Crisp

Every display control macOS hides, in one menu bar panel.

Free, open-source external monitor control for macOS. Sharp HiDPI scaling, DDC brightness, presets and virtual displays.

Crisp is a lightweight, native menu bar app for controlling external monitors on macOS, and a free, open-source alternative to BetterDisplay and Lunar. It adds what macOS leaves out: sharp HiDPI scaling on any monitor (no more blurry or tiny text), real brightness and volume control over DDC, presets, display arrangement, and virtual displays. Every feature is free, with no Pro tier and no license key.

Available in English, 简体中文 and 繁體中文.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/90a62808-84d2-40d6-8563-0b282b9b4b6d

Features

• Sharp, Retina-quality scaling on any display: HiDPI resolutions that make external monitors crisp instead of blurry or tiny, set up automatically for 1440p and larger, always at the panel's full refresh rate (no more 1080p stuck at 50Hz on a 144Hz monitor)
• Smooth scaling: set how large everything looks in small steps, far beyond the few sizes macOS offers
• Brightness everywhere: the real backlight of external monitors over DDC, software dimming where that isn't supported and below the hardware minimum, and brightness keys that follow the pointer, all displays, or a chosen few, or shortcuts of your own
• Extra Brightness: push XDR MacBook panels and HDR monitors past 100% into their HDR headroom; one toggle per display, then the slider and keys reach further. It draws more power, and HDR video can look overblown while it's on
• Volume: monitor speaker volume over DDC, with a slider per display and the volume keys mapped to the monitor when it's your audio output
• Presets: save resolution, brightness, arrangement, image adjustment, HDR and which displays are on under a name and icon, and apply them with one click, from Shortcuts, or from crispctl
• Shortcuts: apply a preset, set brightness, HDR, Extra Brightness, image adjustment or a monitor's input, and disconnect or reconnect a display, as actions in the Shortcuts app, so an automation can switch your displays between a day and a night setup
• Display arrangement: drag-to-arrange canvas, main display switching, and a pointer that crosses edges where displays of different sizes don't line up
• Disconnect displays: turn physical displays off and back on from the menu or a switch on each display row, remembered across sleep and reboot, and keep the built-in off while you're docked (Apple Silicon)