Separate articles that explore this topic in more detail.
- Adaptive refresh rate
An adaptive refresh rate lets a display vary how often it updates, within a supported range.
- Alpha and transparency
Alpha tells you how opaque an image or window is when it is combined with something behind it.
- Ambient light sensor
An ambient light sensor measures light around a device.
- Aspect ratio
Aspect ratio describes an image's shape by comparing its width with its height.
- Audio device
An audio output device is where macOS sends sound: for example, the Mac's speakers, a monitor's speakers or a USB audio interface.
- Backlight
A backlight supplies the light behind the image in an LCD panel.
- Bit depth
Understand color precision, bits per component and how they differ from bits per pixel.
- Black level
Learn how black-level adjustments affect the darkest areas of an image.
- Blend mode
A blend mode defines how the colors of two image layers are combined.
- Brightness
Understand hardware, software and combined brightness and how their adjustment ranges work together.
- Chroma subsampling
Chroma subsampling reduces the amount of color-detail information stored or sent with an image compared with its luma information.
- Clipping
Clipping happens when different image values are forced to the same limit, so their differences disappear.
- Color gamut
A color gamut is the range of colors that a device can reproduce or an encoding can represent.
- Color mode
Understand how color encoding, precision, range and HDR combine in a display signal.
- Color profile
A color profile tells a color-management system how to interpret color values for an encoding or device.
- Color range
Full and limited range describe which signal code values represent black, white and the levels between them.
- Color space
A color space gives color numbers a defined meaning.
- Color table
A color table remaps output values before they reach the display.
- Color temperature
Color temperature describes how warm or cool a white reference looks.
- Compositor filter
A compositor filter changes the image as the system combines content for display.
- Configuration protection
Configuration protection asks BetterDisplay to preserve chosen display settings and restore them when a change is detected.
- Contrast
Contrast describes differences between lighter and darker parts of an image.
- Control
In BetterDisplay, a control represents a specific device operation or adjustable value, such as brightness, volume, input selection or power.
- Controller
A controller is the method BetterDisplay uses to read or change a device's controls.
- Crop
Cropping keeps a selected rectangular region of an image and leaves the rest out of the presented result.
- DDC
DDC stands for Display Data Channel, a family of display communications.
- DDC Save Current Settings
Save Current Settings (SCS) is a DDC command that asks a compatible monitor to commit its current settings.
- Display association
A display association links a BetterDisplay configuration to a particular display.
- Display group
A display group is a saved collection of displays that BetterDisplay can manage together.
- Display identification
Display identification is how BetterDisplay recognizes a display and finds its saved preferences.
- Display mirroring
Display mirroring makes two or more displays show the same desktop.
- Display mode
A display mode is a combination of settings describing how a desktop is rendered and presented.
- Display Stream Compression
Display Stream Compression (DSC) reduces the amount of data needed to transport an image over a video connection.
- DisplayID
Display Identification Data (DisplayID) is a VESA standard for describing a display's identity and capabilities.
- DisplayLink
DisplayLink is a USB graphics technology used in compatible docks, adapters and monitors.
- DisplayPort
DisplayPort is a digital interface for carrying display video and related data.
- Distributed notification
A macOS distributed notification is a named message sent between processes.
- Dithering
Dithering uses patterns of available values to approximate values between them.
- DPCD
DisplayPort Configuration Data (DPCD) is a set of registers describing a DisplayPort connection's capabilities, configuration and status.
- EDID
Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) is information a display supplies about itself.
- EDR and brightness headroom
Extended dynamic range (EDR) is Apple's rendering model for displaying values above ordinary standard dynamic range (SDR) white.
- Exposure
Exposure is an image adjustment that multiplies light values to brighten or darken the image.
- Flexible scaling
Flexible scaling gives you more choices for the apparent size of the desktop interface.
- Frame rate
Frame rate tells you how many video frames are produced or delivered each second.
- Framebuffer
A framebuffer is an image buffer used by the graphics system while rendering or presenting an image.
- Gain
Gain adjusts the contribution of an individual color channel.
- Gamma
A gamma adjustment changes the transition through the middle tones between black and white.
- GPU
A graphics processing unit (GPU) performs graphics and image-processing work.
- HDCP
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) protects digital entertainment content as it travels over supported digital interfaces.
- HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a digital connection for video, audio and related data between devices.
- HDMI-CEC
HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (HDMI-CEC) lets compatible audiovisual devices exchange control commands over an HDMI connection.
- HDR
High dynamic range (HDR) represents a wider luminance range than standard dynamic range (SDR), allowing bright highlights alongside darker detail.
- HiDPI
Understand HiDPI and LoDPI rendering and their effect on interface detail and desktop space.
- Hue
Hue describes the color family of an image color, such as red, green or blue.
- I²C
I²C, short for Inter-Integrated Circuit and also written I2C, is a serial bus for communicating with addressed devices.
- Input source
An input source is the device input a monitor, TV or receiver currently uses, such as an HDMI or DisplayPort input.
- Integer scaling
Integer scaling enlarges pixels by a whole-number factor.
- IP address
An Internet Protocol (IP) address identifies a network endpoint so data can be routed to it.
- KVM switch
A keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) switch lets more than one computer share a display and input devices.
- Latency
Latency is the time between an action or image change and its result becoming available.
- Layout protection
Layout protection asks BetterDisplay to restore the relative positions of displays in a group.
- Link bandwidth
Link bandwidth is how much data a connection can carry each second, often expressed in gigabits per second (Gbps).
- LUT
A lookup table (LUT) maps input color values to output values.
- Lux
Lux (lx) measures illuminance: the amount of light falling on an area.
- MAC address
A Media Access Control (MAC) address identifies a network interface on its local network.
- Main display
The main display is the screen macOS identifies as primary in the desktop arrangement.
- Metal
Metal is Apple's graphics and compute API for working with the GPU.
- Night Shift
Night Shift is a macOS feature that shifts display colors toward warmer tones.
- Nits
A nit is one candela per square metre (cd/m²), a unit of luminance.
- NVRAM
Nonvolatile random-access memory (NVRAM) stores certain system settings across restarts.
- OSD
An on-screen display (OSD) is a temporary visual overlay showing an adjustment, such as brightness or volume.
- Picture in Picture
Picture in Picture (PIP) shows captured screen content in a separate window.
- Picture-by-Picture
Picture-by-Picture (PBP) is a monitor feature that presents multiple physical inputs side by side on one panel.
- Pixel density
Pixel density describes how many physical pixels fit into a given length on a panel, often measured in pixels per inch (PPI).
- Polling
Polling means asking for a device's current value at intervals.
- Privileged helper
A privileged helper is a separate service that performs authorized operations requiring more system access than the ordinary app has. macOS can require administrator authorization or service approval before it runs such an operation.
- Quantization
Quantization represents a range of values using a limited set of levels.
- Reference preset
An Apple display preset brings related settings together, including color space, white point, gamma and brightness.
- Refresh rate
Refresh rate is how often a display refreshes its image.
- Regular expression
A regular expression, or regex, is a pattern for finding or testing text.
- Resolution
Distinguish logical desktop size, rendered or transmitted pixels and the panel’s native pixel grid.
- RGB
RGB represents color using red, green and blue components.
- Saturation
Saturation describes how intense a color looks relative to a neutral gray appearance.
- Screen Recording permission
Screen Recording permission lets an app capture screen content under macOS privacy rules.
- SF Symbols
SF Symbols is Apple's library of interface icons designed to work alongside system text.
- Shell script
A shell script is a sequence of commands interpreted by a command shell.
- Sidecar
Sidecar is Apple's feature for using a compatible iPad as another Mac display.
- Sleep, standby and dark wake
Sleep, standby and dark wake describe different power states.
- Soft disconnection
Soft disconnection removes a display from the active desktop through software while its physical cable can remain attached.
- Streaming
Streaming continuously captures images from a source and presents them at a target.
- Synchronization
Synchronization makes a change on a source display follow through to selected target displays.
- Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt is a connection technology that carries display and other data through a shared link.
- Timeout
A timeout limits how long an operation waits for a response or completion.
- Tone mapping
Tone mapping fits an image's light values into the range available for presentation.
- True Tone
True Tone is Apple's feature for adapting display color and intensity to ambient light.
- UI scale matching
UI scale matching chooses desktop modes that bring the physical size of interface elements closer across displays.
- Underscan
Underscan makes the picture smaller than the available display area, often leaving borders.
- Uniformity correction
Uniformity correction compensates for differences in brightness or color across a screen.
- USB-C
USB-C, or USB Type-C, names a connector system.
- VCP code
A Virtual Control Panel (VCP) code identifies a monitor control in VESA's Monitor Control Command Set (MCCS).
- Vibrance
Vibrance is a color adjustment that changes saturation selectively, rather than applying the same saturation change to all colors.
- Virtual screen
A BetterDisplay virtual screen is a software-created display that macOS can use as a desktop without a physical panel.
- Wake-on-LAN
Wake-on-LAN (WoL) asks a compatible device to wake through its network interface.
- White point
A white point defines the reference color treated as white in a color space, profile or display calibration.
- YCbCr
YCbCr represents video using one luma component and two color-difference components.