Gadgetory

having a beautiful Retina display doesn't do you any good if you can't see what's on it thankfully Mac OS has a number of settings to help you see more clearly what's on your Mac screen here are seven things to tweak to see your Mac better for Mac's with Retina displays Apple offers what it calls scaled resolutions to bump the size of text and icons on the screen to change this setting open system preferences and go to displays there you'll see two options at the top of the window for resolution default for display and scaled choose scaled and depending on the size of your Retina display you'll have four or five options choose one of the two options on the larger text side to make it easier to read what's on your display if you don't have a Retina display you can still make text bigger on an app by app basis and the messages app for example go to messages preferences than general and move the slider at the bottom for text size and many other apps including Chrome and Safari you can increase text size along with everything else by hitting command + you can then lower it by hitting command - if your desktop icons are too small to be useful you can increase their size along with the text of their descriptions right-click on the desktop and choose show view options there you'll get settings for increasing icon size and text size choose the ones that fit your needs the best if you keep losing track of your Mac's tiny cursor you can also increase the size of that or you can just make it so that it's easier to find when you do lose track of it to do this go to System Preferences accessibility and then display then move the slider to the right for cursor size to make it larger you can also check the box for Shake mouse pointer to locate then all you need to do is wiggle your mouse very quickly or slide your finger back and forth on the trackpad to temporarily increase the size of the pointer so you can find where it is on the screen you can also let Mac OS automatically adjust the brightness of your display based on the ambient lighting around you to do this go to System Preferences and then displays and in the display tab check the box for automatically adjust brightness when there's less ambient light it will actually dim the screen of your display and when it's brighter outside or around you your screen will increase brightness there are actually two settings within accessibility in System Preferences worth checking out one is called increased contrast and the other is called reduce transparency click display from the left panel and then check the box for increased contrast this reduces transparency of windows and makes the borders of buttons tabs and other items more visible if the increase in contrast is too stark of a change for you than try checking the box for the setting directly beneath it called reduce transparency this makes the semi-transparent headers of windows a solid gray staring at a blue screen before you go to bed can affect your body's natural circadian rhythm and make it difficult to get a good night's rest fortunately Apple has a setting for that as well with Apple's a night shift feature the colors of your display are shifted away from harsh blues to the warmer end of the spectrum during the evening hours to enable and schedule it head to system preferences than displays and click the night shift tab there you can set it to come on automatically between sunset and sunrise or manually set a time period for it to be activated you can then use the slider below to adjust a color temperature of the effect between less warm and more for more tips and tricks and other how to's be sure to check out cnet.com forward slash how-to