Support for retina displays (HiDPI) #19434

qgib · 2014-08-26T05:24:06Z

Author Name: Joshua Arnott (@snorfalorpagus)
Original Redmine Issue: 11103

Redmine category:mac_os_specific

Currently QGIS does not support Retina displays (HiDPI), such as on the current MacBook Pro. The application loads, but is running in a low-resolution upscaled mode which makes everything look pixelated. See attached screenshot (qgis_lowdpi.png).

The Qt blog has some information on supporting retina displays in Qt applications:

http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2013/04/25/retina-display-support-for-mac-os-ios-and-x11/

The first step is to add the following to the Info.plist file:

<key>NSPrincipalClass</key>
<string>NSApplication</string>
<key>NSHighResolutionCapable</key>
<string>True</string>

This tells the application that it's capable of HiDPI rendering, which gets text and buttons to render correctly. See attached screenshot (qgis_hidpi.png).

However, the map canvas itself, and (most) of the icons are still pixelated. To "fix" the icons, they need hi resolution versions available. The blog post discusses this a little, but I've not had any success so far in getting QGIS to recognise larger versions of the icons. The other step will be to tell the canvas to renderer at a higher DPI - no idea how to get this working.

I've asked a question on stack overflow here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25494230/adding-support-for-retina-displays-hidpi-to-an-existing-qt4-application

Myself (@snorfalorpagus) and Dale Kunce ‏(@calimapnerd) have an interest getting this working:

https://twitter.com/calimapnerd/status/381016157920055297

qgis_lowdpi.png (Joshua Arnott)
qgis_hidpi.png (Joshua Arnott)
pluginmanager.png (Anita Graser)
Screen_Shot_2015-11-02_at_2.27.32_PM.png (Michael Kirk)
QGIS3 MacOS.png (Michal Jurewicz)
QGIS2 Linux Mint 2.png (Michal Jurewicz)
QGIS3 MacOS 2.png (Michal Jurewicz)
QGIS3 MacOS 3.png (Michal Jurewicz)
QGIS2 Linux Mint.png (Michal Jurewicz)

Related issue(s): #19631 (relates), #20619 (duplicates), #20691 (relates), #20778 (relates), #21516 (relates), #21517 (relates), #21542 (relates), #21543 (relates), #22448 (relates), #22449 (relates), #22450 (relates), #22451 (relates), #22452 (relates), #24365 (relates)
Redmine related issue(s): 11337, 12469, 12549, 12671, 13469, 13470, 13497, 13498, 14470, 14471, 14472, 14473, 14474, 16456

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

qgib · 2014-08-26T11:42:18Z

Author Name: Pierre-Luc Auclair (Pierre-Luc Auclair)

I am also highly interested in this.

I might not be able to help with the coding (I'm a web programmer) but can help with testing and creating hi-def ui icons (graphic designer for ~10yrs).

qgib · 2014-08-27T15:05:51Z

Author Name: Joshua Arnott (@snorfalorpagus)

It looks like the backport that adds support for the hidpi pixmaps (required for nice looking icons) hasn't made it into the release branch yet. https://codereview.qt-project.org/#/c/54636/

On top of this, I can't get it to compile:

Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64:
  "qt_mac_get_scalefactor()", referenced from:
      QPixmap::grabWindow(long, int, int, int, int) in qpixmap_mac.o
      QToolButton::sizeHint() const in qtoolbutton.o
ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

qgib · 2014-11-19T08:50:42Z

Author Name: Joshua Arnott (@snorfalorpagus)

There is a pull request to add Qt5 support to QGIS. This is hopefully a set in the right direction for the high DPI icons: #1676

I've been trying to get the map canvas to render at 2x DPI. It seems it should be possible, with some tweaks to qgsmapcanvas.cpp, qgsmapsettings.cpp and qgsmaptopixel.cpp. I managed to get the map to render "pretty" (i.e at the native DPI), but not in the right place. The scale, etc. becomes confused.

Perhaps someone with a better understanding of how the renderer works could weigh in (Martin or Jürgen?)?

qgib · 2014-12-08T03:08:43Z

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

duplicate of #19631

status_id was changed from Open to Closed
resolution was changed from to duplicate

qgib · 2014-12-08T14:38:38Z

Author Name: Joshua Arnott (@snorfalorpagus)

Please reopen this issue. It is not a duplicate. #19631 is one of several issues related to overall compatibility with high resolution displays. For this to be resolved there also needs to be:

Fixes to the map canvas so that it renders at the correct resolution
Updates to icons so that they don't look pixelated/terrible
Changes to the Info.plist file (as mentioned in the original post) for OS X

qgib · 2015-01-23T15:13:59Z

Author Name: Michael Kirk (@michaelkirk)

I'm concerned that this is still closed as it does not seem to be a duplicate of #19631.

Can you confirm Giovanni?

qgib · 2015-01-25T03:54:07Z

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

resolution was changed from duplicate to
status_id was changed from Closed to Open

qgib · 2015-01-28T13:24:07Z

Author Name: Michael Kirk (@michaelkirk)

Joshua - when you made your first attempt at this, did you publish your changes anywhere? Is there a work in progress I could see?

qgib · 2015-08-20T10:50:14Z

Author Name: Anita Graser (@anitagraser)

The text area in the Plugin Manager which displays the plugin description doesn't scale with the rest of the UI, see attached screenshot.

9011 was configured as pluginmanager.png

pluginmanager.png (Anita Graser)

qgib · 2015-09-21T07:14:05Z

Author Name: Anita Graser (@anitagraser)

assigned_to_id was configured as Alessandro Pasotti

qgib · 2015-11-02T13:29:39Z

Author Name: Michael Kirk (@michaelkirk)

@anita Graser - Either I don't understand your comment about the plugin description not scaling, or I just cant reproduce it on Mac/master.

See my screenshot of the "unscaled" running alongside the scaled.

Granted the buttons/checkboxes are the wrong sizes, but the text seems good.

9256 was configured as Screen_Shot_2015-11-02_at_2.27.32_PM.png

Screen_Shot_2015-11-02_at_2.27.32_PM.png (Michael Kirk) - plugin installer, high res vs. low res

qgib · 2015-11-07T04:02:31Z

Author Name: Alessandro Pasotti (@elpaso)

It might be fixed with 061bdde, can somebody please test and confirm that it works on other screen sizes/operating systems?

status_id was changed from Open to In Progress

qgib · 2016-03-12T17:12:31Z

Author Name: Brendan Heberlein (Brendan Heberlein)

Checking in to affirm interest & hopefully get some updates on the status of the project.

I hope you all are aware that the entire icon set for QGIS exists in SVG format already and there is no need to make new one for HDPI. You can find them here: https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/tree/master/images/themes/default

I am super interested in getting this going because I love my retina display but I hate the pixelated look QGIS now has. Now that I have switched to a higher resolution screen, QGIS effectively runs at a lower resolution(!) Go figure.

I am no code monkey but I'm learning python and happy to do anything I can to help. I don't want to wait for QGIS 3.0!

qgib · 2016-03-12T22:46:55Z

Author Name: Alessandro Pasotti (@elpaso)

It works fine for me (on Linux), I don't have a mac so I cannot help more, sorry.

assigned_to_id removed Alessandro Pasotti

qgib · 2016-03-13T03:53:02Z

Author Name: Anita Graser (@anitagraser)

Alessandro Pasotti wrote:

It might be fixed with 061bdde, can somebody please test and confirm that it works on other screen sizes/operating systems?

Confirmed, the plugin description in the installer now displays fine.

qgib · 2016-10-01T04:18:27Z

Author Name: Anita Graser (@anitagraser)

Correction: The plugin description is ok on hidpi now but too big on regular screens.

qgib · 2016-12-16T07:51:51Z

Author Name: chris Mr (@chrismarx)

Upvoting, I think it's hard for people not on 4k monitors or retina screens to appreciate just how much nicer it is to have everything crisp, and now this is one of the new apps I use that doesn't support the high resolution yet-

qgib · 2016-12-16T09:38:45Z

Author Name: Nyall Dawson (@nyalldawson)

Chris - this bug tracker doesn't work on votes. See http://nyalldawson.net/2016/08/how-to-effectively-get-things-changed-in-qgis/ for a description on how things get prioritised.

qgib · 2017-04-30T22:47:48Z

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

easy_fix was configured as 0

qgib · 2017-11-09T06:02:48Z

Author Name: Michal Jurewicz (Michal Jurewicz)

I would like to report that the problem is still here on MacOS, even on new QGIS3 (master build made by homebrew formula). Text, icons and etc. is very nice. However output on canvas is still pixelated on OSX. However when I open QGIS 2.18.12 on Linux Mint virtualised on my iMac 5k, even old QGIS2 look great on Retina (however I had to change icon size on settings). I send you screenshots below.

It would be nice to had proper retina support for MacOS

11665 was configured as QGIS2 Linux Mint.png
11663 was configured as QGIS3 MacOS 2.png
11661 was configured as QGIS3 MacOS.png
11662 was configured as QGIS2 Linux Mint 2.png
11664 was configured as QGIS3 MacOS 3.png

QGIS2 Linux Mint.png (Michal Jurewicz) - QGIS2 on Linux Mint virtualised on iMac 5k with High Sierra
QGIS3 MacOS 2.png (Michal Jurewicz) - QGIS3 on MacOS High Sierra - iMac 5k
QGIS3 MacOS.png (Michal Jurewicz) - QGIS3 on MacOS High Sierra - iMac 5k
QGIS2 Linux Mint 2.png (Michal Jurewicz) - QGIS2 on Linux Mint virtualised on iMac 5k with High Sierra
QGIS3 MacOS 3.png (Michal Jurewicz) - QGIS3 on MacOS High Sierra - iMac 5k

qgib · 2018-09-13T12:30:07Z

Author Name: Denis Rouzaud (@3nids)

description was changed from Currently QGIS does not support Retina displays (HiDPI), such as on the current MacBook Pro. The application loads, but is running in a low-resolution upscaled mode which makes everything look pixelated. See attached screenshot (qgis_lowdpi.png).

The Qt blog has some information on supporting retina displays in Qt applications:

http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2013/04/25/retina-display-support-for-mac-os-ios-and-x11/

The first step is to add the following to the Info.plist file:

NSPrincipalClass
NSApplication
NSHighResolutionCapable
True

This tells the application that it's capable of HiDPI rendering, which gets text and buttons to render correctly. See attached screenshot (qgis_hidpi.png).

However, the map canvas itself, and (most) of the icons are still pixelated. To "fix" the icons, they need hi resolution versions available. The blog post discusses this a little, but I've not had any success so far in getting QGIS to recognise larger versions of the icons. The other step will be to tell the canvas to renderer at a higher DPI - no idea how to get this working.

I've asked a question on stack overflow here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25494230/adding-support-for-retina-displays-hidpi-to-an-existing-qt4-application

Myself (@snorfalorpagus) and Dale Kunce ‏(@calimapnerd) have an interest getting this working:

https://twitter.com/calimapnerd/status/381016157920055297 to Currently QGIS does not support Retina displays (HiDPI), such as on the current MacBook Pro. The application loads, but is running in a low-resolution upscaled mode which makes everything look pixelated. See attached screenshot (qgis_lowdpi.png).

The Qt blog has some information on supporting retina displays in Qt applications:

http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2013/04/25/retina-display-support-for-mac-os-ios-and-x11/

The first step is to add the following to the Info.plist file:

NSPrincipalClass
NSApplication
NSHighResolutionCapable
True

This tells the application that it's capable of HiDPI rendering, which gets text and buttons to render correctly. See attached screenshot (qgis_hidpi.png).

However, the map canvas itself, and (most) of the icons are still pixelated. To "fix" the icons, they need hi resolution versions available. The blog post discusses this a little, but I've not had any success so far in getting QGIS to recognise larger versions of the icons. The other step will be to tell the canvas to renderer at a higher DPI - no idea how to get this working.

I've asked a question on stack overflow here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25494230/adding-support-for-retina-displays-hidpi-to-an-existing-qt4-application

Myself (@snorfalorpagus) and Dale Kunce ‏(@calimapnerd) have an interest getting this working:

https://twitter.com/calimapnerd/status/381016157920055297

category_id was changed from GUI to mac_os_specific

qgib · 2018-10-19T18:57:35Z

Author Name: Denis Rouzaud (@3nids)

fixed in master, to be released in 3.4
#8242
Youhou!

status_id was changed from In Progress to Closed
resolution was changed from to fixed/implemented

qgib closed this as completed Oct 19, 2018

qgib added Feature Request Build/Install Related to compiling or installing QGIS labels May 25, 2019

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Support for retina displays (HiDPI) #19434

Support for retina displays (HiDPI) #19434

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Support for retina displays (HiDPI) #19434

Support for retina displays (HiDPI) #19434

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