{"id":35769,"date":"2026-04-15T11:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/?p=35769"},"modified":"2026-04-15T11:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:42:22","slug":"betterdisplay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/betterdisplay\/","title":{"rendered":"Control Brightness on ViewSonic VP2788-5K with BetterDisplay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retraction on Diatribe about ViewSonic 5K Display and Brightness Keys<\/h2>\n

Last week, I told you about the $929 ViewSonic VP2788-5K display<\/a> and sang all of its virtues. But then I went on a rant about not being able to control the brightness of the display using the brightness keys on my Mac. I described in detail how I installed software from ViewSonic to solve the problem. I complained about how heavy the software was and what a bunch of work it was to install. I pointed out that their software broke my ability to bring up Displays in System Settings with the option key plus up\/down brightness on the keyboard.<\/p>\n

I have to admit to being an Apple display snob because there was something I fundamentally didn’t understand. Both Allister Jenks and Kaylee pointed out to me that most third-party displays don’t allow you to change the brightness with the brightness keys. This is not a problem with ViewSonic; it’s a general problem. They were unjustly battered by my discontent. They also provided a much better solution: the tool BetterDisplay from betterdisplay.pro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kaylee had suggested BetterDisplay back when I wrote about using an HDMI dongle to create a virtual display<\/a> at a resolution that Apple monitors don’t normally support. She was helping me solve a very specific problem. As you know, I create video tutorials for ScreencastsOnline. The aspect ratio of the videos we produce is 16:9, but the internal display on a MacBook Pro does not natively support 16:9. With the HDMI dongle, I can create a virtual display at 1920 x 1080.<\/p>\n

This solution works great for me, but it does depend on keeping track of a very small dongle. I bought a pack of 3 for only $7, so I have them sprinkled amongst my tech belongings.<\/p>\n

When Kaylee suggested that I try BetterDisplay. I did install it, but I was immediately overwhelmed by how many options there were, and I didn’t really understand how to use the tool to solve my particular problem, so I abandoned it.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to my review of the ViewSonic 5K display. Kaylee actually suggested two tools for me: MonitorControl and BetterDisplay. MonitorControl<\/a> is a free and open source Mac app by a developer who goes by waydabber. I downloaded and installed MonitorControl from GitHub. This provided me, in a very simple interface, the ability to change the brightness on the display using my keyboard, amongst other things.<\/p>\n

The only problem was that when the little on-screen indicator of brightness came up, I couldn’t see the slider changing. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but you do want to know when you’ve hit the end of either direction, full brightness or all the way dimmed.<\/p>\n

\"Monitor
Brightness Control Slider Doesn’t Work in macOS Tahoe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the great things about GitHub is that people can create issues, and it allows users to see what other people have already discovered as problems in an application. I think this is a much better way to do it than everyone independently emailing developers and the developer having to answer the same question over and over again. Sure enough, I found an issue related to the display of brightness on screen with MonitorControl.<\/p>\n

There was a lively discussion amongst other users of MonitorControl and the developer. The developer explained that this broke with Liquid Glass in macOS Tahoe and that it would be a great deal of work to rewrite it to work properly. The developer basically declared end of life for MonitorControl, though it still works fine in Sequoia.<\/p>\n

waydabber went on to explain that he had done that work for his other tool, BetterDisplay Pro, and he suggested people take a look at that instead. BetterDisplay Pro is available at betterdisplay.pro<\/a>. It costs a grand sum of $22 for a perpetual license with at least 1 year\u2019s worth of updates. If that’s too rich for your blood, after 14 days, BetterDisplay Pro falls back to a free version with fewer features. I’m a big believer in supporting independent developers, so if I end up using this tool, I will definitely pay the measly $22.<\/p>\n

Kaylee sent me a link to a list of features for BetterDisplay with annotations of which features are paid for and which are free. As it turns out, native brightness and volume keys are available in the free version of BetterDisplay. I installed the app, (which was not a quarter of a GB package file, by the way), and instantly I had the ability to change brightness and volume, as it turns out, with the keyboard keys.<\/p>\n

With this one 19.5MB app, the ViewSonic 5K display now acts just like a native display. And, I retained both the option-brightness key and option-volume key trick to open System Settings to their respective Display and Sound panes.<\/p>\n

\"BetterDisplay
BetterDisplay Does Work in macOS Tahoe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I sure wish I\u2019d dug in further into BetterDisplay before I wrote the article about the ViewSonic display. As fun as it was to mock their installer, I\u2019d rather have left you with a good feeling about ViewSonic!<\/p>\n

I would love to do an in-depth review of BetterDisplay Pro, but it’s probably more advanced in capability than I could handle. I will, however, explain how BetterDisplay can replace the HDMI dongle for creating a virtual display with non-standard resolutions, I only know how to do this because I was lucky enough to find a time when Kaylee and I were both awake and online, so she could explain it to me. With Kaylee being in Japan, that\u2019s a tough time zone shift!<\/p>\n

BetterDisplay installs as a menu bar app. With a lot of features in the drop-down, which is part of what makes it so overwhelming. At the very bottom, there’s a tiny icon of a gear that opens Settings.<\/p>\n

The first tab in settings is Displays, and by default, it will show you the app\u2019s features for your current main display. To the left of any displays you have attached is an overview button. If you scroll way down, you get to a section called Virtual screens. In the next section, there’s a button that says “Create New Virtual Screen\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BetterDisplay
BetterDisplay Settings to Add a Virtual Display<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This opens a pane to allow you to create your new virtual screen. In the free version, you can use the pre-configured settings. If you have the pro version, you can do more advanced things. One of the options in the drop-down for the pre-configured (free) settings is 16×9, and that’s exactly what I wanted. As soon as you select a resolution, a new display appears at the top of the settings screen for BetterDisplay.<\/p>\n

The first thing you’ll notice is a toggle to connect this virtual screen. As soon as you do that, now in Apple\u2019s Displays Settings, you can see your fancy new virtual display. Selecting the MacBook Pro\u2019s display has an option to mirror the new 16×9 virtual display. By default, the virtual display wasn’t at 1920 by 1080, but as soon as I changed it, the internal display matched my desired resolution.<\/p>\n

\"Displays
Displays Settings Recognizes Virtual Display<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If I paid for BetterDisplay Pro, I could define this display as 1920×1080 and not have to change the resolution in system settings. I could also name the display, which might be kind of fun. In BetterDisplay, I can see that if I paid for the Pro version, I could toggle mirroring right from the menu bar app. Even with the free version, I can change display resolutions right from the menu bar app. That\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n

If you work with third-party displays or simply need a virtual display like I do, I highly encourage you to take a look at BetterDisplay Pro and explore the vast number of features. If you want to experience the app during the 14-day free trial but see what you would get for free, you can disable all of the pro features within Settings > Application > Advanced settings & privacy. After the free trial is over, any pro features that you don’t have access to are still there, but you get a little designation telling you it’s a pro feature. Toggle this feature by going to Settings (gear icon) > Application > Advanced settings & privacy.<\/p>\n

I was so impressed by the work waydabber does to give us a terrific free app and to make it easy for us to see what else we gain by buying the pro version that I decided to buy the pro version for $22.<\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/h2>\n

The bottom line is that I disparaged ViewSonic for not working natively with the Mac, not realizing this is true of most, if not all, third-party displays. I still think it was appropriate to mock the heaviness of their software. However, since now I know that with the free BetterDisplay, you can have volume and brightness control from the keyboard, it takes away any reservations I had about endorsing the ViewSonic VP2788-5K display.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retraction on Diatribe about ViewSonic 5K Display and Brightness Keys Last week, I told you about the $929 ViewSonic VP2788-5K display and sang all of its virtues. But then I went on a rant about not being able to control the brightness of the display using the brightness keys on my Mac. I described in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[3559,8086,8108,8110,1169,8109,8107,4464,8087,8111],"class_list":["post-35769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-posts","tag-5k","tag-5k-displays","tag-betterdisplay","tag-brightness-control","tag-displays","tag-monitorcontrol","tag-third-party-displays","tag-viewsonic","tag-viewsonic-vp278805k","tag-volume-control"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BetterDisplay-settings-highlighting-how-to-get-to-create-new-virtual-screen-1040x520-1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35769"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35774,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35769\/revisions\/35774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}