Apple’s ‘Scale to fit’ mode shrinks MacBook Pro display for notch-incompatible apps

Apple’s MacBook Pro comes with one niggling point of contention: The notch. Some apps don’t do well with it, so due to their questionable design decision, Apple has included a workaround app launch mode for notch-incompatible apps. This mode is available as a toggle in the Get Info panel: “Scale to fit below built-in camera.”

Apple's 'Scale to fit' mode removes MacBook Pro notch for notch-incompatible apps
Apple notch hides some items in the menu bar, including the macOS cursor

https://twitter.com/SnazzyQ/status/1453143798251339778

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. — Steve Jobs

Benjamin Mayo for 9to5Mac:

If you notice that an application is trying to put menu items or app chrome in a place on screen that is obscured by the notch (or ‘camera housing’ as Apple names it), you can enable this mode.

To enable the scale-to-fit mode, right click on an application in Finder and choose ‘Get Info’. In the Info panel, activate the checkbox labelled ‘Scale to fit below built-in camera’, and then launch the application.

When this mode is active, the entire macOS screen is shrunk down to fit in the proportional rectangular space beneath the top notch inset. This means all four sides of the screen are temporarily scaled down whilst you use the app. As soon as you close all apps running in this compatibility mode, the full screen experience is restored.

MacDailyNews Take: An inelegant kludge for an inelegant kludge.

Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. — Steve Jobs

Apple’s “Scale to fit below built-in camera” in action:

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4 Comments

  1. So the menu bar is no longer at the top of the screen? Like windows? The whole point of menus being at the top of the screen is that they act as buttons with infinite height that are impossible to miss.

  2. Who is the Apple genius that designed the HIDEOUS “notch” and did not see this coming? Why is a notch necessary where it never existed before????? Cook comes to mind, but he is a bean counter guy and clueless to good design. Fire the pitiful fool!…

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