Displays settings on Mac

Arrange

Arrange the position of the displays, mirror their content or relocate the position of the menu bar.

This option only appears when you have an external display connected to your Mac. See Extend or mirror your Mac desktop across multiple displays.

pop-up menu

Choose a display to mirror or extend your desktop.

Use as

Choose whether your display mirrors or extends your desktop or acts as your main display.

This option only appears when you have an external display connected to your Mac.

Optimise for

Choose to optimise for the external display or your desktop. This option only appears when you have an external display connected to your Mac.

Resolution

Choose the amount of detail your display shows. Choose Default to automatically use the best resolution for the display, or choose another option to manually select a resolution. See Change your Mac display’s resolution.

Brightness

Adjust how light or dark your screen appears. Move the slider to the right to make the screen brighter or to the left to make it darker. See Change your Mac display’s brightness.

Automatically adjust brightness or Ambient light compensation (depending on your display)

Adjust the display brightness automatically based on current ambient lighting conditions.

This option is only available if your Mac has ambient light sensing.

True Tone

Automatically adjust the colours on the display based on current ambient lighting conditions.

Colour profile

Change the colour profile your display uses.

Detailed information about all of the colour profiles installed on your Mac (and used by connected cameras, printers and displays) is provided in ColorSync Utility (in the Applications > Utilities folder). See the ColorSync Utility User Guide.

You can also create your own custom colour profile by calibrating your display.

Rotate or Rotation

(depending on your display)

Rotate the image shown on your display by the chosen amount. See Rotate the image on your Mac display. This button only appears if a supported external display is connected to your Mac.

Refresh rate

Adjust how frequently your screen is redrawn. If the rate is too low, your screen may appear to flicker. If the rate is too high, the screen may be black because it doesn’t support that rate. Check the documentation that came with your display for the best rate. If you have a supported display, you can set your display to dynamically adjust its refresh rate, using Adaptive Sync.

This option only appears if an external display that supports changing the refresh rate is connected to your Mac.

Show Sidebar

Choose whether the sidebar on your iPad appears on the left, the right or not at all.

This option only appears if you’re using your iPad as a second display.

Show Touch Bar

Choose whether the Touch Bar on your iPad appears on the top, the bottom or not at all.

When you use an app that supports the Touch Bar on your iPad, the Touch Bar is shown in the location you specified. The buttons available in the Touch Bar vary depending on the current app and task.

This option only appears if you’re using your iPad as a second display.

Enable double-tap on Apple Pencil

Select the tickbox if you want to be able to double-tap the lower section of Apple Pencil to switch drawing tools in some apps (if your Apple Pencil supports it).

See the Apple Support article Pair Apple Pencil with your iPad.

This option only appears if you’re using your iPad as a second display.

Overscan

Select this option if you are using a TV as a display and you can’t see the menu bar.

This option only appears on supported TVs.

Underscan

Select this option if you’re using a TV as a display and you don’t want black bars to appear around a movie or show.

This option only appears on supported TVs.

Dynamic resolution

Enable to allow the resolution of a virtual display to automatically match the size of its screen share viewer window.

This option only appears when a Screen Sharing Virtual Display is connected.

Advanced

Set options for viewing resolutions and connecting to a nearby Mac or iPad.

• Show resolutions as list: Enable to always see available resolutions as a list.

• Link to Mac or iPad: See Use a keyboard and mouse or trackpad across devices with Universal Control.

Night Shift

Shift your display to the warmer end of the colour spectrum. Warmer screen colours are easier on your eyes when you use your Mac at night or in low-light conditions. See Use Night Shift.

Detect Displays

Scan for all the displays connected to your Mac. Press and hold the Option key to make this button appear in place of the Night Shift button, then click Detect Displays if your Mac doesn’t recognise a display you just connected.