts will look blurry. And so on.

This isn't perfect. However, it's pretty damn good, if you do need the screen real estate - and it doesn't require doing anything strange or funky to the display or the display drivers.

Here's a screenshot - notice the Time Machine icon in the menubar and the really blurry fonts.

Hmmm doesn't appear to work for me:

Last login: Thu Aug 7 18:04:44 on console
MacBookMini:~ chris$ defaults write AppleDisplayScaleFactor 0.8
2008-08-07 18:05:36.409 defaults[528:10b]
Rep argument is not a dictionary
Defaults have not been changed.
MacBookMini:~ chris$

Apologies! I forgot the right flag.

It should be:

defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor X

Where "X" is your desired ratio.

That's a great idea! Can't wait to try this at home!

this is excellent work
seems to work pretty well - although I've not assessed any performance impact yet

just a quick query - if I want to return to original settings I would just use:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleDisplayScaleFactor 1

?

many thanks

As far as performance impact - I'm not entirely sure. The OS is rendering on-screen objects with a non-standard scaling factor, so it's doing some additional math when calculating the 2d graphics to display on the screen. It's possible with more and more windows that this will eventually slow down.

And that's to say beyond the weirdness I've already mentioned.

The 1 will reverse the setting and it should return to normal on the next boot.

cool, thanks

I have a query. I've done this as an experiment on a real Mac and it works nearly flawlessly (within reason.) However, on the Wind I find that the drive icon shifts position towards the center column on the screen. Neither it nor any other Desktop icons can be placed on the right side of the screen. Windows, however, seem to work normally. I also observe that the icon text below an icon (on the screen) does not display its two lines fully. Hence disk names are cut off and do not display correctly. Non-disk icons seem to display normally or without the corruption apparent in a drive icon.

So, my query is to ask if you've also observed similar display oddities, and if so do you have any suggested fixes?

Thanks for any suggestions.

I'm seeing similar results with desktop icons seemingly being constrained to the original unscaled desktop size - other than that this is excellent and is really helping with productivity on the osx side of things.

if we could find a fix for these few issues i would happily stick with a scaled res all the time - performance seems fine.

either way nice work for finding this out guys - this little machine just keeps getting better and better

Odd.

I don't keep any icons on the desktop, so I haven't noticed - and none of my drives have long names, so I haven't see that either. However, I can confirm that there is a problem with the top and the right sides when doing this method. I've only seen in in a few applications.

Not sure how to fix this, really, since Finder should pick up the factor setting - I'm not sure which process controls the desktop display (I thought this was Finder, I could be wrong).

I use Firefox/Camino for the majority of my web browsing, so sadly, I've turned off scaling.

The temporary scaling is pretty good when I have to fire up an application I know will need a higher resolution (even if it leaves the menubar looking weird).

The drive icon should normally appear on the Desktop unless you've disabled it in Finder preferences. In my case the drive name is not long - MacHD - yet it will not appear on one line when scaling is implemented. I believe this must be a problem with the display driver modifications because I do not see similar behavior on a real Mac when scaling. At least I know my observations are not unique.

I doubt there would be an easy fix since the scaling itself is an experimental aspect of OS X that Apple recommends not using or using with caution.

I have a question... I played with this now after I have reset it it now boots in 800x600 with a black bar down the right side and there is no setting for 1024x600 in the switch display properties.. what can I do to fix this..


Abysmal

This sounds like a display driver issue, not a problem with the scaling factor.

If you can, I'd say to find the kext for the display and reload it. I think that's the GMA950.kext or something along those lines.

Thanks.. I did the default writes and it seemed to fix it.. I mad the mistake of doing them in sudo mode the first time and it did nothing.. the second time as my user did..

But worse come to worse I have the video drived from Pauls site..

This is an excellent tip!
I use Adobe Lightroom which has a couple of dialogue boxes that are too big, I can set this temporarily and do my work, then scale back to 100% afterwards.
Lifesaver!

This is really useful, thanks. In particular, it now enables me to see the "Install hardware drivers" button at the bottom of the OSX86Tools window.

Without the scaling the window is too big and the button disappears off the bottom of the screen, thus removing the ability to use what is probably one of the more useful functions of the excellent OSX86Tools.

Thanks again!

Glen.

it's a nice tip but mail crashes..

...and unfortunately widgets get corrupted...
sorry, it was really nice

Kewlness! thanks - this is a great tip! works wonders....