I upgraded my 2012-vintage MacBookPro from MacOS Sierra to Mojave (10.14.6) last week and have noted an eyestrain issue with my external Samsung monitor that wasn’t a problem before. I’ve adjusted the brightness and contrast settings to make sure those are optimal. Wondering if there may have been some change in how MacOS addresses external monitors once Retina became Apple’s default screen mode. Any thoughts on that?
When Retina displays were released it became very obvious that color and brightness were whole other issues that required careful color calibration. Retina screen color produces a wider gamut than print or non Retina displays, and in addition to an increased range of hues and shades, you get whiter whites and blacker blacks.
If you want your screens to match, you’ll need to do some color calibration. Steve Jobs had this in mind when he built color profiling and calibration, and he introduced them on the very first color Macs. If you need to calibrate for photography as well as for professional or prosumer printing, you’ll probably need two color profiles; you can set up all the color profiles you might need. Macs continue to rule the roost because they make color profiling a super easy, no brainer. There are directions for Big Sir, Mojave and Catalina here:
If you need more than the basics, a quick search will turn up a lot of good advice.