Templates and the catalogue
After this page you will be able to define any display without looking up a single specification.
Last updated 22 August 2026
Typing a pixel size is possible and almost never what you want. The catalogue exists so a display can be defined by naming the thing it is meant to be.
The catalogue
38 real panels, grouped the way you would look for them.
| Family | Holds | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| External displays | Apple’s standalone monitors | Studio Display, Studio Display XDR, Pro Display XDR, Thunderbolt Display |
| MacBook | Built-in panels | MacBook Air 13-inch (M1), MacBook Pro 14-inch, MacBook Pro 16-inch |
| iMac | Built-in panels | iMac 24-inch, iMac 27-inch Retina 5K, iMac 21.5-inch Retina 4K |
| iPad | Tablet panels, for mirroring a virtual display to a tablet | iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 11-inch, iPad Air 13-inch |
| Common formats | The shapes nobody sells under one name | 49-inch DQHD 32:9, 40-inch 5K2K 21:9, 8K UHD |
Each entry carries the vendor, the year, the diagonal, the native pixel size, the refresh rates the panel actually offers, and whether it does HiDPI. Picking one fills all of that in at once.
28 of the 38 are marked verified, meaning the numbers were checked against the real panel rather than transcribed from a specification sheet. The rest are best effort and say so.
The picker
Search matches the vendor, the product name, the year and the resolution, so 5120, ultrawide
and studio all find something sensible. The detail line under each name is vendor, year and
native resolution, because those are the three facts that tell two similarly named entries
apart.
Picking an entry copies its numbers into a new spec and records which entry it came from. It is a copy, not a link: editing the display afterwards does not fight the catalogue, and a later version of the app shipping different numbers for that panel does not silently change a group you already built.
When the panel is not in the catalogue
Then you describe it, and the app asks three questions in the order that makes them answerable.
What shape is it? A ratio, not a resolution. The offered shapes are 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:10, 16:9, 21:9, 32:9 and 32:10, all of them shapes panels are genuinely made in. A free numerator and denominator was considered and left out, because it invites 1237:511, which macOS will accept and no window layout will ever suit.
How many pixels? Give one dimension and the shape derives the other, so a 21:9 display at 3440 wide is 1440 tall without you doing the arithmetic.
How big is it on the desk? The diagonal, which is what sets the density the display reports.
Shape and size stay separate on purpose. Keeping them apart is what makes a display definable without knowing any real panel’s numbers.
Naming
A display’s name is what appears in System Settings, in the arrangement canvas and in the
group’s display list. Name it after the thing it stands in for, not after its resolution:
49-inch DQHD Ultra-Wide (32:9) is what the catalogue calls it, and Scopes is a better name
if that is what it is for.
Two displays in one group can be duplicates of each other, which is the fast way to build a symmetrical pair. Duplicating copies the spec and gives it a new identity, so the two are independent from that moment on.
Next
- Virtual displays for what the numbers actually do.
- Groups for putting several of them together.