Tip for creating screencast: How to change native screen resolution on Mac with Retina

Why would you need to switch the native resolution?

When using screen recorder (like ScreenFlow) on Mac with Retina display, you probably do not want to record in the crazy native resolution 2880x1800 pixels. Instead, you'd like to record in some native resolution like 1024x768 or 1280x800 etc., so that you do not have to resize the picture and loose quality.

Another example, why this is super useful is, when you need to record screencast of Windows program run inside of VMWare Fusion. Then you do not have to switch Fusion to native resolution (which makes the Windows elements crazy small) just to record pixels 1:1.

And last but not least - when making screenshots from Windows application (run in Fusion), you would like to have screenshot in it's native resolution and not in the zoomed resolution of Retina display.

Solution

I tried to find some reasonable solution and many times found references to SwitchResX, but it seemed to me little overpriced for such a small tool and many people reported issues with that tool.

Just open AppStore on your Mac and search for keyword "resolution" you will find several utilities, which makes the trick as well, for nearly 1/10 price!

The one I bought and used is called "Resolution Helper" and it just works! You can switch to native 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x800, and many more with ease.

Which tool do you use for switching native screen resolution on Retina?