External display has blurry fonts on Dell U2312hm- MacBook Pro Retina

I just bought a new Dell external display (U2312hm) for my MacBook Pro Retina.

The fonts appear to be very blurry. I've searched and found a solution here, but it didn't fix my problem. I ran the script supplied in the thread, followed all instructions and the problem remains (tried on 2 different rMBPs with 2 different U2312hm monitors).

here are real a few examples (the upper browser in each picture is chrome on VMware and the lower is chrome on OSX 10.8.5):

I tried different font smoothing configurations which failed to improve the problem. I tried using Apple's MiniDisplayPort to AVI and MiniDisplayPort to DisplayPort cables - no change.

What can I do?

Solution 1:

The solution at http://embdev.net/topic/284710 worked for me.

Attach your display, download the updated patch-edid.rb, run ruby patch-edid.rb in Terminal and reboot. Voila!

Tested and working on both Mountain Lion and Mavericks with two U2713H monitors.

Solution 2:

Horray! I found a solution.

I bought the Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI converter cable adapter instead of using HDMI, and my picture is much more crisp and clear.

My Retina display is still better, but it's a better screen. my HP monitor is now performing to is ability. For some reason, HDMI must degrade the video quality.

Solution 3:

Are you using the "Best Resolution for display" setting for the external monitor? I was forcing 1920x1080 and seeing a similar fuzzy look. I changed from the fixed resolution to Best Resolution (even tough they are the same), and my fonts are now smooth on my Viewsonic (at work) and my HP (at home) 24" monitors.

Solution 4:

Have you tried toggling Use LCD Font Smoothing off and rebooting? To my eyes, it makes fonts on non-Retina displays look super thick and somewhat blurry, not unlike your photos. It's in System Preferences → General:

LCD Font Smoothing http://static.command-tab.com/2013/lcd-font-smoothing.png

Solution 5:

HDMI did not work for me but the Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI converter cable adapter worked perfectly! with a HP Pavilion 25bw