LyX on retina MacBook Pro

msvadi · Post by **msvadi** » Mon Dec 09, 2013 11:37 pm

I was wondering if retina display support is coming to LyX. I have recently purchased a retina MacBook Pro, and LyX is simply unusable. It's very blurry as if your glasses were off. I tried both dmg and macports versions.

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Post by **scottkosty** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 3:58 am

I think there have been some minor improvements (you could try 2.1 beta2: ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/devel/lyx-2.1/lyx-2.1.0beta2 but my guess is it won't make a difference) but I believe in the end it depends on Qt, which is the GUI framework that LyX uses.

msvadi · Post by **msvadi** » Fri Dec 13, 2013 1:26 am

scottkosty wrote:I think there have been some minor improvements (you could try 2.1 beta2: ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/devel/lyx-2.1/lyx-2.1.0beta2 but my guess is it won't make a difference) but I believe in the end it depends on Qt, which is the GUI framework that LyX uses.

Thanks for a response. Yes, I tried LyX 2.1.0 beta 2, but I did not notice any improvements, unfortunately.

I saw some info on the web saying that you can get High DPI compatibility by adding the following lines to Info.plist:
<key>NSPrincipalClass</key>
<string>NSApplication</string>
<key>NSHighResolutionCapable</key>
<string>True</string>
I tried that and I thought it improved the look of the toolbars, but text and math in the main window were still blurry.

I also tried various apps that change resolution of a retina MacBook Pro display. Still the outcome was quite blurry.

I guess I'll have to use MacTeX instead and wait for LyX (and Qt?) to be updated for retina displays.

Post by **scottkosty** » Fri Dec 13, 2013 1:32 am

I guess so. Hopefully it will come soon, but there are only one and a half LyX developers using Macs and as I said I don't know if they even have control over it.

austinr2222 · Post by **austinr2222** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 4:06 pm

certainly it would be great to have this fixed. but, having used lyx on a retina for about 5 months now, i would disagree with that statement that it is unusable on a retina. i find that my eyes can not resolve the blurriness if they are about ~50cm away from the display (a typical working distance for me). I also think it helps to magnify the screen fonts to 170%.

and if you are working in the office there is always the option to hook your computer up to a 2nd (non-retina) montior.

yairc · Post by **yairc** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 6:48 pm

I just purchased a retina macbook pro and encountered the problem above with LyX. Since writing things up with LyX is one of the main things I plan to do with this computer, I gave serious thought to returning it. Fortunately, it seems there is a simple work around: change the resolution to a non-HiDPI setting. This can be done via third side software - I used the first option suggested below:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/m ... ution.html

In particular, I believe I get the optimum sharpness by switching to the native resolution (2560x1600 in my case) and cranking up the zoom until the screen fonts become legible again.

msvadi · Post by **msvadi** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 9:25 pm

I now switched to using plain LaTeX software - MacTeX. I know that LyX is a non-commercial project, but because of the lack of support for retina displays, it's seriously falling behind.

Post by **scottkosty** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 11:57 pm

Note that we have support for retina in 2.2.0. We would be interested in any feedback anyone might have on our pre-release alpha version. For more details see here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-users@l ... 02178.html

or for a direct link to the Mac installer, see here:
ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/devel/lyx-2.2 ... -cocoa.dmg

If you have any feedback (positive and negative), please send it to lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org

Post by **Stefan Kottwitz** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 12:00 am

Sounds great! Thanks for the link to the Mac installer, I will try it on my Retina Macbook Pro. I used LyX only on Linux before.

Stefan

msvadi · Post by **msvadi** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 12:42 am

This is great news. I'll definitely try it.

scottkosty wrote:Note that we have support for retina in 2.2.0. We would be interested in any feedback anyone might have on our pre-release alpha version. For more details see here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-users@l ... 02178.html

or for a direct link to the Mac installer, see here:
ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/devel/lyx-2.2 ... -cocoa.dmg

If you have any feedback (positive and negative), please send it to lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org

LaTeX.org

LyX ⇒ LyX on retina MacBook Pro