BetterDisplay is a macOS display management utility that provides flexible scaling, brightness control, virtual screens, and hardware configuration overrides for Mac displays.
The tool addresses the limitations of macOS's native display handling by enabling custom resolutions through flexible HiDPI scaling, allowing users to achieve non-standard scaling factors on their displays. It provides XDR and HDR brightness upscaling beyond the standard 100% maximum for compatible displays on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. The utility also supports EDID overrides and DDC control, giving users direct hardware-level access to display configuration that macOS normally restricts. Beyond scaling and brightness, it enables creation of virtual screens, picture-in-picture windows of displays, soft disconnection and reconnection of displays, color mode selection, and additional dimming capabilities down to complete black.
BetterDisplay suits Mac users with external displays who need resolution flexibility beyond macOS defaults, particularly those with high-resolution or XDR displays seeking brightness control beyond standard limits. It is valuable for users managing complex multi-display setups who want centralized menu-bar control over display settings. The tool works across multiple macOS versions, with current releases supporting recent versions and pre-release builds available for beta macOS versions.
The project maintains active development with regular releases and pre-release builds for upcoming macOS versions. The maintainer provides multiple distribution channels including standard releases and beta pre-releases, indicating ongoing support for both stable and cutting-edge macOS versions. A community Discord channel is available for user support and discussion.
