Enable retina without external monitor on MacMini

August 22, 2023

Hey allemaal!

I like to automate things, and maybe I want more to watch how they perform afterward, and the automation process is a really fantastic one...

For sure, Steve Jobs influenced here:

"Well, let's say you can shave 10 seconds off of the boot time. Multiply that by five million users and thats 50 million seconds, every single day. Over a year, that's probably dozens of lifetimes. So if you make it boot ten seconds faster, you've saved a dozen lives. That's really worth it, don't you think?"

— Steve Jobs

Isn't it fantastic? I like that it can be reused as many times as you want, and you can just watch it!

Here I wanna tell you about a small trick on how to enable a retina display on a built-in monitor for Mac mini. Everyone has a Mac mini at home, right? 😀

Yeah, it's called Built-in display when you wanna use your Mac mini as a server to help you automate some things.

Interestingly, if you connect a 4k monitor, then the Mac mini will support 4k resolution; otherwise, it will be 1920x1080 as max.

I needed retina on my display to run UI autotests for our projects, and that was a problem for me — because if you increase the size of the screen twice, then the browser is too smart and treats that as not retina and as iPad or a desktop 😎

So, here is the solution I found and what worked for me — I found a solution that imitates almost any resolution as a virtual monitor. Sounds fantastic, isn't it?

FluffyDisplay

Some details:

The Git repo of FluffyDisplay: Manage virtual displays on your Mac;

I downloaded, built, exported as an app, and ran it on my macOS Ventura;

In System Settings -> Displays I choose the retina resolution that suits me (waited for a few mins!) and viola!

I've reconnected few times during all these actions, and then it works 🚀

Thanks a lot for @Tor Lillqvist! Very appreciated!

Now it works like a charm — screenshots in retina resolution!

Ps: after rebooting, I should rerun the app and set a display, but for me, that looks ok. Sure, it is also possible to automate : ) This is another story!