# High screen resolution causing font and tool bars too small to read



## bethmadiganphotography (Sep 7, 2014)

Hello. I have been using LightRoom 4.4 for several years now and I have loved it. However, my laptop died and it was time for a new one. Since I am a photographer as a hobby, I decided to get a new laptop with high screen resolution to see my photos better. I only have a laptop as I travel a lot. I was really excited to put LR on my new computer. However, when I installed LR I found that because the screen resolution is so high (3200 x 1800) the font (including all of the toolbars)is so small I can barely read it without squinting and getting close to the screen. I have searched the internet and found that this has been a common problem. However, I cannot find how to fix this. How can I fix this problem? I love LR and I don't want to switch to another program. If there is no fix in LR 4 is the problem fixed in LR 5? 
If I can't fix this problem I am not sure what I am going to do. 
Thank you so much for your help.


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## Tony Jay (Sep 7, 2014)

*Hi Beth, welcome to Lightroom Forums!*

Go to Preferences >> Interface >> font.
Set it to large and see if that helps.

Tony Jay


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 7, 2014)

Tony's correct regarding LR4. But to answer another of your questions, yes the issue of HiDPI screens was addressed a bit more in LR5, as you now get two "large" options in that preference setting:


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## Tony Jay (Sep 7, 2014)

Interesting post Jim.
I am running Lr 5.x and I am writing this post on a MBP - Lightroom only offer two font options.

Granted I am also running Lr 5.x on a Windows system with a massive monitor but I haven't checked the options there yet.

Tony Jay


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 7, 2014)

Yep, I bugged that in the early LR5 days when we spotted the different preferences if running on OSX or Windows, but the answer came back as "as-designed". There were some code changes, IIRC, to specifically deal with the scaling system used by OSX with Retina screens (which at highest resolution only "looks like 1920 x 1200", and if you're using "Best for Display" you're effectively only seeing something like 1440 x 900). A different approach was taken with Windows to deal with the emerging HiDPI screens, there are probably good reasons for that different approach though I don't know what they are.


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## bethmadiganphotography (Sep 8, 2014)

Tony Jay said:


> *Hi Beth, welcome to Lightroom Forums!*
> 
> Go to Preferences >> Interface >> font.
> Set it to large and see if that helps.
> ...


 

Well in LR 4 this did not change anything but I downloaded LR 5 and it works!!! Yeah I can actually see what I am doing.
Thank you for your help!


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