Out of the box, DaVinci Resolve’s UI font and icons are so small that they are practically unreadable on small, hi res (aka high DPI) monitors. Even 1440×2560 on a 27″ screen (e.g. EIZO ColorEdge CG2730) is horrible.
Frustratingly, neither Resolve’s UI preferences nor display scaling on Windows 10 appear to make any difference. By default, Resolve 17 seems to ignore system settings for display scale and advanced scaling on Windows 10.
Michael Doud posted an [almost] perfect fix for this problem in the Blackmagic Forums. For ease, we’ve pasted his fix below. In short, you need to tell Resolve that the system, not the app, should perform high DPI scaling behavior.
1) Go to Resolve 17 Icon and right click
2) Click On “Open file location”
3) Right Click on Icon in file location and select “Properties”
4) Click on “Compatibility” tab
5) Click on button “Change high DPI settings”
6) Click in box “Override high DPI scaling behavior.7) In “Scaling performed by:” select “System (Enhanced)”7) In “Scaling performed by:” select “System” [see update below]
8) Click “OK”
9) Click “Apply”
10) Click “OK”
11) Open DaVinci Resolve 17 and I could then read the menu items
Update: you need to select “System” and not “System (Enhanced)” when specifying where high DPI scaling should be performed. Otherwise, a new UI gremlin is introduced whereby right-click contextual menus such as “Change Clip Speed…” and “Change Clip Duration…” disappear as soon as you move your cursor (documented with a fix in this 2018 Blackmagic Forum thread).
